Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads Nov 23rd, 2025

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.”– Harry Golden

1. A candidate for the world's most interesting man: Erik Prince.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yImmJth6vKE

2. George Friedman has been one of the keenest geopolitical observers forever. He can be a bit too optimistic from an American lens, but he has been right more than wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hya3dMD_eOE

3. Always an enlightening conversation. The OG Tai Lopez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixf-6eHJbz8

4. A discussion: Are we in Cold War 2?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhv9PhJT_QE

5. Glide bombs coming to the world. Scary stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7puZUPjOoOI

6. "Japan's ability to deliver the goods, from frigates and aircraft to Hello Kitty and Super Mario, has put Japan in the pole position in Asia as an alternative to both the US and China. This is a relief for American policy makers and a major problem for China. 

The PRC prefers to paint the conflict in Asia as one between a resurgent China reasserting its rightful place and a decadent, overbearing America in decline. The centrality of Japan rests in its delicate combination of soft and hard power and in Asia's history of resisting the ascendant hegemon, whether it be Japan in the 40s, the US in the 60s or China in the 2020s. As I write this, a record 19 nations have joined the Talisman Sabre exercises in Australia. While the headlines focus on the role of America, it is Japan who has forged this alliance by mending fences with old foes and steadfastly focusing on a free and open Indo-Pacific.

For investors, very little of this "hard power" opportunity is in the price of Japanese equities when compared to peer companies in other countries who supposedly will be invited to the same party. Based on head-to-head comparisons, Japan has the most to gain and the least to lose from a successful deterrence effort: its systems are optimized for modern conflict and its exports can only go up."

https://japanoptimist.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-japan-hard-power

7. A grim view of the AI future. Still helpful to understand the dystopian world we are entering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziLmtuLm-LU

8. A pretty interesting discussion by Google billionaire Eric Schmidt on the future of warfare: AI, robots & drones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkuVqdj8O6E

9. "For businesses currently on the T3D2 plan, the fundraising market may be a bit more challenging because of the comparison to AI growth rates. Also the expectations around size at IPO have increased.

$100m in trailing revenue growing 50% used to be the target. But now the expectation is closer to $300m growing at 50%. Attaining those numbers requires sustaining high growth rates for longer."

https://tomtunguz.com/t3d2-ai-era/

10. Some crazy stories about the early days of PayPal, Clarium Capital & Palantir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dUSYgGYT0Y

11. "What began with the abandonment of the gold standard, continued through the era of fiat currencies, and accelerated during successive financial crises, now reaches its logical conclusion: money that can be created, allocated, and controlled according to the whims of technocratic authorities.

The eurozone's structural problems, including unsustainable debt levels, political fragmentation, economic stagnation, cannot be solved through monetary gimmicks or enhanced surveillance. They require fundamental reforms to fiscal policy, regulatory frameworks, and institutional structures. CBDCs represent an attempt to avoid these necessary reforms by implementing technological solutions to political problems.

European citizens face a choice that will define the next century of economic development. Accept the digital euro and surrender financial autonomy to unelected technocrats, or demand preservation of monetary alternatives that maintain some degree of individual choice and privacy.

The stakes couldn't be higher. Once implemented, CBDCs create a one-way ratchet toward greater control. The infrastructure built today will be used tomorrow for purposes not yet imagined by today's policymakers. History demonstrates that powers granted during emergencies are rarely relinquished during periods of stability.

As Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

https://dollarendgame.substack.com/p/the-plan-to-enslave-europe

12. An interview with a living entertainment, media and internet business legend: Barry Diller. A must watch. "You have to be stupid before you are smart."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAKINNEVs-M

13. “Ukraine needs two sorts of funding: investment capital and customer capital. It needs revenues derived from non-Ukrainian buyers because that’s what will improve the macro environment. But nothing will happen without free exports and free repatriation of capital,” Boyle said."

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/60553

14. Arthur Hayes on Global Macro and the implications of the global debt doom loop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLcafgSuXew

15. This is an old one. But it's a damn good ad. Classy, stylish and smart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTUKMhw4hr4

16. Lots to think about from this conversation.

The world of tech and investing from the perch of one of the big Venture Banks dominating the VC landscape: General Catalyst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWvYbRzC-g0

17. Jared Kushner is a frigging smart dude. A combo of global macro, PE & tech investing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MOsEtyKqXw&t=4s

18. This is troubling, data points on future war. Still worth watching. Forewarned is forearmed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dh0USZT950

19. "While both paths steady compounding & hypergrowth can lead to the same destination, the latter creates more value because of the time value of money. The sooner a startup reaches $1b revenue, the more valuable it is.

Of course, a hypergrowth company with significant churn isn’t worth very much at all. The CAP theorem equivalent in business is some combination of growth, margin, & retention. Most businesses can’t optimize for all three."

https://tomtunguz.com/hypergrowth-vs-steady-compounding/

20. "To a man who has spent the past 60 years automating as much of his business as feasible—to the point where Interactive Brokers has higher profit margins (71%) than Visa, a so-called perfect business—my journey to meet him was an absurd misallocation of resources. 

Peterffy is the 23rd richest person in the world. He pioneered automated trading before the millennium and built Timber Hill, once the largest options market maker on earth. He’s the reason you can trade stocks in your pajamas. His second act, Interactive Brokers, is worth over $100 billion. I was surprised he was surprised that anyone would travel to hear his story."

https://joincolossus.com/article/thomas-peterffy-market-maker/

21. "What I do know is this: if we keep doing one-off deals like MP Materials or Intel—as amazing and critical as they are—we will never mobilize capital fast enough to fund the thousands of industrial startups and small businesses we need to win the AI and energy race, preserve our way of life, and avoid a fiscal crisis.

We need system-level solutions that scale shops and startups together, not piecemeal. We need a closed-loop credit ecosystem that lends at scale and cycles revenue back toward paying down the national debt.

We need to inject trillions into rebuilding America’s industrial base—efficiently and urgently.

When the government is the buyer, loans can be simple and fully guaranteed. When the buyer is commercial, layered protections make deals bankable.

With Industrial Base Treasuries and private credit, capital can flow into the industrial base—funding innovation, expanding capacity, and offering more competitive compensation for American factory workers. This is how we start to close the loop on America’s next industrial revival."

https://adastracapital.substack.com/p/americas-financial-system-is-brokenbut

22. Another great episode this week and what's up in B2B AI & enterprise software investing. So much to learn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ7eeLU-G-Y

23. Good short take on semiconductor landscape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWloFh_hLyA

24. This conversation is very clear headed and a good take on truce between USA & China. And what happens to Taiwan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngOfkDgLzBo&t=34s

25. Controlling the metaphorical "trade routes" in a fragmenting de-globalizing world. Solid conversation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWntiqnjXYc

26. This short video helps you understand how Japan, South Korea and China ended up dominating ship building.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gk61ginOqo

27. This is a great overview on the importance of Ukrainian defense-tech for the West.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90p0AnTjRcs

28. "History is clear. Technological breakthroughs create short-term disruption and painful job losses but also unleash lower production costs, creative ideas, bold new businesses, and, over the long term, a net increase in employment. In the car industry, automation destroyed jobs on the factory floor. But we didn’t envision the new jobs that building heated seats and car stereos would create down the road.

In 1999 the average cost of developing and launching an e-commerce site was $1 million. Today you can set up a decent website for around $5,000. Your investment is 99.5% less, and you’re entering a market that’s more than 40 times bigger. Hollywood will follow a similar path as AI opens the door to independent filmmakers. You won’t need tens of millions of dollars and Hollywood connections to produce a movie of theatrical quality. Ben Affleck is right: AI will make it easier for outsiders with compelling scripts to produce the next Good Will Hunting.

AI has become the Ozempic of the corporate world. While GLP-1 medicines switch off the signal in your brain that you need to eat more, AI suppresses the appetite to hire more, reducing companies’ cravings for the protein of human capital. Hollywood is no different. AI will create new roles and elevate the careers of those who learn to leverage it successfully, but jobs will vanish. The collision between Hollywood and Silicon Valley signals the end of the blockbuster and the industry as we know it. Disney’s Bob Iger and Warner’s David Zaslav will be out within 12 to 24 months, as their affinity for, and relationship with, the creative community is quaint and outdated. They grew up in an era when talent held the power. Their job was to not piss off people. The Ellisons, like the honey badger, don’t give a shit.  

The younger Ellison wants to bring the best of Southern and Northern California together. In this case, the “togetherness” is Northern California invading the city of Angels. Like most wars, the battle is over before it starts, based on which side has more brute force."

https://www.profgalloway.com/the-end-of-the-blockbuster/

29. “Thinking twice” becomes the permanent condition. The cost is estrangement. Our first impulses — where thought actually begins — are smothered before they can be tested. We no longer recognize them as thought at all. The mind, trained in this way, does not grow sharper but duller, endlessly rehearsing conclusions while losing touch with the raw material of thinking itself."

https://www.zinebriboua.com/p/thinking-twice

30. "For today’s defense technologists and acquisition leaders, the lesson is pointed. In times of disruption, processes and committees can become fatal luxuries. Sometimes survival depends on heresy—on giving one frenetic outsider the power to cut through the system and deliver what the moment demands.

More tactically, political leaders building their executive teams need strong, empowered lieutenants—men and women who can bring outside perspective and credibility to government institutions, but still operate with speed and precision inside the complex reality of government.

 These leaders must step away from rewarding careers, and, along with their families, endure the costs of entering the political arena. Changemakers like Lord Beaverbrook must be ready to make enemies and face vicious attacks in the press. And in a hyper-political era, they must wield the press, feeding their wins into the national discourse to fuel their own political power.

Today, as in 1940, critical military production is stalling. China’s fleet of warships grows while the U.S. fleet shrinks. U.S. missile and artillery stocks are dwindling, with production rates creeping up too slowly. With such trends, People’s Liberation Army commanders may gamble that their American counterparts won’t risk a force they can’t regenerate.

Might deterrence in the Pacific be saved by a 21st century Beaverbrook?"

https://www.firstbreakfast.com/p/lord-beaverbrooks-production-magic

31. "Knudsen's core principle holds true: industry cannot build at scale without reliable, long-term, financeable demand signals. However, the financial ecosystem has undergone a fundamental change. Where Knudsen coordinated with major banks and corporate leaders, today's defense industrial base must attract capital from stock and bond markets, derivatives traders, institutional investors, private equity firms, family offices, foundations, credit funds, and venture capitalists.

This presents both challenge and opportunity. The challenge: traditional defense procurement – with annual appropriations, continuing resolutions, and termination-for-convenience clauses – doesn't align with how modern capital flows. The opportunity: America's capital markets, properly engaged, represent resources that could transform our defense industrial capacity.

The principles Knudsen championed – bankable commitments, clear demand signals, partnership between government and industry – remain our superpower and north star. But the implementation must reflect today's financial reality. When we align defense needs with how private capital actually flows, we'll build the modern Arsenal of Democracy."

https://bens.org/freedoms-forge-2-0/

32. "AI is reshaping both soft power and hard power around the globe. The United States, to its credit, has an early lead with the former. The leading LLMs are trained on Western text, global training and inference are still dominated by American companies, and we are ahead in the global race for market share of total tokens generated.

But as it stands, China is running away with the hard power part of AI – robotics. As the incredible progress in AI continues, we start seeing intelligence embedded in the physical world – culminating in generalist robots that perform a wide variety of tasks across applications, from manufacturing to services to defense. This will redefine every aspect of our society and reshape daily life. The country betting on that future is China, not the US.

In the 10 years since the CCP released its “Made in China 2025” strategy, Chinese companies have leapfrogged the rest of the world’s density of robots per capita. They passed the United States in 2021, then the famously automated economics of Japan and Germany in 2024, and will soon eclipse Singapore and South Korea, their last remaining contenders. In short order China has become the world’s central robotics power. Entirely autonomous “dark factories,” like those of smartphone and automobile manufacturer Xiaomi, operate in complete darkness with no humans present.

China has successfully executed what we once thought impossible. Only ten years ago we scoffed that “China can copy, but they can’t innovate,” which we then revised to, “They can innovate, but they can’t make the upstream high-precision tooling.” Maybe we shouldn’t have been so comfortable, given how Chinese companies had outcompeted the rest of the world in industry after industry – from solar photovoltaics, where competition outside of China has been practically decimated, to 5G, whose global deployment was a massive success for China’s national champion Huawei. The same pattern is playing out now with robotics. China has built a playbook to dominate strategic industries, and has used that playbook to become the robot superpower."

https://a16z.substack.com/p/america-cannot-lose-the-robotics

33. This is an important conversation and interview with the US Secretary of the Army. Very unapologetic and direct. I appreciated this and where the US military is going.

Shawn Ryan asks lots of hard and good questions as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TdYR9sfRIw

34. What a fascinating conversation on the future of anti-drone and anti-missile technology. Aurelius Systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZQ0RLvcHTA

35. "For entrepreneurs pitching investors who don’t buy into the market opportunity, it can be incredibly difficult. The best approach is to find an analogous market or a complementary product and make the case that what happened “over there” is going to happen “over here.” Even if investors aren’t convinced, the one thing within your control is to provide tremendous value to your customers and grow at least as fast as the market itself so that when the opportunity arises, you’re in the best position to raise capital and scale even faster."

https://davidcummings.org/2025/09/27/when-potential-investors-dont-like-the-market/

Inside Out 2: Raging Emotions

I remember watching the excellent Pixar Inside Out, in 2023 as part of a family therapy assignment. It’s an animated movie about the raging emotions of a young girl named Riley. Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust & Sadness. Emotions that drive every person, some more than others and ones we all need. It was cute and somewhat instructive even for an adult like me. No surprise I figured out quickly that my predominant emotions seem to be anger and fear. Usually anger, that is driven by fear. 

But I had the chance to watch Inside Out 2 where the original cast of staple emotions is joined by new emotions especially as Riley becomes a 13 year old teen going through puberty. Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment. These new emotions take charge and kick out the old emotions. Or dominate them at least, ruining her growing sense of self. For anyone going through their teen years, this seems absolutely true. Myself included. Such a confusing time in your life. 

Especially the feeling of anxiety, which is driven by fear about the future. It literally plays out all the worst possible scenarios so you can prepare for them. Scenarios of being alone, being seen as stupid, failing in whatever you are about, losing friends or whatever. Anxiety makes you act out in different ways due to the uncertainty of life. You are always planning. I realize this has always been a big driver of my life. 

Epigenetically, I get this from my dad. He can be tense in tough situations. But I think I’ve taken this to a whole new level. This attention to detail was very useful in my career. I’ve channeled my anxiety into work. I’ve been accused of being a workaholic. I think it’s certainly true.  I don’t stop until I get the work done. I literally cannot relax unless everything is finished. 

I pay attention to details and wired myself to be super responsive. This is always probably why I am usually a stress basket that erupts into rage when things don’t go my way. Or my plans get wrecked. And especially angry when others don’t follow this example of reliability either. I find most people I meet disappoint me in this way. 

I’ve had to learn to manage my emotions better through a disciplined regime I’ve mentioned many times. A proper sleep regime, ie. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night is helpful. As is a regular meditation and exercise regime, Church mass, and a good diet. I control my coffee intake and don’t drink it past 3 pm. It also helps to make sure my schedule is not overly packed, so I end up with lots of time to unwind, read books and listen to podcasts.  

The point is that it’s really important to understand yourself and the dominant emotions that drive you. Human beings are complex creatures because of our emotions. We react very differently to every situation. Knowing ourselves is key to this so we can thrive better.  Regulating our emotions and maybe finding some joy just like in the movie. :)

Dune Prophecy: Faith, Purpose & Action Wins

The Dune books and movies are works of art. An incredible universe filled with intrigue, lessons and wisdom. How to get power and how to keep it. But most important is the philosophy & lessons on growth. 

The HBO series prequel Dune Prophecy exemplifies all of this. It revolves around the growth of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood and Corrino royal family and the great noble houses in a great galactic empire. So much plotting. But the philosophical underpinnings & lessons that Dune is known for is found throughout. 

There were some really good insights relevant to all of our lives. Comments like: 

“True strength isn’t always something you see from the outside.” Or “A focused mind is your greatest protector.”

But one observation that stood out to me as said by  the Mother Superior: “Crisis, survival, advancement. We found Adversity is the key to change. Sometimes misfortunes are the sails that take us to the shores we are meant to be on.”

I feel this lesson was one I’ve lived and experienced in 2001, 2013, 2020 especially,  2023 and 2024. Searing challenges & hardship that nearly broke me. But I survived, I learned and I grew. Pain leads to growth. Immense pain leads to immense growth. 

“Each man must face their own conscience and his own testing.” I’ve learned to face the tiger directly. You can’t hide. As the Mother Superior said: “Adversity always lies in the path of advancement. Most would run from it, I will walk through it.”

There is even commentary that seems incredibly apt for our present disorder in Western Society and geopolitics. Emperor Corrino in a speech states: “Those whose actions seek to destroy the social order have always warranted a swift response. Now more than ever we need to defend our values with ferocity and pride.”

I could not help but think of the grave threat we face right now from external enemies like China, Russia, Iran and extremist Islamicists and internal enemies like the mass of criminals, leftist and right extremists and the apathy of the general public. “There are predators in our midst.”

Our political & business elites' greed, our weakness, the lack of intellectual and moral courage have led to barbarians at our gates and in our gates, threatening everything our great Western Civilization stands for. The great reckoning is coming. It’s probably here now. 

I’ll repeat this again. “Now more than ever, we need to defend our values with ferocity and pride.” As was stated in the series: “We’re in a time of crisis and sacrifices need to be made.” Only then will we be able to defeat our enemies internal and external so we can get our civilization back on the path of greatness.

Point Break the Remake

I find myself returning to watch the 1991 remake of “Point Break” (original one starred Patrick Swayze) when a rookie FBI agent named Johnny Utah goes undercover to investigate some extreme sports athletes who are behind a string of massive heists. He has a hard time sorting out his duties against the attraction of the philosophy the robbers espouse. 

The storyline of the remake doesn’t always make sense, the acting is meh but the stunts whether street fighting, big wave surfing, snow boarding, paragliding, extreme motorbiking, big cliff rock climbing, HALO and parajumping are truly incredible even now. Incredibly wild and beautiful landscapes. It is still impressive today and totally hits. 

But the philosophy behind what they do, and how they live is interesting. They believe you are the agent of your destiny and you own your decisions. Bodhi, the ringleader explains his philosophy to Johnny: 

“There are few things in life I don’t compromise on. But the world’s a pretty messed-up place, and we still gotta live in it. We live on the grid. Just on our own terms. We change the grid. We give back. The second that kid got killed you gave up life. You turned away because of something someone else did. 

You were selling sports drinks? Fine. That’s not for me to judge. But you let someone else determine the direction your life took. That I judge.”

Total & complete ownership of your life. Not blaming others. And taking responsibility for your life only. I wish I had understood this and followed this more earlier. 

If you follow someone else’s line down the mountain it becomes your line. Literally. 

When their friend dies during a wild snowboard trip: Johnny goes ballistic “Are you crazy. That was my line! 

Bodhi responds: “The minute he committed to it, it became his line, not yours.”

Something to this. Letting people live their own lives. Letting them own their own decisions even if it’s the wrong one in your eyes. Probably would have saved me from plenty of the stress and problems.  

One of the characters says to Johnny: 

“As much as I worshipped Ozaki, that was his Achilles heel. He truly believed he could change the world with an idea.”

Johnny says: “Ideas are powerful. If not ideas, what else is there?”

She responds: “Action.” 

So true. In movies, in startups, in investing and in life. You need ideas but to make it work, you always have to back it up with action. 

But I leave this with the title of the movie, Point Break: “The point where you break. Where fear becomes master and you’re his slave. A man who pushes his boundaries ultimately finds them.”

Johnny says: “So basically, you’re saying I’m going to die.” 

They answer: “we’re all going to die, the only question is how.” 

Wise words. It’s how we live. Death comes for all of us, so let’s make the best of our time here. Make no compromises. Think big thoughts. Do big things. Have a big impact. Push the edges. Find our own Point Break. 

Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads Nov 16th, 2025

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work." – Steve Jobs

1. Syria is the precursor to March areas. Back to the future. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASv1W0G81-E

2. A great episode this week. What's up in Silicon Valley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Gzl2ZDXWw

3. "Our accelerating cavalcade of bloodshed rests on three pillars:

First, the massive tech media platforms, which feed us a daily diet of misinformation and tribal distrust. Sex sells. But Big Tech — 40% of the S&P 500 — has found something even better: rage. Eisenhower rightly warned us about the military industrial complex. In the decades after he left office, weapons manufacturers, think tanks, and politicians — the violence entrepreneurs of their era — conspired to make foreign wars and proxy conflicts into billion-dollar businesses. Today, Meta dwarves Lockheed Martin. “Make Memes Not War” is the trillion-dollar strategy.

My argument is not that politics is unrelated to the violence. (Or that there isn’t actual organized political violence, mostly from the far right, as has been well documented.) On the contrary, the ever more violent and inflammatory rhetoric and misinformation and the relentless demonization of every available scapegoat have left their marks all over the lives of the perpetrators. But demagoguery, dog whistles, and tribalism aren’t new. The dangerous novelty of our time is the fusing of capitalism and technology to make rage, and violence, profitable.

We’d go a long way toward dismantling the rage machine if we exposed its makers to liability, as we do with every other corporation. Reforming Section 230, which insulates online platforms from the externalities of the conspiracy theories and Chinese misinformation schemes they peddle, would be a massive first step. Age-gating social media would be a good follow-up. 

And online media is an accelerant to our problem. As I often say, (including in my next book), the fire it fuels is disconnected rage."

https://www.profgalloway.com/violence-entrepreneurs/

4. Understanding what is happening on the frontlines of Ukraine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buv7SCAWSAk

5. I don't agree with all of his geopolitical takes but it's good to listen to alternative views. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIWZv4_OvhM

6. "Here’s the twist: not every department in a company will adopt the same organizational structure. AI’s impact varies dramatically by function, creating a world where the shape of a company becomes more nuanced than ever."

https://tomtunguz.com/pyramids-to-cylinders/

7. "The above does suggest that Türkiye has options - Europe, the Middle East, even China, in term of future defence cooperation. But maybe what it will decide is a pragmatic multi-vector strategy in terms of defence cooperation, with Europe, the Gulf/Middle East, whatever works best to deliver Türkiye’s fast track to full defence industrial autonomy. 

From a Turkish perspective at least the challenge now presented by Israel, and the wider ones in Ukraine, with Russia, doubts over the U.S. security backstop, must affirm the prudence of the decision two decades back to invest heavily in an autonomous Turkish military industrial capability. That and tensions with Israel might well act to buoy Erdogan’s current lagging opinion poll rating hurt by inflation and the travails in the courts with the opposition CHP.

Tensions with Israel will surely continue to spur on the Kurdish peace process within Türkiye - which does appear to have been a motivation for the remarkable about turn by Erdogan nationalist ally, Bahceli in moving to support this process earlier this year. I guess all this just affirms the reality of the many moving parts, or plates in the current tectonic geopolitical mix, which presents both threats and opportunities for Türkiye. It complicated, but that’s the neighbourhood in which Türkiye operates."

https://timothyash.substack.com/p/turkiye-facing-geopolitical-threats

8. "Similar to the wealth divide, 80% of all your wealth is likely going to come from concentration. The other 20% from diversification. If you learn to build and sell businesses, you don’t even care too much about investing. You only invest with excess money (ironically allowing you to take even more risk + becoming a better investor!)

With the high level out of the way: 1) cut risk significantly at ~80% of *your number*and 2) you can invest in high risk forever with all assets *in excess* of your never sell set for life bucket.

Based on Earnings: Sticking with the same $5M example. If you earn $1M a year or $200K a year the set up is drastically different. A good way to think about the portfolio volatility? Match it to about 1-2 years of *savings* per year.

If you earn say $500K and can save around $350K a year, this means you want you max drawdown to be around $350-700K."

https://bowtiedbull.io/p/get-rich-via-concentration-retain

9. It's always an illuminating conversation. World minus one. A realistic view on how America is declining due to our own stupid policies, internal cultural wars & lack of any coherent strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IbKMOvH4_0

10. A historian’s view to understand the world in 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwEYTYgbdd0

11. Another excellent episode of NIA this week. Getting solid takes on internet, tech and creative business news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByaeOdacht0&t=2s

12. This is a solid interview to understand what is going on in the world. The case for India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_hLL_4rzow

13. "Today’s wealthy activists are the meritocratic descendants of this ruling class—and now, they face their own reckoning. Once upon a time, their education and résumés guaranteed them status. Now, as the economy stratifies, many feel themselves slipping. And once again, socialism—or its progressive equivalents—offers a way to explain the loss and to seek revenge on those who have outpaced them.

How this pent-up rage erupts is still unclear, but it’s certainly not going to be pretty. The children of privilege may not starve. But their disappointment—sharpened by ambition, magnified by envy, and amplified through elite networks—has the power to unsettle politics in ways that hardship alone rarely does.

The result, as we’re discovering, is a cruel paradox. While the American dream of upward mobility built this nation’s mythology, the reality of downward mobility may be what destabilizes it."

https://www.robkhenderson.com/p/rage-of-the-falling-elite

14. "Failures are happening because organizations haven't grappled with the fundamental challenge of human-AI interaction. The path forward requires acknowledging an uncomfortable truth: sometimes the best human-AI collaboration is no collaboration at all."

https://investinginai.substack.com/p/is-correlated-uncertainty-leading

15. "The fact that the United States is the only supplier of turbofan technology to Europe is far from ideal. Turbofan engines are essential for producing heavy cruise missiles that can carry large payloads over long distances while maintaining a stealthy flight profile. While turbojet engines can, in principle, power longer-range land-attack cruise missiles, their performance is inferior.

It is therefore unsurprising that the Taurus KEPD 350 program relies on Williams International to supply the P8300-15 turbofan engine, and that Kongsberg selected Williams International’s F415 for the Joint Strike Missile rather than using Safran’s TR40, as in the Naval Strike Missile. Both systems depend on ground-skimming trajectories for survivability and mission success, and both emphasize extended range to execute complex, non-linear flight paths to their targets.

From a strategic autonomy perspective, continued reliance on U.S. technology in 2025 is obviously not great, especially in such a critical sector, but Europe lacks alternatives. While developing a European mini turbofan engine would theoretically be possible, it’s not a short-term solution."

https://missilematters.substack.com/p/small-thrust-big-questions-the-precarious

16. Geopolitics through the lens of energy and trade wars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=699dsom_fuM

17. "The price of that fear, however, is simply very high. This is not the 19th century; America has low birthrates among its elite (and in general), so it can’t replenish its elite through reproduction. Instead, if we want to keep having the world’s best engineers and researchers and such, we need to import some of them. Cut off that flow, and Americans will discover why a country with only 4% of the world’s population can’t remain the center of global research and development without a lot of skilled immigration. 

On top of that, Trump’s poor treatment of Indian H-1b workers and Korean construction workers will end up weakening America’s alliances — and economic relationships — with those two Asian countries. Weakened alliances in Asia will make it nearly impossible for the U.S. to effectively resist the encroachment of Chinese power. 

So right-wing fears of an Asian-led America are going to end up making the actual America poorer and less globally relevant. Personally, I don’t think that tradeoff is worth it. Demographic change among the elite can be unsettling, but not as unsettling as a collapse of America’s global power and domestic economic dynamism. We’ve dealt with a changing elite before, and it worked out fine; we can do it again."

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/indians-and-koreans-not-welcome

18. "History rarely repeats in exact form, but it often rhymes. Britain and America offer a case in point. Britain was once the world's leading power, shaping the 19th century with its factories, navy, and empire. America took on that mantle in the 20th century, with unmatched industrial scale, a dollar-backed financial system, and global reach sustained by alliances. Both nations seemed, in their respective peaks, to stand at the centre of the world economy.

Yet Britain's experience shows that leadership is not a permanent state.

Britain's story is not one of sudden collapse but of gradual slippage. Industrial dominance was lost first, to rivals who invested more boldly in the technologies of the future. Imperial reach then ebbed away, as the costs of war and the rise of nationalist movements made the old model unsustainable. Finally, Britain's supremacy in finance, which for a time offered a residual source of strength, came under strain as the material foundations beneath it weakened.

America today is not Britain in the 1950s. It is larger, richer, and more integrated into the world economy than Britain ever was. But echoes are there, and the same question runs through both stories: what happens when the industrial base of power erodes, yet the financial and strategic commitments built on that base remain as heavy as ever?"

https://www.driftsignal.com/p/britain-then-america-now

19. "Even if both countries prefer peace, they often act aggressively—just in case.

That’s the “Tragedy of Great Power Politics”, to quote Merscheimer: survival demands aggression, not because states are evil, but because the system rewards power and punishes naïveté.

And on the global stage, power is relative: it matters not how strong you are in absolute terms but how strong you are compared to potential threats. When one state builds up its military to feel safer, others feel less safe - and build up too. Everyone becomes more armed, more tense, and more likely to clash - even though nobody wanted a fight in the first place."

https://jaymartin.substack.com/p/why-power-never-sleeps-lessons-from

20. This week on what's up in B2B, lots of great takes here by investors on the top of their game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujuUUduQXgQ

21. Tony Robbins is the man. I always get something from listening to his talks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giUU6aMosoA

22. A must read to understand why the world is the way it is now. Especially in the West.

"China is growing fast because many still lack basics like a car, while Europe and the U.S. have reached saturation, with little incentive for further growth. And many are discovering that lifestyle improvements, such as bicycling paths and pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly cities, may not produce economic growth.

The problem is that it is saturated economies, like the U.S. and Europe, that carry the most debt. There’s a French saying: On ne prête qu’aux riches (“One only lends to the rich”). But when you’re rich and borrow heavily, you need growth to service that debt, which is harder at the top of the S-curve.

Further, policies like tariffs, as seen under the current administration, can stifle growth by forcing resources into lower-margin activities — like asking a brain surgeon to do some gardening two days a week to avoid being “ripped off” by professional gardeners. This shift from higher added value to lower added value depresses GDP, a point orthodox economists agree on — and this, at the time when we need growth the most."

https://nntaleb.medium.com/the-world-in-which-we-live-7255aad3e18c

23. "Among the most notable groups within the 2nd Legion are Brazilian volunteers. Brazil is home to a Ukrainian diaspora of roughly 600,000 people, many living in the Parana state. For some, cultural roots provide the motivation to join; for others, anti-communist convictions or personal outrage at the Russian invasion drive them. With many being veterans of Brazil’s military or police forces, bringing specialized skills in small-unit tactics, reconnaissance, and urban combat.

Around Pokrovsk, the 2nd International Legion’s Brazilian contingent has demonstrated how their jungle-honed skills transfer seamlessly into Ukraine’s contested forests and villages. One video shows them advancing quietly through dense woodland on a reconnaissance mission, using their natural ability to move unseen, camouflage effectively, and set ambushes. Such expertise allows them to surprise Russian troops, capture prisoners, or eliminate threats before they can endanger larger Ukrainian formations. Their precision reduces risks for accompanying units and speeds up the clearing of hostile positions, as proved by numerous released videos."

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/09/19/frontline-report-ukrainian-armys-brazilians-quietly-encircle-russian-troops-near-pokrovsk-and-eliminate-them-one-by-one/

24. "The US effectively operates the world's financial operating system. This dominance grants Washington extraordinary leverage: it can unilaterally impose sanctions that exclude nations from the global banking system. Countries and corporations must maintain dollar reserves and access to US banks to participate in international trade, giving America the ability to reward allies with market access and credit while punishing adversaries through financial exclusion. This "weaponization of finance" has become increasingly central to US foreign policy. In an increasingly on-chain world, US policy will continue to shift to ensure that US Dollar Stablecoins (and not something Yuan or Euro backed) remain dominant.

There are a lot of people in crypto who fully embrace the crypto-anarchist vision of a fully decentralized finance system. This is great and a fun part of crypto but my view is that crypto will never be fully mainstream if it is fully decentralized. Stable coins that are regulated and fully backed by dollars tie the system more tightly to the traditional banking system than they allow a system to be removed from it. Even if these stablecoins are used in places like defi and for decentralized use cases, they are still very much anchors to the traditional banking system and that’s actually a good thing."

https://kylelibra.substack.com/p/a-lot-of-what-people-think-about

25. "The central challenge of American statecraft today is this very visible disjunction between the systemic scope of the threat beyond its borders and the psychological unreadiness of the society on whose commitment any effective response depends. Recognizing this gap is only the beginning. 

In many ways, even though the strategic imperatives are unmistakable, the mechanisms for addressing them remain contested. Time, however, operates as an independent variable in this equation, and it favors America's adversaries.

Each interval of American strategic paralysis permits Moscow to consolidate its influence networks, Beijing to advance its technological supremacy, and Tehran to expand its destabilizing apparatus across multiple theaters. What American policymakers frame as prudent deliberation, hostile powers exploit as operational opportunity."

https://www.zinebriboua.com/p/the-new-cold-war

26. Lots of good ideas and thought exercises here for the aspiring tycoon or who just wants to have a good life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pug5Q_3XHjk

27. "Pre-AI, a common benchmark for best-in-class enterprise startups was $1 million in ARR in its first 12 months. The path to Series A typically took 12-18 months after achieving initial revenue traction, with companies needing to demonstrate sustained growth over multiple quarters before investors would write larger checks.

Today? It’s twice as fast per A16z’s data"

https://www.saastr.com/a16z-the-median-enterprise-ai-startup-now-hits-2-1m-arr-by-month-12/

28. "Tashkent, the capital, felt modern and safe to Joey. The culture shock was less severe than he expected, and once he settled in, he discovered a thriving, vibrant city.

“Hip cafés, shopping centers, good coffee—even the same international pop songs playing in the background,” he laughs. “Seeing all the teenagers glued to TikTok and Instagram made me feel closer to home.”

This is the paradox people often mention about Tashkent. In some ways it feels worlds apart from the West with its slower pace, traditional crafts, and ancient mosques—but it also has glass skyscrapers, ride-sharing, food delivery apps, and all the modern comforts of Europe in 2025. The ancient and the modern coexist in near-perfect harmony."

https://www.escapeartist.com/blog/living-in-uzbekistan/

29. Modular jamming & Drone shield. Great convo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCrT6xBCY9c

30. "Every company has these people. They work within the seams. Between the levels. Outside the performance matrix.

They don't hit your L5 requirements because they're doing L3 and L7 work simultaneously. Fixing the deploy pipeline while mentoring juniors. Answering customer emails while rebuilding core systems. They can't be ranked because they do what nobody thought to measure.

Performance reviews punish them. They lack "scope" because they fix problems before they become projects. No "leadership" because they lead by doing, not declaring. No "impact" because preventing fires doesn't generate OKRs.

By the time they ask for recognition, they're already gone. The ask isn't a request. It's a test you've already failed."

https://writing.nikunjk.com/p/the-quiet-ones

31. Kind of wacky stuff, alt-geopolitics. But helps illuminate some of the crazy MAGA stuff and geopolitics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ua2E5b6aA

32. "The essence of Buffalo Bill’s plan is to move credit creation and by extension economic growth out of the hands of the Fed and various non-bank financial institutions like private equity firms into the hands of small and medium-sized bank loan officers (I will call these regional banks). In his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed where he lambasted the Fed, he described it in populist terms of elevating Main St. over Wall St. Don’t get too hung up on the fact that entrance into his economic Valhalla requires the use of the undemocratic tools of Fed money printing.

The banks will now lend to the real industry that can produce the weapons needed for another glorious century of Bombs of Baghdad / Tehran / Gaza / Caracas (yes, an attempt at Venezuelan regime change is going to happen by 2028) etc. fill in your brown or Muslim population center and now the American military can bring forth DemocracyTM … assuming the denizens are still breathing :(.

That fixes the industrial side of the equation. In order to placate the American plebes, who require the ever-expanding welfare state to purchase their allegiance, the government must finance itself more affordably. By fixing the yield on long-term bonds, Bessent can issue infinite amounts of dogshit treasuries that the Fed dutifully buys with printed dollars. The interest expense collapses, as does the federal deficit.

Finally, the value of the dollar relative to other filthy fiat currencies and gold collapses. This allows American industry to export competitively priced goods to Europe first and then the global south in competition with China, Japan, and Germany.

Trump and Buffalo Bill Bessent believe it is their mission to restore the global primacy of America. That requires rebuilding a solid manufacturing base to produce real goods, not “services”. President of China, Xi Jinping, came to a similar conclusion when faced with the 2018 US-China Trade War started by Trump. Xi crushed the animal spirits of the financiers and big tech CEOs to change the economic direction of China. Who would have thought Alibaba CEO Jack Ma would be called to Zhongnanhai to drink tea and serve a stint in tycoon jail.

Instead of building shitty apartments and bike-sharing apps, the best and brightest in Xi’s China would conquer the green economy, rare earths, military drones, ballistic missiles, AI etc. And after almost a decade, China can endogenously produce all the real goods a nation state needs to preserve its sovereignty in the 21st century without the help of America."

https://cryptohayes.substack.com/p/four-seven

33. One of the best global macro analysts around. She is such a great clear thinker & incredibly knowledgeable on financial history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aSOf31fZ68

34. One of the wisest humans on the planet. Naval on wealth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPkweR086A

35. "BRADLEY TUSK IS a political consultant for tech companies. Uber and FanDuel have enjoyed his services as they rewrote the rules of their industries, and he’s used to political rough and tumble. As he sees it, Trump’s tactics are the government moving fast and breaking things.

When we talk, Tusk rattles off what he views as the components of US tech exceptionalism—independent markets and institutions, freedom of speech, intellectual property protections, strong educational institutions, decent immigration policy. Then his voice gets hard. “Trump is doing the opposite of every single one of those things,” he says. “There is definitely potential that he will destroy everything that makes the US economy unique and successful.

Maybe that’s the thing I got most wrong about Silicon Valley. Those Davids I wrote about seemed fearless and full of verve as they challenged what was possible and rode the power of the chip and the net. I mistook this for character. They may believe, as Moritz told me, that submitting to Trump’s protection racket protects their shareholders. But tech giants are certainly capable of standing up for the long-term viability of their industry. And for democracy. So far they are doing the opposite. “I think they have made a bad deal,” says Tim Wu. “Everyone who thought they could work some deal with Trump ends up getting burned, if not imprisoned.”

There will probably be no reckoning. Tech leaders, like all rich people, always have alternatives to life in a declining country. Reid Hoffman has his, as he put it, “contingency plans.” Another source for this story let drop that he’s getting Portuguese citizenship. Lovely country. But it’s hard to imagine myself as a young reporter, roaming the streets of Lisbon and finding the excitement and promise I discovered in California. It’s even harder to imagine a young reporter finding that spirit in the industry as it stands today. The way I now feel in Silicon Valley is how Sam Altman described himself politically: homeless.”

https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-valley-politics-shift/

36. "With capital drying up at home, Chinese AI firms are increasingly turning to the Middle East, where sovereign wealth funds and state-driven digital transformation programs provide opportunities for growth. These initial AI deals prove that sensitivity to the Gulf’s religious and cultural norms can help Chinese firms secure backing in the region."

https://www.zinebriboua.com/p/chinas-great-leap-south

37. Implications of the Israeli missile attack on Hamas in Qatar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiL_TDQF0VY

38. Insight dense conversation on startups, culture and productivity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERCsE6D0psw&t=1138s

Margin Call

This is the classic Wall Street movie outside of “Wall Street”. Full of top drawer Hollywood actors. It also explains the 2008 GFC so well. And you learn how Wall Street and Investing banking works. 

You also get a sense of the attitude you need to thrive, even with the Hollywood embellishments as one of the mid level bankers tells his junior. 

“If you really want to do this with your life you have to believe you are necessary. And you are. People want to live like this, with cars and the big houses they can’t even pay for. You are necessary. The only reason that they all get to have this like kings is because we have our fingers on the scales in their favor. 

I take my hand off and the whole world gets real fair, real quickly. And no really wants that. They say they do but they don’t. They want what we have to give them but they also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from. Normal people.”

There is a great scene around a late night emergency board meeting with all the Directors and the Chairman. So good and recommend watching it. The Chairman Mr Tulda played by Jeremy Irons also talks about how business on the Street works: 

“What did I tell you since the first day you stepped into my office. There are 3 ways to make a living in this Business. Be first, be smarter, or cheat. Now I don’t cheat. And while I like to think we have some pretty smart people in this building. It sure is a hell of a lot easier to be first.”

He also describes the game of Wall Street and finance oh so well. It’s worth paying attention: 

“It’s just money. It’s made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don’t kill each other just to get something to eat. It’s not wrong. And it’s certainly no different now than it ever was, 1637, 1901, 1907…1937…..1987….1992…. Whatever they call this. 

It’s all just the same thing. Over and over. We can’t help ourselves. You and I can’t control it. Or stop it or even slow it. Or even so slightly alter it.  We just react. 

We make alot of money if we get it right. And we get left by the side of the road if we get it wrong.

And there’s always been and always will be the same percentage of winners and losers. Happy and sad sacks….Fat cats and starving dogs in this world. Yeah.  There may be more of us than there’s ever been these days. But the percentages, they stay exactly the same.”

Some thoughts to ponder. And it helps you understand how the world of money really works. Or least in America which has been so financialized now much to our detriment as we don’t make anything anymore. “The ground is shifting below our feet”….

The big lesson to me as was said many times in the movie: Crisis is opportunity, “No loose ends” and “Take the money”. Money is impact. Money is power. Money is freedom. 

Power Is Everything: Playing to Win

I had written previously about Resavager, a somewhat white supremacist writer. But boy, that dude can write. He really is good. I stumbled upon another one of his write ups and it’s a banger. (Source: https://resavager.com/p/power-gives-the-first-right). “Power Gives the First Right.” 

It revolves around the important topic of power and its importance. We’ve been psy-oped into thinking it’s a bad thing or we need to hide from it. Well, this is wrong. Many of us shy away from it but if you care about your family, your country and even yourself and making an impact, you need to understand it. In fact, you need to master it. I used to think Money and wealth is all you need and it’s a subset of power for sure. But as we see from China, power trumps riches. Just ask Jack Ma. Or Elon versus Trump, power always beats wealth. 

Resavager writes:

“You will never take power if you abandon power. You’re putting you and your kin at the mercy of your enemies. The steps described above are half measures easily overcome by the people that hate you.

The US military in Afghanistan and Iraq had one arm strapped behind its back. Our kin in the military did not have free rein to conquer their opponents. They were made to believe that the peoples they fought were a small minority of terrorists holding hostage peoples who just wanted liberal democracy. 

Historically, you had to be able to kill off at least 30% of the enemy’s fighting age males to get victory. Our military was told not to fire unless fired upon, that most Afghanis or Iraqis were oppressed by small number of terrorists. That if you simply cut off the heads of the snakes, victory would be ours. You know what happened and you know that isn’t the truth. Why would you apply it to our situation?”

Basically, he says, if you want to win a war, you fight it, no holds barred. We’ve lost all the last few wars because we never truly fought it. Truth is, most of these wars America fought were never existential. And we never treated it as such. 

“War, like nature, continues to progress. It knows no rest. It continues to grow more complex. This is not the barbaric age of swords and shields. War is immensely complex and a people that abandon it, will be conquered by the ones who don’t. You can argue all day and night about how we are better, how we are superior, but nature demands that you compete. You stop competing, you give your enemies an opening. Sure, maybe they aren’t as smart as we are, but that’s ok, they will have the numbers and funding to overcome anything you and yours could put forward.”

“There is a powerful book on the first US Civil War written by John Keegan called The American Civil War, that I encourage you to read. The South was united in their cause. They have none of the racial hang ups our kin have today. They knew they belonged to a race. They had the superior warriors. Hell, they had the superior leadership. The Confederate fighting force was revered by generations of Americans to come for their valiant struggle against the Union. But they still lost.

How the South lost the Civil War was best explained by Keegan. All the infrastructure in the United States was in the north. The North controlled the seas around the states. The vast majority of the population was also in the north. On top of this, the north enlisted vast numbers of immigrants and blacks to fight on the frontlines. The North made many mistakes that drew the war out for as long as it did, but the reality was the North was fighting with one arm behind its back. If the South put up a better fight, the North would have simply used its other arm. Victory was never in the cards and many of the Confederate generals understood this.”

So the key lesson he highlights: “As Nietzsche said in his early essay on the Greeks, “Power gives the first right.” You cannot abandon power and expect to win.

This is why for many young men, the military or building true ties to the military make sense. I wished I had done military service, but I do the next best things. I fund military innovation and production and I work with the Department of Defense and US & our allied militaries. I also make friends with present and ex-Military people. They are good & capable people.

As I mentioned earlier, modern warfare is immensely complex, so you can go into the military and not be in a combat arms role, if that’s what you are worried about. Our people need to be on the cutting edge of warfare, on the frontier itself, if we want to survive. The military does TAKE, but you can also TAKE from the military. You will learn skills you won’t learn anywhere else. The military will pay you to learn these skills and you will get benefits for your service. Three years gets your college paid for and the ability to buy a house. You will get connections that might lead you in directions none of our kin are talking about: the deep state and the military industrial complex, for example.

The reality is that you need to do more. He who does more, is worth more. Anyone can enlist or commission, but how much more can you do? Can you get yourself into positions of power? Can you get yourself into elite units like the 75th Ranger Regiment or the Navy SEALs? Are able to make connections and get into the deep state or military industrial complex? Life ain’t about paying bills and dying. Make your mark on the world. The way we act now would be the equivalent of the colonists never rebelling because the British Empire was too strong or never venturing out into the frontier because of the danger of Indian raids. He who dares, conquers.

The world belongs to those who TAKE power. If you want to see your sons do better than you, you must set the example. If you run and hide, how could you expect your children to be any different? The WILL to win is something sorely missing in our race and it falls upon us to embody it again. We who know have the duty to pick up the sword. Never forget Nietzsche’s words: POWER gives the first right. MIGHT makes right.”

This is absolutely correct: Might makes right. It’s a hard brutal truth but the world is getting harder. Pax Americana is over, or at least the one we know. A colder and more brutal ruthless world. 

A world that no longer purely revolves around money and GDP growth. A world with mass job destruction, growing income inequality, rudderless & venal politicians, and a decaying law and order. To be truly sovereign, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, although it certainly helps. But if you don't have health, fighting & shooting skills in times of chaos you will be eaten (maybe literally). Even if you have a well trained security team, who knows how reliable they will be if you are just paying them. Or if they don’t respect you. They will if you have skills, similar to medieval noblemen who have both money and training  and are seen as leaders and comrades. 

So go make plenty of money, go get some fighting and weapon skills, and go make some really tough and well trained friends. You and your kin may make it out of this mess intact. Desperate times require desperate measures.

Andor 2: Beginning of the End of Empire

It’s probably the best thing to come out of the Star Wars Universe in many years. I’d argue in the last decade outside of Andor season 1. A dramatic series about key players on both sides and at all levels of society about the beginning of the rebellion against the growing tyranny of the Galactic Empire. 

And the season starts off with a bang. Great drama and action. And plenty of comments on the nature of people. The silent instigator & ringleader Luthen, when in reference to a former friend: “People fail. That’s our curse.” He is right. Maybe this is why I trust so few people. And when I find someone trustworthy I really treasure them. But it’s a sad fact of life: most people are unreliable & unworthy of our time and energy. Doesn’t mean you don’t help people, you should. But you should never expect anything from others. Least of all gratitude, this way you will never be disappointed. 

There is even great wisdom from the minor characters, Perrin, the husband consort of Rebellion finder & future leader Mon Mothma, said: “Pace yourself or Pay the price.” That is great advice whether drinking or really anything in life. For someone as extreme and excessive as I am, this is a good reminder. My workaholism over the last two and half decades has really hurt my health and family life. It will take a while to fix. 

But Perrin also has had a great speech to his daughter and guests: 

“Pain will find you. Trouble and disagreement will arrive without summons. There’s no choice in this. There’s no effort required. You simply stand still and the galaxy will deliver a daily basket of fresh anxieties to your door without fail. My hope, my hope. My hope is that you learn to reach past this constant cloud of sadness. 

Pleasure. Gaiety. Amusement. These are the hidden things. The music buried beneath all that noise…..Joy! Joy! Joy. But Joy had no wind at it’s back. Joy will not announce its arrival. You need to listen for it, and be mindful of how fleeting and delicate it can be. 

But search out these treasures. A moment of….of pleasing sensation, the memory of laughter and good company, the comfort of a fine meal.”

These are the small things that keep all of us going. Most of the time it’s enough. 

You have to learn to find some pleasure in pain. Just like at the gym & hard training and exercise. 

But more importantly you will overcome pain by having purpose. A BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). A mission. There was a great scene when Andor meets a conspirator. 

She asks him: “If i die tonight, was it worth it? You’ve done this before, you must have thought about it.”

Andor responds: “This makes it worth it. This. Right now. Being with you. Being here at the moment you step into the circle. Look at me. You made this decision long ago. The Empire cannot win. You’ll never feel right unless you’re doing what you can to stop them. You’re coming home to yourself. You’ve become more than your fear. Let that protect you.”

Many of us will find out soon enough. As Andor says: “We’re in a war. Not everybody knows it yet, but it’s happening.” 

We absolutely are at war as I have written many times. If we really think about it and are honest with ourselves. We’ve always been at war. Society is always at war, externally and internally. This is human history. More so now as America  lines up against the Axis of China & Russia. 

And we are also always at war with ourselves: our misconceptions, our delusions, our limiting beliefs, our laziness, our greed, our fear. A war to conquer our weakness. It’s strangely ironic but I’ve finally realized that life is war, it’s when I came awake. Alive even. Once I got this I started to overcome my challenges and start to thrive. To win. 

As rebel leader Saw says in a spectacular and apt speech: “Remember this. Remember this moment! This perfect night. You think I’m crazy? Yes, I am. Revolution is not for the sane. Look at us. Unloved. Hunted. Cannon fodder. We’ll all be dead before the Republic is back and yet….here we are. Where are you boy? You’re here. You’re here. You’re right here, and you’re ready to fight! We’re the Rhydo kid. We’re the fuel. We’re the thing that explodes when there’s too much friction in the air. Let it in, that’s freedom calling! Let it in. Let it run! Let it run wild! “ 

Amen. Let it run people. LFG!

Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads Nov 9th, 2025

“Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.”-- Kobe Bryant

1. Environment matters. Location and Flowmaxxing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGoylkLyy3U

2. "We’ve noticed that people are slowly cutting back on discretionary spending and reducing overhead. This is probably due to a combination of: 1) fear of AI taking their jobs and 2) general frustration with prices. If you try to go out to eat, even a lower quality place is going to be $20. A Large latte in some places is approaching $10 (with a minimum close to $7.50!). 

What Does this Mean: Adopt tech as fast as possible. The brutal thing about Tech is that is always wins. In an expanding market, people use Tech to sell more and create more profit margins. In a declining market, people use Tech to reduce overhead and improve cash flows. 

As you can see, in an up market or a down market people are using more tech. Name a situation in which you’re going to spend less time using technology? That’s right… when you retire and that’s about it."

https://bowtiedbull.io/p/fed-crypto-and-consumer-demand-updates

3. "In the most positive version of the above, I think we want to see a world where AI enables fewer people to produce more. As such, it would be wonderful if AI-native startups need far fewer employees to build. Defensibility will be achieved through killer features and technologies, not by the simple strength of distribution and monopoly. (We want more new things, not the same old big guys to rule the next generation).

We’d like for all these new technologies to make startups even cheaper to build. Ideally, the Bay Area will remain the central tech hub. Even if people can create companies anywhere, they'll still move to San Francisco to tap into the expertise and capital. And of course venture capital will evolve to figure out a way to make money out of the whole thing :) I hope that's right.

But you could also make plausible arguments in the opposite direction for each of these. The biggest AI winners might be those with massive data centers, access to tons of data, and lots of compute. This implies centralization, where the big get bigger, creating an anti-startup world. Alternatively, AI could be an amazing feature set that doesn't actually help much with marketing and distribution. Incumbents could slowly convert their pre-AI products into AI-native feature sets, eventually outcompeting startups.

As smart folks I know have said, the question is: “Will incumbents get innovation first? Or startups get distribution first?” Incumbents might win."

https://andrewchen.substack.com/p/ai-will-change-how-we-build-startups

4. "I never understood why so much time was wasted on the 2024 debt restructuring as in my mind it did not touch the sides in terms of the numbers for ensuring Ukraine’s victory - a $10 billion financing contribution over a three years period versus the $300 billion plus actual financing need over this period. The only way to ensure Ukraine’s victory, and Ukraine’s long term debt sustainability, was to ensure a financing envelop to deliver a victory - and that is only possible with use of the $330 billion in CBR assets.

So all the effort on the 2024 debt restructuring would have been better put on ensuring that immobilised CBR assets were frozen, seized and allocated to Ukraine via Victory Bonds, sovereign wealth style structure. I spoke out against this at the time, but was ignored. Actually we have now wasted three and half years doing near enough nothing on the CBR assets front from their first immobilisation in April 2022. This is scandalous.

The result has been the war has gone on far longer than should have been the case if Ukraine had been properly funded, and hundreds of thousands more deaths have resulted. Meanwhile, I think the fact that Western tax payer money, not Russian tax payer money has been used instead to fund Ukraine has been a gift to the far right, populists in Western democracies. Trump et al has used this as a rod to beat their opponents. Western leaders are indeed idiots for not already having utilised Russian tax payer money to fund Ukraine’s defence."

https://timothyash.substack.com/p/ukraine-v-for-victory-bond

5. "This story matters to everyone for three interconnected reasons. First, electricity demand is rising sharply as artificial intelligence and electrification reshape industrial systems. Second, reducing dependence on coal, oil, and gas for power generation has become both an environmental and strategic imperative. Third, today's fragmented and unstable world drives every nation towards resilience and reduced dependency, where nuclear energy offers a path to energy sovereignty.

There's also a deeper current running through contemporary debates about industrial capability and abundance. Many observers believe the West has abandoned its engineering culture to China, leaving both America and Europe unable to compete in a world where energy infrastructure and manufacturing capacity determine prosperity and security more than software and services. Nuclear power sits at the heart of this challenge—a technology that demands both engineering excellence and institutional coordination at scales that few nations have mastered.

France's programme succeeded not through technological breakthrough but through institutional design and engineering excellence. The country built a system that could execute complex, long-term projects whilst maintaining broad political support across changing governments. Understanding how France achieved this offers lessons that extend far beyond nuclear energy to any large-scale ambitious project powered by technology—from rebuilding manufacturing capacity to developing advanced infrastructure to coordinating national responses to technological change."

https://www.driftsignal.com/p/the-secret-history-of-frances-civil

6. One of the smarter guys in the Trump admin who actually understands the world and tech. His book "The Wires of War" is a must read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIQjOCNidb0

7. "If you want to win, go faster. If in doubt and uncertain, go faster. If you want to make $1B dollars, go faster. If you want to change the world, go faster.

Whether you’re founding a startup or investing in them as venture capitalist, you’re in a ruthless competition with the rest of the world. You’re competing to create and capture $1B for yourself and your partners & employees, and that means defeating all the other teams of people who are gunning for that exact same prize.

I predict the % of people who are able to compete to be elite will be smaller and smaller, but the competition will be fiercer and fiercer. It’ll be a game of steeper and steeper power laws as each elite player has more and more leverage with AI tools empowering them."

https://www.geoffreywoo.com/go-faster/

8. Lots of interesting thoughts on investing during the AI age from an investing legend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-yb87UDjvY

9. Geography's role in global affairs. Fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4sFWSyya4E

10. Always mind blowing. Plenty of insights from Balaji Srinivasan as usual. Wide ranging discussion on AI, Crypto, Gold and Biotech + Geopolitics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ_S6S7-z5E

11. "The corporate role isn't dying in some dramatic collapse. It's dying like religion died for many people—slowly, through diminishing belief rather than disappearing churches.

The structures remain. The offices still gleam. The meetings still happen. The emails still flow. But the faith that this activity means something, that it's building towards something worthwhile, that it justifies the life hours it consumes—that faith is evaporating.

What replaces it isn't clear yet. Maybe it's this parallel economy of people using corporate jobs as platforms. Maybe it's something we haven't seen yet. But the transition period—where we all pretend to believe in something we know is hollow—is unsustainable.

The most honest person I've met recently was a VP at a tech company who told me: "I manage a team of twelve people who create documents for other teams who create documents for senior leadership who don't read documents. I make £150k a year. It's completely absurd, and I'm riding it as long as I can while building something real on the side."

https://thestillwandering.substack.com/p/the-death-of-the-corporate-job

12. Always interesting. Zeehan’s blindspot is technology so we will see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucjOgpSrER0

13. This is an interesting alt-take for global macro. But this is worth watching as he has non-mainstream views which are valuable for your own investment thesis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR8ozUY5I_s

14. "Contemporary political cultures in western nations are not well informed about war and its consequences. The past thirty years, described by some as the long peace, has seen the Cold War generation of political leaders and staffers move on and be replaced by a new generation. This new generation, seduced by the economic growth and increased globalisation have largely come to believe that large-scale war in the Pacific is not possible in the 21st century, regardless of the lessons of Ukraine.

A final lesson for political leaders from the Pacific War is about will. 

The key lesson is that no one will help a nation that doesn’t demonstrate the will to defend itself. Australia stepped up to the challenge between 1941 and 1945. This is an essential lesson about will, and one that politicians everywhere today must learn. There are many dimensions to this demonstration of will. Ultimately it is about building national resilience in all its forms.

The level of complacency in modern Australia, and governments unwillingness to tackle such complacency, provides few insights into whether we possess the will to defend ourselves in the modern era. This year’s Lowy Poll found that just 52% of Australians surveyed answered with an unequivocal “yes” when asked if they would defend Australia."

https://mickryan.substack.com/p/the-pacific-war-must-inform-modern

15. "I thought Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Bruegel’s director, framed Europe’s predicament well when he asked whether a Europe of herbivores could survive in a world dominated by carnivores.

In other word, could a Europe whose own internal arrangements are deeply embedded in multilateralism, international law and the rules-based order play a role in an increasingly lawless world based around hard power?"

https://nixons.substack.com/p/europes-century-of-humiliation

16. "The adoption of AI avatars points to a long term transformation in Japan’s convenience retail industry. By offsetting limited labor supply and immigration restrictions with digital and robotic tools, companies aim to maintain service levels while improving efficiency. For Seven-Eleven and its competitors, the success of these trials could determine how convenience stores operate in the coming decade."

https://www.tokyoscope.blog/p/7-eleven-japan-bets-on-ai-avatars

17. "All of which brings us to perhaps the most interesting country on the map: Brazil. War with Venezuela, clashes with the cartels of Mexico and Colombia, and other skirmishes might well be the warm-up act for the biggest fight of them all. If the US is truly in the midst of World War III with the BRICS countries and is staking its claim in and around its backyard, is a full-blown conflict with the “B” of BRICS out of the question? After all, Brazil is the only BRICS member in the entire Western Hemisphere—a beachhead for America’s main geopolitical opponents.

Trump did not name Brazil among the countries lost to “deepest, darkest China”—perhaps because he has no intention of losing it…"

https://newsletter.doomberg.com/p/mosaic-theory

18. "You want to be liquid. Liquid investments are better since you can’t control the human variables particularly well. 

While you can buy your own property (lowers cost of living, allows you to choose the sub-community), it’s best to avoid easily confiscated assets. 

In 2025, you want to be portable. Income? Online.

Investments? Liquid crypto, stocks, etc. 

Accounts? Spread out to avoid concentration risk. So on and so forth. 

If you’ve been following us a while you should have separate accounts interacting with each investment class. One bank linked to crypto. One bank linked to your wifi/online biz. One bank linked to your W-2 (if you have one) and mortgage/tradfi system related items.

General Trend More of Same: Both parties are going to prefer printing and deferring pain. This is pretty much a lock and even more so now. If you have this much animosity between the two parties, neither is interested in creating economic turmoil. If things get ugly, be near certain that the helicopter money comes flying in.

Private Security Boom: This won’t solve everything but the wealthy will do what they can. Musk, Trump etc will have even more money spent on security. The deep irony of security personnel? That’s also a risk in and of itself. 

We’ll tell all of you the same thing. You want to be rich, you do not want to be famous or well known. Make it first, then decide if you care about the opinion of the general population. You’ll find that you have no interest in divulging anything to them in the first place."

https://bowtiedbull.io/p/economic-update-and-politics-is-the

19. "The advent of the Trump presidency, and its pulling of financial support for Ukraine, and the realisation that the war in Ukraine will go on long into the future, has allowed the realisation to dawn in Europe, that Ukraine is underfunded. The bill is around $100 billion a year just to keep Ukraine in the war, likely nearer to $150 billion for Ukraine to have a chance of winning, or drawing the war to an early end.

The US was covering near 40% of this total under Biden, but now Europe plus Japan, Canada et al is having to stump up the full nine yards, or $100 billion pa given Trump has moved from giving to taking money to/from Ukraine. Given Europe’s fiscal woes, it’s hard to see national governments stumping up much more money for Ukraine, hence the realisation that CBR assets have to be utilised."

https://timothyash.substack.com/p/cbr-assets-have-to-be-seized-for

20. Always a fun and educational AMA with polymath Tim Ferriss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw52eGZYd6Q

21. Lots of interesting takes from folks on the edge of the internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQm045OOzFk

22. Monroe Doctrine 2.0? Fascinating geopolitical conversation here. The war on Cartels are about oil, not drugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOnxH1hn3Gk

23. Lots of insights and nuggets here on B2B from folks on the frontline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5vRmsMS3ms&t=2360s

24. "Sure, the longevity craze might look ridiculous from the outside at times. But it’s ridiculous with benefits. A Patek Philippe watch tells you the time, but an Apple Watch tells you your heart rate, sleep score, and how much stress you’re under. 

At some point in my thirties, I realized health is the best ROI. Lose it and you’re only half-present at home, at work, and everywhere in between. I’d take a Prenuvo scan over another luxury purchase any day. Health compounds; things depreciate.

But like my friend who found a middle ground, I’ve come to see that joy matters too. Sometimes longevity means the glass of wine, the night out, the moment that keeps you human."

https://www.newinternet.tech/p/the-new-status-game-longevity

25. Especially good discussion this week on the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHDm3MQlv7w

26. "That's the thing with gold rushes. The rush destroys the gold.

Thirteen years in SF taught me one thing: compound advantages only work if you stick around. Through Uber for X. Through crypto winter. Through COVID. Tourists chase cycles. Locals build through them.

You spot tourists instantly. Twenty coffee meetings their first week. Month-to-month rentals at double the price. Creating the exact bidding war they're losing. Asking if SF is "safe" again, as if crime was why they left.

Everyone claims they're missionaries, not mercenaries. But missionaries don't flee when offerings dry up."

https://writing.nikunjk.com/p/stop-being-a-tourist

27. "It seems obvious but it's worth saying. Going to parties and events is a powerful way to:

Expand your network

Find a romantic partner

Get out of a rut

Live a more interesting life"

https://www.jasonshen.com/277/

28. "It's important to note, that by themselves political assassination and terrorism don’t overthrow the established elites (at least, I can’t think of any examples). An assassination of the state ruler may serve as a triggering event for a revolution or an onset of civil war, but it still requires a well-organized and committed counter-elite party. The failure of Alexander Ulyanov and ultimate success of his younger brother illustrate this principle perfectly.

The significance in the rising frequency of such instability “micro-events” is that they signal that something is deeply broken within the social system in which they happen. I tried to draw attention to the rising frequency of shooting rampages back in 2008."

https://peterturchin.substack.com/p/an-eruption-of-assassinations

29. "There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to raising institutional capital. The best approach for an entrepreneur is to be intentional and consider personal and team goals and aspirations.

Some want to swing for the fences and build the biggest company possible. Others want to balance lifestyle, flexibility, and control.

The next time an entrepreneur says they’re going to raise institutional capital, encourage them to carefully enumerate the pros and cons, and make sure the decision is thoughtful."

https://davidcummings.org/2025/09/13/raise-institutional-capital-or-make-do-without/

30. "Simple enough. But if one looks beyond the bounds of individual wars to historical patterns of conflict, this relationship between the political and geographic becomes more complicated. Whatever territorial concerns animate a particular war, fighting tends to spread to wherever the two sides can hit each other. Certain theaters of operations may constitute primary objectives in their own right, useful avenues toward some larger objective, or mere secondary theater to bleed out the other side."

https://dispatch.bazaarofwar.com/p/theaters-of-operation-and-the-potential

31. "In 1971, President Nixon ended the dollar's convertibility to gold. This decision launched a fifteen-year transformation of global finance. Goldman Sachs recognised the opportunity early, building a block trading business that would become the foundation of its dominance.

Today, tokenisation represents another systemic reset. It enables investors to separate steady income from volatile gains, makes financial engineering accessible beyond investment banks, and embeds complex transactions directly into programmable code. The same forces that reshaped finance in the 1970s and 1980s are converging: regulatory change, technology, and structural innovation.

Michael Green, portfolio strategist at Simplify and a noted critic of passive investing, recently declared that “tokenization is starting to actually matter.” His assessment carries weight precisely because of his scepticism towards market fads. In a recent newsletter, he demonstrated how tokenisation could split a high-yield bond portfolio into two products: one delivering steady 10% returns, another capturing the remaining upside whilst bearing all volatility. Smart contracts handle what once required armies of lawyers, trustees, custodians, and accountants."

https://www.driftsignal.com/p/the-programmable-capital-revolution

32. "Is generative AI more like the former or the latter? Will it be the basis of many future industrial fortunes, or a net loser for the investment community as a whole, with a few zero-sum winners here and there?

There are ways to make money investing in the fruits of AI, but they will depend on assuming the latter—that it is once again a less propitious time for inventors and investors, that AI model builders and application companies will eventually compete each other into an oligopoly, and that the gains from AI will accrue not to its builders but to customers. A lot of the money pouring into AI is therefore being invested in the wrong places, and aside from a couple of lucky early investors, those who make money will be the ones with the foresight to get out early.

What the history of containerization suggests is that, if you aren’t already an investor in a model company, you shouldn’t bother. Sam Altman and a few other early movers may make a fortune, as McLean and Ludwig did. But the huge costs of building and running a model, coupled with intense competition, means there will, in the end, be only a few companies, each funded and owned by the largest tech companies. If you’re already an investor, congratulations: There will be consolidation, so you might get an exit.

Domain-specific models—like Cursor or Harvey—will be part of the consolidation. These are probably the most valuable models. But fine-tuning is relatively cheap, and there are big economies of scope. On the other hand, just as Google had to buy Invite Media in 2010 to figure out how to sell to ad agencies, domain-specific model companies that have earned the trust of their customers will be prime acquisition targets. And although it seems possible that models which generate things other than language—like Midjourney or Runway—might use their somewhat different architecture to carve out a separate technological path, the LLM companies have easily entered this space as well. Whether this applies to companies like Osmo remains to be seen."

https://joincolossus.com/article/ai-will-not-make-you-rich/

33. The untold history of money. It's really fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6n5T73jfeE&t=1806s

34. "Less than a year into Trump’s second term, we’ve lost many friends and much influence. With the president praising authoritarians and casting doubt on our mutual defense commitments, our allies can no longer count on us. Demolishing USAID didn’t save much money — at 0.3% of the federal budget, the agency created substantial soft power on the cheap — but it did tell the world’s developing nations to look elsewhere for leadership.

Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs aren’t the crude tools of protectionism, but cudgels deployed in service of his id. (See: The 50% levy on Brazil for bringing criminal charges against former president Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a coup.) Since World War II, America has provided global security and economic stability, while serving as an (imperfect) vehicle to spread democracy and the rule of law. Under Trump, we’re an amoral chaos agent. Alienating allies weakens our position relative to China.

I often say the best way to predict the future is to make it. Right now, America isn’t making the future — it’s destroying the good will, influence, and leadership it’s been building since the end of World War II. As a former Chinese diplomat explained, “The U.S. under Trump is launching revolution after revolution. The Chinese know about revolutions, and we know that you better know what the consequences will be if you launch a revolution. I don’t think Trump is fully aware of the consequences of all these tremendous forces he’s unleashing around the world.”

The American century isn’t ending with a bang, but with tweets and a trade war. We built an empire in 80 years and are torching it in 8. Our edge was never the missile; it was the handshake. Restore alliances, or hand the 21st century to those who keep theirs."

https://www.profgalloway.com/own-goal/

35. "As World War II wound down, solving the minerals problem was a postwar priority. The U.S. and other powers built stockpiles and took other steps to guarantee supply. Yet the primary strategy was to use American power to guarantee open markets for minerals and secure trade routes. Minerals were just as “critical” to the world economy in the postwar period, but American power guaranteed their supply. The German “octopus” was replaced by a Western octopus—the network commodity traders based in New York, London, and Switzerland, all of whom depended on the U.S. financial system.

Now this has partially reversed. Western commodity traders’ power, at least when it comes to certain niche metals. Germany’s near-monopoly on tungsten smelting in the 1910s has been replaced by China’s monopoly on rare earth processing today. Konkel argues that “the Pax Americana was the resolution to the interwar raw materials problem.” 

So we shouldn’t be surprised that the demise of the Pax Americana has coincided with the re-emergence of the minerals dilemma."

https://chrismillersnewsletter.substack.com/p/the-critical-minerals-crisis-of-100

36. Russian economy will get hammered even more so by Ukraine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk0HCJvCgrI

37. "I’ve seen it too many times — boards obsess over the wrong numbers, while the real path forward is in your hands.

Most SaaS advice is backwards. Everyone chases 120%+ NRR while missing massive distribution plays. But Zoom, Slack, Notion, Canva — and now Lovable — all scaled early with mediocre retention. They went wide before they went deep.

Sometimes distribution > retention. The trick is knowing when."

https://www.the-founders-corner.com/p/part-1-when-89-nrr-and-a-churn-issue

You Become Your Environment: A Summer in Paris

Paris is incredible. The beautiful architecture, fashionable, beautiful people, delicious & healthy food & pastries and the relaxing lifestyle. The people watching is pretty awesome, especially during Paris Fashion Week :). I finally get it after coming here innumerable times but mainly for business. 

Spending 3 weeks here with the family in the Montmartre area during the summer was lovely. We enjoyed walking around and taking everything in. Sitting in a cafe having top quality coffee & desserts at great prices. The European lifestyle. I get why this city attracts so many people around the world. And why it’s the dream of many young and old people to live here. I truly get that phrase: ’Make your money in the US and spend it in Europe.’

But I have to admit after a week of this I was aching to get back to the intensity of America’s 

The chill lifestyle is wonderful, for a short period of time. As my friend & investor Jason Lemkin calls it: “Cafe & Baguette Culture”. But I start to feel my edge wear off. Maybe I’m a little bit broken to chill out (probably), maybe I’m wired differently (definitely). I’m probably a dopamine-driven workaholic masochist. It helps in business for sure. 

I still believe this incredible high quality lifestyle is not conducive to building massive companies of impact. You need a density of ambition and talent and a chill lifestyle kills this. IMO this explains the lack of massive high growth companies and lack of economic growth in Canada and Western Europe in general. 

And by the way there is nothing wrong with wanting a good lifestyle or just having a regular life. We need people who want that. And I do think it’s a choice. Life is so much better for the average person in Western Europe & Canada compared to in the USA. However in an ever increasing volatile, dangerous and competitive world, I think it will be harder to maintain this lifestyle.

 I’d say the great thing about this visit besides the reconciliation & quality time with family is that it gave me a great perspective on the beautiful lifestyle of Western Europe. One worth fighting for. I just hope people here realize it, figure out a way to pay for it and not take it for granted before it’s too late. 

And for me personally, to paraphrase something I saw on X (sorry I can’t find it to properly attribute): spending time in Europe energizes me to return to America to work even harder & smarter to make more copious amounts of money so I can spend more time in Europe to enjoy the incredible quality of life in Western Europe, whether France or Italy more regularly and frequently. Throw in Albania, Ukraine, Greece,Serbia and Austria and this region is as close to heaven on earth.

Yet as I have said before, for the ubermensch there is no place in the world like America. Especially if you are crazy driven & ambitious, like “dominating the world & putting a dent in it” ambitious individuals. For those who don’t know what an Ubermensch is, he is one “who challenges individuals to rise above, create their own values and embrace life with courage and creativity.” 

The guys at BowtiedBull said it best in their newsletter on July 8th, 2025: “This is the main reason why the USA is winning and will continue to win. As long as the USA is the best place in the world to move up the socioeconomic ladder, the best and the brightest will continue to show up.

Since the USA is the land of opportunity and the competitive edge is to recruit/steal the best and brightest from every other country (sorry homegrown talent isn’t enough this is basic statistics) we know that this is what people really care about. Getting theirs and getting their standard of living up.

The USA has been marketed as a land of opportunity for so long that no one cares about anything else. They just want to personally get ahead and improve their own lives. Extreme individualism. Anyone claiming otherwise is typically full of it. Year after year some political person sells out for money and would happily take a few million bucks to change their talking points. No questions asked.”

It’s not pretty but the reality rarely is.

Wisdom from Landman: Lessons on the Oilpatch

Landman is an excellent tv series by the brilliant Taylor Sheridan about Tommy Norris played by Billy Bob Thornton in Midland of the beautiful state of Texas. A Landman takes care of leases and the work crews of fictional Oil Giant M-Tex, trying to get the oil & gas out of the ground. He is part COO, part fixer. All trouble. Or trouble shooter at least, having to deal with accidents, lawsuits, employee issues, theft & even drug smugglers.  

He is wise and grizzled. When his daughter asks him: “How come you are always right?” He answers: “Cause I spent my life being wrong. I never forgot the lessons.”

His son Norris also works the patch. We see him get hazed by his colleagues on the crew on his first day. It’s rough work and probably normal. But he does alright. When Tommy asks the crew boss how his son does on the first day, the crew boss says: “He survived. Green, real green. But he don’t say no and he tries. I mean, that’s something.” 

I love this. It’s something I rarely see especially in newbies in every place I’ve worked at. Real effort and crazy good work ethic. All I see most times is a lack of humility, entitlement, crazy expectations & thinking some work is beneath them. When you are new, you do everything asked of you and more. You have to be prepared to work. And work brutally hard.  Grind. This is what I did and it’s gotten me pretty far because it’s really rare. 

And as the series shows besides the grinding work, there is massive amounts of stress at all levels. This is for the frontline crews doing a dangerous job, the managers who rush from crisis to crisis. Even the big boss of M-Tex who may be super rich but literally has the massive pressure & weight of the business on him. Heavy lies the crown. The tycoon, like many tycoons, is a stress basket, especially the oil and gas business. “Our business is one of constant crises interrupted by brief periods of intense success.”

But the reason people are willing to put up with all this stress is explained by Norris’s new colleagues: “It’s better you work for it real hard. You know? That way, nobody can take it away.” Very good advice. 

Tommy also gives great advice to his daughter: 

“You gotta love your way through the failures. You never know you’re in the last one until you are in it.” Man, this is gold, it’s relevant for startups and relationships. 

But outside the drama it highlights the importance of the oil industry, something we completely take for granted. Here are some stats as stated in the show: 

“Oil and gas generates $3 billion dollars a day in pure profit. It’s the seventh largest industry in the world, ahead of food production, automobile production, coal mining and at 1.4 trillion, the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t crack the top ten. 

The industries completely ahead of it are completely dependent on oil and gas. The more they grow, the more we grow. That’s the scale. That’s the size of this thing. And it’s only getting bigger.”

It is critical to a functional world economy. Heck, I’ll say to a functioning civilization. Energy is civilization and one cannot develop without access to it. With all the great prosperity and growth many of us, especially on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, seem to have forgotten and overlooked this fact. As we move into a world that focuses more on atoms than bits this understanding of the critical factor of energy and oil will be back in VERY clear focus. 

Access to cheap energy is one of the key factors of national sovereignty besides manufacturing (ie. Making stuff) as well as a strong military. If you don’t have these three things in this new more competitive & brutal world, you are nowhere close to being independent and sovereign as many countries in the world are learning the hard way now.

Tokyo Cowboy: Waking up Before it’s Too Late

Movies and their lessons show up at the strangest and usually right time. On a flight to Paris with my family, I got to watch “Tokyo Cowboy”. The synopsis: “a Japanese businessman goes on an unwitting journey of self-discovery when he takes a company trip from Tokyo to a Montana cattle ranch.” With a description like this, how can you not be intrigued?

The main character is a businessman named Hideki Sakai, when we first meet him he is a dedicated yet dour salaryman responsible for acquiring and turning around companies. Maybe too dedicated to his career. 

Like many folks around us, he is doing what he thinks he is supposed to do in society. Rising through the hierarchy, getting promotions and money. He focuses on efficiency and numbers far too much. Over optimizing everything. Except the important things in life. I get it, I was once this guy. 

There is a scene early in the movie when he takes over a chocolate factory. He sees how dedicated the owner is. He says to the owner: “you really love your work.” The owner asks him: “Absolutely. Don’t you?” The blank look by Sakai says it all. It’s the blank look of NOT understanding. 

His trip to Montana is driven by a project and his own personal brainchild: turn a loss making cattle ranch in Montana into a mass wagyu beef ranch. But he starts to run into problems. The expert named Wada he hires tells him. “Beef was always meant to be a small business. Quality or quantity. You can’t have both.” 

This seems like a universal axiom. Relevant to relationships, products and positioning. High end niche or mass scale. Exclusive or widely available. In my world, it’s the barbell: big massive venture banks on one side, small niche emerging venture funds on the other. Woe to those stuck in the middle. 

Another complication, he is dating his boss, and during a business discussion she tells him: “speaking as your boss. You messed up.” He responds: “So I had a miscommunication. But the numbers are solid.” She wisely says: “Not everything is about reading the numbers. You need to read people too.” 

She is sharp. It’s good advice & something many young business people get wrong, especially MBAs. The focus on numbers. When running a business, it certainly is about numbers, but it’s mainly about managing people: the soft stuff is the hard stuff. 

We see Sakai’s lack of understanding this point. When he is about to reject an invitation to meet the ranch manager over drinks, his consultant Wada stops him and says he has to. “Look, ranching is a people business. If they wanna have a drink, we should have a drink. Drinking’s not about the drinking. It’s about building rapport.”

And this rapport is needed. When his consultant gets into an accident, he is stuck by himself & has a bad start with the ranch hands when presenting his new vision of the ranch. It’s awkward because it shows how little he understands their business. And the culture clash. So painful to watch. He is just the man in a suit showing up every few years trying to tell the local experts aka ranchers and cowboys how to do their job. 

But Sakai slowly learns. It’s like a Japanese modern City Slickers (for those old folks who know the Billy Crystal movie). He also starts to learn about himself, the deep emotions he keeps bottled up inside. Japanese culture (like many Asian cultures) can be a stoic and some would say oppressive culture. You stifle your emotions to fit in. (Taiwan used to be a Japanese colony btw, so I get this). 

His guide and minder Javier schools Sakai on getting the ranch hands on board with his plans. “You could change their minds but you are doing it wrong. You gotta meet them halfway. Learn how we do things here. You gotta speak their language. And I’m not talking English. You know.  Get them to trust you and they will listen.” So basic, so simple yet so powerful. And it works in movies and in real life. 

Sakai ditches the suits and dresses like a cowboy. He starts to learn the ways of the cowboy and goes on a cattle drive with the ranch hands. It’s neat to see him learn, adapt and grow. 

Something all of us need to be doing on a regular basis. Sakai starts to love the life. He enjoys the camaraderie with the cowboys. He even finally notices and appreciates the beautiful wild Montana scenery all around him. 

He also learns that efficiency is not always better. “I thought I was making things better…….

If I have to destroy it to save it, then I won’t be saving it at all.” This was exemplified by the take over of the previously custom handmade chocolate company. One that he wrecked by changing to cheaper chocolate bean suppliers and putting in new processes to speed up production to increase margins. He discovers the chocolate tastes waxy and terrible. 

This reminds me of widespread financialization and private equity-ization of large swathes of the American economy, which has led to ruin for these industries and companies. 

Well at least Sakai-san wakes up before it’s too late. He has a re-awakening of his soul. He has a chance to fix things. And so do we all. “It’s not all about the numbers.” 

It ends with Sakai on a horse overlooking the gorgeous Montana mountain scenery of the ranch he has just acquired himself to save it. To me it also shows that he has saved himself. 

Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads Nov 2nd, 2025

"Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything"--George Bernard Shaw

1. "There’s a mismatch here between two visions of the emerging economy.

So which one is real? Are we entering an AI-driven boom time like an out-of-control Monopoly game? Or will we be too broke to eat breakfast?"

https://www.honest-broker.com/p/is-the-bubble-bursting

2. Learning from China. Very interesting discussion here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze8fbNgsZ0s

3. "Civilizations, Spengler argued, are not constantly marching toward utopia. They are instead living organisms that grow, age, and die.

Spengler believed that Western culture — which he called the "Faustian" civilization — was already in its twilight. The signs were there for anyone who dared to look: declining faith, exhausted art, shallow materialism, and bloated cities. A century later, his ideas feel eerily prescient."

https://www.theculturist.io/p/does-history-repeat-itself

4. "Canada is at a crossroads. We can continue with shallow venture capital markets that leave our innovators underfunded, our technologies foreign-owned and our national security dependent on imports. Or we can deepen our domestic venture capacity, treat capital as the strategic resource it is and align our economic and security interests.

Venture capital is defence capital. It is the risk capital that fuels the companies and technologies that will shape Canada’s economic resilience and security for decades to come. We have the policy tools to mobilize this capital now. The only question is whether we will act before it is too late."

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-venture-capital-fund-defence-technologies/

5. Idealists vs Realists in a new world of Economic Statecraft. This is a must watch for global macro strategists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GBEwilEYuw&t=903s

6. What a cutting teardown on Canada, the West and Baby Boomers. Hard not to criticize any of this though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E83dpuyvpiM

7. What an excellent interview with a global view of investing opportunities. Lots of great insights for the independent minded investor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d8NomiX7Q0

8. A truly excellent episode this week. Business & topics at the edge of the internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwlgQMBwWl0&t=623s

9. This is gold. Some interesting takes and framework for figuring out where to live for entrepreneurs. Location really matters for health, wealth & happiness. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPNAy44jic8

10. "The world, distracted by CCP grandstanding, rarely notices. But this is no accident. It is deliberate concealment: an approach that prizes readiness over spectacle, and quiet mastery over brash display. It can be wise, the ancient strategist Sun Tzu observed, to appear weak when you are strong. Japan’s restraint, often mistaken for weakness, is strategic misdirection—concealing the steel beneath the silence.

Where tyrannies roar to appear invincible, liberal democracies must endure by remembering—not only how to fight, but why they must.

Japan’s defense budget for fiscal 2024 stood at ¥7.95 trillion—nearly $54 billion—part of a sweeping five-year plan totaling ¥43 trillion under its 2022 National Security Strategy. That figure is set to reach 2 percent of GDP by 2027, marking its largest military investment since the Second World War. The message is quiet but unmistakable: Japan builds not to provoke, but to endure. It does so without fanfare, assuming unheralded leadership—guiding the region not through domination, but through cooperation and example. The CCP cannot protest Japan’s moves here too loudly; doing so would puncture its fiction that Beijing dominates Asia. The irony is plain: The more the CCP blusters, the more it obscures the steady rise of its rivals—led, increasingly, by Japan."

https://www.commentary.org/articles/mike-burke/japan-liberal-democracy-us-ally/

11. "Nevertheless, with China spending perhaps upwards of 2 per cent of GDP annually on industrial policy – a large multiple of any other OECD country – we should be under no illusion that the government will be prepared to shift towards other domestic priority needs, or succeed in all its ventures.

Indeed, the echo of Japan in and since the 1980s resonates in this regard: here was a mercantilist nation, committed to and successful in industrial policy with a considerable inventory of household or brand names, large exports and foreign reserves. In the end, though, its much envied and prominent manufacturing, trading and banking firms were unable to hold back the tide of macroeconomic troubles and imbalances that had been allowed to accumulate over many years. It’s quite possible that China is the encore, but this time also a commercial rival and a geopolitical adversary.

In the meantime, China’s mercantilism has changed from being a slow-burning fuse to an accelerant, as many nations have come under political pressure to act against Chinese exports."

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/is-chinas-mercantilism-cracking-up/

12. Lots of good solid thoughts on Global macro and where things are going in America and the present world order & finance. The 100 year Reset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uumy5fx2Kpc

13. My favorite weekly conversation on B2B Investing and news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML1FtOy9JtM

14. "The question before us is whether America can adapt its defense innovation system to meet the pace of modern conflict—or whether we will be left behind by adversaries who move faster and integrate commercial technologies more aggressively. The answer will depend on whether the Pentagon is willing to break with tradition and build a parallel system, one designed not for incremental reform, but for speed, agility, and integration with the private sector.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was never designed for innovation. It was built to acquire large, mature, well-defined systems—aircraft carriers, fighter jets, satellites. For that purpose, it has worked tolerably well. But when applied to software, AI, robotics, or other rapidly evolving technologies, it grinds innovation to a halt.

Rather than endlessly tinkering with the FAR, the Pentagon needs a new lane: a parallel acquisition system that leverages private capital and commercial innovation at scale. Steve Blank, one of Silicon Valley’s most respected thinkers, has proposed exactly this. He envisions a new defense ecosystem where commercial companies and private investment serve as force multipliers, complementing traditional prime contractors and federally funded labs. Under this model, prime contractors would integrate advanced technologies into complex systems, while the government reserves its in-house labs for areas where commercial markets simply don’t exist—hypersonics, nuclear, energetics."

https://uncommonleadership.substack.com/p/turning-defense-reform-into-battlefield

15. Friedman knows his stuff. He is a bit too optimistic in my view but he highlights the challenges & constraints of the RICS alliance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xa1iZGnLG0

16. This is a fun conversation on the future of business. AI, Personal Brands and IRL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAPyRx1BQrI

17. EB Tucker is one of my new favorite financial influencers. Some interesting financial thoughts but also life lessons as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIbU5sUrLr4

18. "It is unavoidable that capital allocation strategies (whether VCs or LPs) are backward-looking in some ways: all investors aspire to identify the repeat patterns of success, even if they aptly recognize that strategies must evolve with the times. As discussed, however, alpha requires being right and contrarian. From our perspective, smaller funds today are mimicking brand-name funds more than ever—the dramatic increase in spin-out funds over the last 18 months is just one indicator that allocator appetite is contributing to this effect.

But it’s important to note that large platform funds are fundamentally playing a different game. The pursuit of "2% of the biggest number" is consuming venture capital, as the biggest brands in VC become asset managers. Their incentives—from LP profile to target returns—are categorically different, looking less like traditional venture capital and more like multi-product private equity. Our view is that imitating the tactics of a player in a different sport is not a strategy for success—in the case of the early-stage VC managers, it’s more likely a path to obsolescence.

It goes without saying that it becomes nearly impossible to own an island when replicating a brand-name fund’s thesis (or even strategy). Finding an island that you can own is key, as over time, a successful island becomes a durable brand. If the future of access is brand, one thing is clear to us: differentiated, defensible strategies for building mindshare with great founders at scale will define the next generation of early-stage manager success."

https://insights.euclid.vc/p/we-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-is-us

19. Incredible wisdom and life advice for young people and old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrzGs_PCoLs

20. A good view on Greenland & its strategic importance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ6Cb9P59DQ

21. The Age of the Middle Powers, the 17 key players on the geopolitical stage right now. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrbmH-FOKM

22. Know thy enemy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkgw8mvIXRI

23. Karp is one of the funniest dudes in tech right now. He is also right a lot and can back up what he says. Pay attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRi22OS98NY

24. "The core philosophy around The Lethal Protocol is viewing your health as something you can spend.

Everyone has an appreciation for the value of $1MM US dollars. Why? Because they imagine all of the things they can do with money. Vacations, investments, paying off debts, there is an endless list of what they can do with that capital.

You should also view health as a currency. Warren Buffet who’s worth multi-billions would give that all back to be 10 years younger, what does that tell you? 

Health is the ultimate currency that 99% of you are taking for granted.

It’s time to start viewing health as the accumulation of energy capital. I’m not talking about moving to Bali to do yoga everyday to try to reverse aging & to become a monk to avoid any stress.

We are building a huge reserve of energy which can be deployed however we choose.

In business: Not having energy crashes at 2PM, not having to rely on stimulants to function. The ability to pull long work days, travel & conduct business at a high level requires energy capital & a lethal physique. 

Experiences: Building a large reserve of energy capital allows you to say yes to the last minute trek in Nepal, the martial arts camp in Bankok, the Kooyong tennis social event your business associate has invited you to. Having Lethal Physical Shape prevents you from ever having to say ‘no’ again."

https://www.lethalgentleman.com/p/how-to-train-like-bruce-wayne

25. "The FP-5 Flamingo remains a promising weapon system to propel Ukraine’s missile program forward. If the manufacturer indeed manages to achieve a reliable CEP of 14 meters or less, while also being able to produce the missile in more substantial numbers, it could prove deadly to Russia’s critical infrastructure, notably its oil refining capabilities. 

Still, it’s important to keep in mind that these are no longer $50,000 long-range drones being launched. The strike package used against the targeted site in Crimea likely cost up to $3 million, which makes it all the more important to ensure that future volleys count. Foreign financing for Ukrainian missile systems will also become increasingly important.

Fire Point, meanwhile, appears to be maintaining its marketing momentum and seems intent on positioning itself as Ukraine’s primary missile manufacturer. At the International Defence Industry Exhibition in Kielce, Poland, it unveiled two new ballistic missile designs, one with a range of 200 kilometers and another with a range of up to 855 kilometers, both advertised as retaining relatively high accuracy (14 and 20 meters CEP, respectively). 

As such, Fire Point is now directly challenging legacy land-attack cruise missile designs such as the Long Neptune and Korshun, as well as legacy ballistic missile systems like the Hrim-2, with its disruptive new programs. Whether Fire Point can deliver on these ambitions remains to be seen."

https://missilematters.substack.com/p/flamingo-cruise-missile-sees-first

26. Probably agree with maybe 70-80% of his assessments. His take on energy is top notch. Lots of implications for geopolitics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s56vwCkrNQM

27. "I think about my sons — 15 and 18 — and the world we’re handing them. A world where human connection has been commoditized, where intimacy is artificial, where young people retreat into digital caves instead of stepping into the messy, and rewarding, complexity of real relationships. Being human is not a solo sport.

The loneliness epidemic isn’t just killing people at 100 deaths per hour. It’s killing our capacity for joy, for surprise, for the random encounters that make life worth living. Every swipe right, every OnlyFans subscription, every AI boyfriend is another step away from the fundamental truth: We not only need each other to survive, but to really live.

We can keep feeding, and ignoring, the machine that profits from our isolation, or we can remember what it means to be gloriously, beautifully human — together. The most subversive act in the 21st century may not be starting a unicorn … but showing up, approaching strangers, asking someone out, grasping for their hand. It’s not OnlyFans that will save us. It’s only us."

https://www.profgalloway.com/lonely-fans/

28. "Every frontier sector eventually finds a home base, a place where talent clusters, suppliers line the streets, and iteration loops compress. Put enough people in one place, and work accelerates. Frontier industries need frontier towns. We learned it a long time ago in manufacturing, and it’s still true now.

So if Detroit was cars, and El Segundo was aerospace, and Silicon Valley is software — where should we put Roboticsville, USA? And who will be our Ford, our Hughes, our Fairchild?"

https://www.alsoblogposts.com/p/every-industry-has-a-capital

29. "Brilliant technologies either arrive too early - solutions in search of a problem or urgent market needs go unmet because the science isn’t mature enough.

This is not a simple communication gap. It’s a systemic challenge, rooted in the very nature of deep tech - long and uncertain R&D cycles, high capital intensity, and profound technological and market uncertainty.

Navigating this foggy frontier requires more than intuition. It demands a better map.

Over the past decades, different organizations have built frameworks to bring clarity to innovation. Each step in this evolution removes a blind spot, yet none has captured the synchrony between technologies that can ship and markets that can pull."

https://droninghead.substack.com/p/deeptech-investment-and-the-right

30. An older one but it's worth watching. Some global macro trends and why 2030 will be a critical year. As many smarter people than me say, it's probably 36 months from now. So 36 months to make it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vr5k8A8C9M

31. "Democracies can export adaptability. Authoritarians can only export rigidity.

Skeptics will ask whether bureaucracies can ever embody Boyd’s ethos, or whether concepts built for fighter pilots can really scale to societies. These are fair questions. But the contest is not about perfection. It is about orientation under pressure and adaptability at all levels.

The future will not be won by the side with the most data or the fastest AI. It will be won by the side whose people and institutions can best execute the timeless human cycle of adaptation. Winning the war within our own minds is the prerequisite for winning the wars of the future."

https://warontherocks.com/2025/09/the-dialectic-of-deception-john-boyd-and-the-cognitive-battlefield/

32. This is one of the best series on history, geography and strategy via WW1 & WW2. You will get very much smarter watching this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdMgOXfSBQw

33. "These five characteristics—desire to improve, unique view on risk, chip on the shoulder, resourcefulness, and optimism—are some of my favorites when it comes to entrepreneurial success. There’s no guaranteed formula and no single path, but these traits consistently show up in entrepreneurs who make it.

If you’re thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, or considering partnering with or investing in one, keep these characteristics in mind. Evaluate them against the entrepreneurs you’ve met in the past. You’ll likely see these traits reflected in those who have succeeded."

https://davidcummings.org/2025/09/06/what-to-look-for-in-an-entrepreneur/

34. How to become a super forecaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JamM7u3TixU

35. These are fun videos. Inspiration or just some good ideas from a young multimillionaire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_GPbXcxfLk

36. Alex Karp is the man!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGXVOM_TKSU

37. I always learn from Niall Fergusson. Lots of interesting takes on politics, history and geopolitics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DdkVrQv6NM

Burdens or Responsibilities: Noblesse Oblige

I remember seeing a motto written by some Japanese samurai: “Life is as heavy as a mountain. Death is as light as a feather.” I believe it was originally found in the Hagakure, a text on Samurai warrior ethics. And it seems to have been well quoted by many in the Japanese Imperial army from their beginning. It stuck with me for some reason. Life is heavy sometimes.

As I get older it starts to make more sense. Life is supposed to be heavy. You have more resources, you gain more responsibilities for others in your business and your family. Hopefully you are wiser too and make decisions. You get more challenges, and more complicated ones at that. God does not give you what you cannot handle. 

In my younger years, I used to consider this a burden. But I was stupid and weak. AND wrong. 

These are not burdens but responsibilities. You only become a man when you have true responsibilities. I’d take this even further. As Geoffrey de Charny’s Chivalric code states: “He who does more is of greater worth.” It shows you are growing as a human. 

And it’s not one way, with more resources, you have more responsibilities to your family, your business, your community. Your country. As it was famously said in Spiderman: “with great power comes great responsibility.” Noblesse Oblige. We need to bring this back. 

Grok defines it as: “a French phrase meaning "nobility obliges." It refers to the concept that those with privilege, wealth, or high social status have a moral duty to act honorably and generously toward others, particularly those less fortunate. The idea suggests that nobility or power comes with a responsibility to use it for the greater good, through acts of charity, leadership, or setting a virtuous example.”

You should want to have a busy life full of hard decisions and responsibilities. It means you are growing. It means you are making progress. It means you have an impact in this world. It means you are truly living. So accept these so-called burdens. Pray for them. Welcome them wholeheartedly. If you do this, your life won’t ever be the same again. You will finally be meeting your high potential and living the life you should actually be living.  

Forest Bathing: Getting back to Nature

I’m a self proclaimed city boy. I love the excitement, busyness and activity of the big city. This is where you go for opportunities, meet awesome people and to build wealth. But it eventually wears on you. 

This is why online guru Tai Lopez talks about getting into nature more frequently. That once you’ve made your first few million dollars you should buy a farm. A place you can go to on weekends to calm your nerves. I’ve noticed this with many wealthy families, they have a city pad for the weekdays but they are always out in their estate outside of the city. Usually close to nature whether mountains, a lake, a beach or forestland. 

There are even studies from Japan that talk about the restorative nature of being in nature. They literally call the treatment “Forest Bathing”. Grok says this: 

“Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, is a Japanese practice of immersing oneself in nature, typically a forest, to promote physical and mental well-being. It involves mindfully engaging with the natural environment—observing trees, breathing fresh air, listening to natural sounds, and feeling the surroundings—without distractions like phones or goals like exercise. Studies show it can reduce stress, lower cortisol levels, boost immunity, and improve mood.” 

I get this. And I experience this personally every time I go to Hawaii or more recently to Banff in Alberta, Canada. Hiking and experiencing nature when visiting beautiful Lake Louise or walking the various mountain trails. It was incredibly calming. 

So here is a great call to action by Vittorio: (Source:https://x.com/VittorioVitt0ri/status/1937198600238584000): 

LET NATURE RESTORE YOU. Step outside. Breathe deep. Feel the wind, the sun, the ground beneath your feet. You don’t have to say a word, just be still. The trees don’t rush. The rivers don’t worry. They just are. Let nature remind you how to live simply, fully, and free. 

So good. This is why I will be scheduling more regular nature retreats going forward. More trips to Canada and more hiking in Japan. Getting my nature-fix more frequently. Better to prepare for the immense amount of crazy coming in the world. 

The Accountant 2: Blood, Brotherly Loyalty & What Really Matters

This was the buddy action movie you thought you wouldn’t need. Boy, it's so entertaining. Starring Ben Affleck & Jon Bernthal. Elite Military-trained brothers, one Christian Wolff (Affleck) an autistic forensic accountant involved with bad criminal families around the world, the other kid brother (Bernthal), globetrotting private military contractor, Braxton get together after 8 years to track down mysterious assassins. Full of action yet some warm moments between the brothers that bring light moments to the movie. 

One scene is when the brothers go to a country bar for drinks and get in a fight over a girl after some local rowdies start pushing Christian around. Braxton comes running and beats them up. They drive away: “Goddamn, Is there anything better in the world than punching a Muthaf–cker in the face that has it coming to them?” It becomes even more of a moment when he realizes Christian got the girl's number. 

They are brothers right? Braxton travels straight from a mission with bodies all over the floor in Berlin to help his brother with less than 24 hours notice. That’s what brothers do right? Blood is thicker than water. 

There is one scene where the brothers are sitting on top of the Christian’s trailer home talking:

Christian: "Are you happy Braxton?" 

Braxton: “Are you happy? Of course, I'm happy, why wouldn't I be happy."

Christian: "You're transient. You have no significant other. You're completely alone. No friends. Nothing."

Braxton: "I'm alone, because I wanna be alone. I choose to be alone. I don't have anyone I have to answer to. Check in with. I travel the world. I stay at 5 Star hotels. I do what I want. When I want it. Have gun, will travel, Motherf---er. I mean yeah, Sh-t Yah, I'm happy. F--king happy. Bet your ass I'm happy."

Christian: "I'd like to have someone check in on me."

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9uFgQxZIQw

There is something to this. 

I once thought the life of Braxton was the one I wanted. I actually had it for a very long time. I still live parts of it. But nothing is better than coming home to family. The mission is and should always be family and relationships. 

The adventures, the luxury and travels are the side quests, not the main quest. I wish I had figured this out earlier. But better late than never. Many people never figure it out at all.

Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads Oct 26th, 2025

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” — Ayn Rand

1. "The USA is the land of competition and money. This is why it is the “land of opportunity”. The 1980s and 1990s are long gone. Once again, do not bother with any plans/prayers that involve moving back to the past."

https://bowtiedbull.io/p/health-trend-for-the-next-5-10-years

2. Lots of interesting takes on global macro. Investing globally will 

become more important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjfQanCxp0

3. "Most significantly, after watching Ukrainians destroy Russian tanks and strategic aircraft with armed drones, Hegseth said drones should now be treated like munitions — cheap, expendable and mass produceable — and not like a new, expensive aircraft, development of which can take years longer to get through Pentagon red tape. The DoD’s new drone policy also seeks to expedite drone use by giving lower-level commanders — basically colonels in the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Air Force, and captains in the U.S. Navy — authority to purchase and deploy so-called Group 1 and 2 drones, or smaller vehicles like tiny FPV (for “first person view”) quadcopters that can be used at the unit level and have been so effective on the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

All of that amounts to a good start, critics say. But that is also the problem: The Defense Department is just getting started, as even Mingus has admitted. By the accounts of many experts, the U.S. military is not close to developing, much less deploying, the dizzying array of sophisticated drones mastered by the Ukrainians and Russians — including “kamikaze” drones used to destroy enemy tanks and vehicles; ground drones that can lay mines and deliver ammunition and medicine; larger drones that can ferry smaller ones behind enemy lines, among others.

Why is the U.S. military — long considered the global gold standard in defense innovation — so far behind in this new and dangerous trend? According to a former senior adviser to Hegseth, Marine Corps veteran Dan Caldwell, the main reason harks back to an age-old problem: Generals and commanders are always fighting the last war."

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/08/27/pentagon-drone-technology-deficiency-00525058

4. "If China has allegedly overbuilt, then America has under built. Whether housing, infrastructure, or business capital expenditure: development of the built environment too often feels stagnant. One big piece of evidence: investment in equipment and structures as a share of American GNP is down 3 percentage points from where it was in the 1970s.

The “engineering state” label captures something real. It almost evokes Karl Wittfogel’s “hydraulic empire.” And the term speaks not only to China’s deep history as a nation obsessed with transforming the material world, as embodied in legends such as those surrounding Yu the Engineer, but also to the realities and fixations of the current rulers: a Party-state that dreams big engineering dreams, and which sometimes turns them into social engineering nightmares."

https://www.cogitations.co/p/litigation-nation-engineering-empire

5. The edge of the internet. Crazy stuff in Crypto and tech. It's nuts out there. And Soho House.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a0r6lwxZQ0&list=PLIBc05HkMJHFpVxxZTD-_MbTAYtwAOEg_

6. "All this is to say, that rear-area security is yet another wrinkle in planning for offensive operations. Even if commanders in future wars figure out how to break through prepared defensive lines, sustaining that momentum will be a separate problem in itself.

The next major ground conflict could well see new technologies that partly offset these difficulties. Passive measures might even ease the burden on limited high-end systems—especially if militaries take seriously the task of creating fortified corridors throughout their own operational depth. But no matter what, these sorts of considerations will occupy considerable planning efforts."

https://dispatch.bazaarofwar.com/p/pulsing-from-the-depths-the-problem

7. Learning from China. Yes, they are not our friends but they are incredibly innovative and fearsome competitors. We need to up our game in America and the rest of the West.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJz55AsUz4

8. "In general, I would encourage people to use history as a form of leverage because — while events don’t repeat exactly — human behavior does. In the end, business is ultimately about people, right? The quality of the “alpha” in a company or corporation, its competitive edge, comes largely from the people they work with."

https://bigthink.com/business/the-david-senra-interview-use-history-as-a-form-of-leverage/

9. "What began as limited exposure to Russia’s war in Ukraine has grown into a conduit for technology transfer, operational experience, and doctrinal adaptation. The evidence now ranges from loitering munitions and mobile ATGMs to air-defense systems, electronic warfare capabilities, and ballistic missile technologies. For the Korean Peninsula, this trajectory points to the emergence of a more capable, modernized North Korean force, one no longer confined to the outdated playbooks of the mid-20th century.

Globally, the risk extends further: Pyongyang has long been a supplier to sanctioned states and non-state actors, and the spread of these tools could amplify instability well beyond Northeast Asia. While it remains uncertain how far North Korea can scale and replicate these lessons across its armed forces, given its severe financial constraints, it is clear that this experience will not be buried."

https://frontelligence.substack.com/p/what-north-korea-learned-from-the

10. A very honest and direct conversation from a big endowment LP for VC funds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMuoR8hhupg

11. "People often ask me if there’s a formula for success. I always say luck plays a role, but dedication matters just as much. Especially in investing. It’s not like walking into a casino and taking blind guesses, there are simply no shortcuts. To be a good investor, you have to do your homework. You need to study the companies, dig into the details, and fully understand the businesses you’re investing in.

To outsiders like myself, sumo wrestling can sometimes look like two big guys just ramming into each other. But if you have a better understanding of the sport, you’d know the wrestlers actually spend hours preparing, observing and studying their opponents. It’s a highly technical sport that requires patiently waiting for the perfect moment to make their move.

It reminded me a lot about investing. In active management, you can’t simply follow the crowd or react to every news headline. It takes a lot of preparation and research in order to make good judgement about an investment so when the right opportunity comes, you act decisively. That’s what I believe gives active investors an edge."

https://www.markmobius.com/news-events/life-lessons-in-japan

12. "Venture is a contact sport." Lots of great nuggets in this conversation with one of my favorite people in VC. OG Tony Conrad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYcSvqM9pL8

13. A masterclass in investing. This was so good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWntNpgDCZk

14. "When competitors raise large rounds, entrepreneurs should take the time to do some soul-searching about their own level of ambition. Do you want to “go big or go home,” or are you comfortable being the number two or three player in the market? Many markets are not true winner-take-all environments. More often, they resemble oligopolies or are divided into valuable niches where multiple players can thrive.

Just because a competitor raises a massive round doesn’t mean you need to. But it is prudent to carefully weigh the pros and cons instead of reacting impulsively. There are many paths to building a successful business, and not all of them require raising huge sums of money."

https://davidcummings.org/2025/08/30/when-competitors-raise-large-rounds/

15. Random but good wilderness survival tips. 

https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/survival-skills-from-my-outdoor-dad/

16. Appeals to my prepper heart. But this is a fascinating conversation on the life of spy's life. Last 30 min particularly was alarming but insightful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu6bYPTp_kE&t=5519s

17. "Constraint is usually framed as limitation, but in the last year, I’ve also come to see it as liberation. It funnels attention to the things you said you’d do. Boredom is the pop-up blocker for ambition.

And, because the city doesn’t hand you a plot, narrative matters even more. It has to be made, not found. Almost everyone I’ve met is working on something long, hard, or both. Willpower alone doesn’t last. The survival tool is story: a why strong enough to return to when funding wobbles or energy dips. You see it everywhere. Founders use story to align teams they can’t yet pay. Investors sell LPs on decade-long bets. Employees take pay cuts for equity because they buy the mission. Narrative is the currency that buys undercapitalized projects time.

San Francisco’s secret isn’t that it’s exciting. It’s that it’s boring enough for you to make something exciting."

https://forrealai.substack.com/p/sf-is-boring-thats-the-point

18. "For Taiwan, this is part of a broader effort, which has been referred to in the past as “Hellscape,” that envisions the Taiwanese military flooding the air and waters around the island with relatively uncrewed platforms in the event of a military invasion from the Chinese mainland. 

Especially if it is a relatively low-cost design, Chien Feng IV, as well as other longer-range kamikaze drones, could also offer a way to extend the Hellscape plan to attacks on targets on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. As noted, Airwolf’s stated maximum range is 400 nautical miles. The Taiwan Strait, at its widest, is some 97 nautical miles across. Massed Chien Feng IV attacks would also force Chinese forces on the mainland to expend commensurate amounts of interceptors. Higher-flying jet-powered drones would, in turn, require higher-end interceptors to be employed, as well."

https://www.twz.com/air/taiwan-teams-up-with-kratos-on-jet-powered-kamikaze-drone

19. "The current vibe-coding era won’t last forever. Eventually, brilliant practitioners in each domain will distill optimal workflows from this experimentation, commercialize them, & establish new industry standards.

The companies that recognize these emerging patterns earliest & build robust, scalable versions before the market standardizes will define the next generation of software development tools.

The glee of solving problems with $20-per-month AI tools represents more than convenience; it signals a fundamental restructuring of how software gets built & who gets to build it."

https://tomtunguz.com/vibe-coding-ubiquitous/

20. "There exist a number of ways in which one can maximize their ideological influence. In the remainder of this piece I’ll specifically focus on the intellectualpathway. Other pathways include maximizing one’s disposable capital (getting rich), maximizing one’s political stature, marrying a person who has already maximized or will subsequently maximize one or more of these, and so on.

Most people whom I consider exemplar power-maxxers have either combined the intellectual and political pathways (e.g. Henry Kissinger), or the intellectual and disposable capital pathways (e.g. Peter Thiel, George Soros). The reason I chose to focus on the intellectual pathway here is that it’s the pathway that needs to be maximized in public, through domains such as this one. It’s obvious why — you can’t intellectually influence people unless they’re hearing what you have to say. Capital doesn’t work like that."

https://katechon99.substack.com/p/what-are-we-trying-to-do

21. "The U.S. military should formally embrace and invest in advanced digital gaming as a core training tool, leveraging its ability to build critical cognitive, coordination, and technical skills for modern warfare. Doing so will maintain America’s training edge against rivals who are already integrating gaming into their military preparation."

https://warontherocks.com/2025/08/military-gaming-to-stay-ahead-but-not-the-kind-you-think/

22. "From both a military and political perspective, it would make little sense for Ukraine to accept Russia’s territorial demands and voluntarily surrender the northern Donetsk region as part of a peace deal. As long as Kyiv continues to control the Donbas fortress belt, there is a good chance that the Ukrainian military can turn the entire region into a graveyard for Putin’s invading army. Meanwhile, a withdrawal would leave large parts of Ukraine dangerously undefended and dramatically undermine faith in the country’s leadership.

Even if Putin concentrates his best military units in a bid to complete the conquest of the Donbas region, he would almost certainly be forced to pay a very high price for any significant advances. Indeed, the Russian army may become bogged down for years in bitter fighting that would dwarf earlier battles of attrition and could conceivably change the entire course of the war. This is exactly why Putin is pushing for Ukraine to surrender the region without a fight, and helps explain why Ukraine is reluctant to do so."

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putin-wants-to-capture-ukraines-crucial-fortress-belt-without-a-fight/

23. "It feels like we are close to solving these world model problems and making the technology viable. Doing so will enable the next wave of applications in AI, and so, seems to me like that will be the beginning of the next wave of AI. Now that even Sam Altman is starting to say we may not be on the cusp of AGI, it feels like the current approaches are stagnating, and world models could be the breakthrough for AI 2.0."

https://investinginai.substack.com/p/what-will-be-ai-20

24. "At bottom, Americans and Chinese are alike. The likeness stands out when you compare Chinese to Japanese or Koreans, and Americans to Canadians or Europeans. Both peoples are restless, eager for shortcuts, and drive much of the world’s change. Both mix crass materialism with admiration for entrepreneurs. Both tolerate tastelessness. Both love competition. Both are pragmatic—“get it done”—and often rush work. Both cultures teem with hustlers selling quick paths to health and wealth. Both admire the technological sublime—grand projects that push limits. Elites and masses in both nations share a creed of National Greatness: John Winthrop and Ronald Reagan’s “City upon a Hill” in America, and the “Central Country” inscriptions on Zhou‑dynasty bronze ritual wine bowls in China.

Both countries are tangles of imperfection, often their own worst enemies. Old labels—“socialist,” “democratic,” “neoliberal”—do not fit.

China delivers rapid, visible progress, but at a cost to rights and with risks of overreach. It goes off track with social engineering, becoming a Leninist technocracy with grand‑opera traits—practical until it turns preposterous.

America goes off track by spending too much time specifying and vindicating rights, becoming a super‑litigious veto‑ocracy. Safeguards restrain excess, but also buy stagnation and lost ambition.

China would benefit from about 40% more legal respect for rights and process. Yet China’s elite sees little appeal in any system that can elevate a Donald Trump instead of a Xi Jinping.

The U.S. once built ambitiously—the late 19th century and the post‑WWII decades. It should reclaim roughly 20% more building and engineering spirit. American failure shows even at the frontier of the global economy. Silicon Valley prizes invention, then builds oligopoly moats from network effects and legal maneuvering. China, by contrast, prizes scale and production, embracing the Andy Grove ethic. 

If either Silicon Valley or the Pearl River Delta could balance engineering scale and ambition with strong legal rights and safeguards, it would be unstoppable."

https://braddelong.substack.com/p/the-sledgehammer-and-the-gavel-dan

25. "Patrick McGee's masterful Apple in China provides essential insight into how this transformation unfolded. Through meticulous reporting from factory floors and boardrooms, Patrick reveals how Apple mastered what seemed impossible: outsourcing production whilst maintaining absolute control over its value chain. The book shows how Apple kept design, knowledge, and brand—the parts that appreciate—whilst leaving factories and workers to others.

More importantly, Patrick's work illuminates why that model is now unraveling. Not because Apple failed, but because the conditions that made it possible—China's unique manufacturing ecosystem, unfettered global trade, and Apple's relentless design innovation—are disappearing simultaneously. As software becomes commoditised and hardware determines competitive advantage, understanding how China built its manufacturing dominance becomes crucial for grasping what comes next."

https://www.driftsignal.com/p/apples-dependence-on-china-is-hard

26. "In other words, it may simply be every rich country’s destiny — whether it’s ruled by lawyers or by engineers — to transition from a “just build it” engineering-type culture to a fussy rules-and-procedures culture dominated by lawyers and economists. 

This shift can be managed in better and worse ways, and it’s likely that America’s litigious behavior is a highly suboptimal approach. Dan Wang is very right about the woes of our “just sue them” culture. Yes, Chinese companies aren’t profitable, but at the end of the day, China will have houses and plentiful power plants and trains, and America…will simply not."

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/book-review-breakneck

27. "Sadly, however, Ukraine was deprived of the ability to strike Russia at range consistently and effectively—that is possibly until now. War tends to find a way, and while Ukraine’s partners tried to limit Ukraine’s ability to strike Russia strategically at range, the Ukrainians were determined to build up that capacity for themselves. In just the last few weeks, even before the arrival of the much discussed Flamingo FP-5 cruise missiles, the Ukrainians have stepped up their strategic air campaign in such a way that it seems that they have understood the lessons of World War II—and are trying to bring those lessons home to Russia today."

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/a-strategic-air-campaign-for-ukraine-0d1

28. Doug Casey. Always fun to listen to. One of the most global and interesting individuals in the world. An investor & Renaissance Man. Bit too libertarian to me but it's a good interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OggV3UvYug

29. "There are many things that are or were unique to America that did make us great. But it’s not and if:then statement. There are equally as many things unique to America now that are making us weaker, more insecure, and destined for manipulation and domination by nations that will not give one-eighth of a sh*t about what happens to any of us.

In the same way Trump can spin all the stories together into one grand narrative of grievance, America is allowing its strengths — the things that protect all of us Americans in reality, not fairy tales — to be subsumed by its ravenous weaknesses. The surest litmus test I have of our clarity, or lack thereof, of this necessary separation and survival, remains how we imagine the task to save Ukraine, and the American toolbox we bring to bear in this task.

I don’t know why we want to keep hearing this story of our weakness being greater than our strength. It’s as much a myth as the world Putin describes as his own. There is no world where a vibrant, free America prospers after the subsumption of a vibrant, free Ukraine. None.

Anyone telling you this century is going to be easy if only we can take a thing from someone else is lying to you. Stop ooohing and aahing the flames, and put them out. Stop clapping for the show, and pick up a tool, and get to work."

https://www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked-alaska

30. WW3 is here, it's just not like what everyone thinks it looks like. BRICs vs the American-led order. The USD vs Gold/BTC & Natural Resources. A sober assessment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btGKj4Fet4k

31. This is a great thesis for understanding globalization and deglobalization. Focussing on Themes not narrative. Solid global macro discussion here on the end of American supremacy through the lens of military, economic & myth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESO9AlnV6-g&t=2s

32. I'm on Team America but it's important to understand the other side. Professor Jiang is obviously pro-China and BRICS but this is worth listening to.

#Realpolitik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFuwNjHaYq8

33. An interesting view on China and America from someone who has lived in both places. A best selling economist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0tMBMLl32o

34. "Back in the 2000s, manga cafes were known for all night survivors who missed the last train. They offered cheap internet, comics, and a spot to crash, but the image was noisy and smoky. Today, Kaikatsu CLUB has rebranded the experience with lockable private rooms, free showers, and 24 hour service.

With hotel prices surging past 10,000 yen ($67), manga cafes look like a bargain. For around 3,000 yen ($20), visitors get a clean room, air conditioning, and access to amenities. Capsule hotels once owned this niche, but many guests now find manga cafes more comfortable and better equipped.

Kaikatsu CLUB is owned by AOKI Holdings, a company better known for business suits. As of mid 2025 it operates nearly 500 locations across Japan, giving it a near monopoly. The days when manga cafes were small independent shops are over. Today one company dominates the market."

https://www.tokyoscope.blog/p/manga-cafes-in-japan-are-becoming

35. Important discussion on consensus versus non-consensus investing for VCs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJUhk8qeRY

Starship Troopers

I find myself going back to some of the strangest movies. Starship Troopers was an sci-fi action movie based on Robert Heinlein’s Sc-ifi classic book. It came out back in 1997 and I remember not liking it that time as I found it campy and silly. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate how iconic that movie was. So many of the famous actors we know of started in that movie like Jake Busey, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside. 

And while the movie was satire in some ways, it had so many good lines taken beyond what the director meant. Taking on cultural significance, unintended I am sure. Just like how Gordon Gecko in the Wall Street movie was supposed to be a villain but audiences ended up venerating his character. Wikipedia says: “Since its release, Starship Troopers has been critically re-evaluated and is now considered a cult classic and a prescient satire of fascism and authoritarian governance that has grown in relevance.” 

For those unfamiliar it revolves around several young men and women who join the Federal services as an alien bug race attacks earth & destroys Buenos Aires. Their adventures and war in space begins and it’s gruesome with many of them not surviving. But it is full of really good action and drama. 

There is the scene when they meet the processing officer and he says: “Mobile infantry made me the man I am today”, as the young enlistee sees he is missing all his limbs. It’s a stark warning and reminder of the price of freedom and the costs of violence. You inflict it but it can get inflicted back on you. 

The concept itself is interesting. They live in a society that is free but where only citizens have the right to vote. And you can’t be a citizen without federal military service. Otherwise you are just a civilian.

“Naked force has resolved more issues throughout history than any other factor. The contrary opinion that violence has never solved anything, is wishful thinking at its worst. People who forget that always pay.”

There is another moment when the main characters are re-introduced to their new unit commander, Lt. Rasczak who also turns out to be their old teacher from school. He says: “This is for you new people. I only have one rule. Everyone fights. No one quits. You don’t do your job, I’ll shoot you. Do you get me?” He is tough but respected and why the unit has such high esprit de corps. What a scene. But it’s also a wake up call for us. We are in big trouble in the West and if we aren’t willing to fight we will lose. As commander Raznak memorably says before battle: “Come on, you apes! You wanna live forever??

I also learned basic leadership from him. After victory in battle, he says to his unit: “I expect the best. And I give the best. Here’s the beer. Here’s the entertainment. Have fun. That’s an order.”

And there is even good life advice, he gives his student Rico who keeps overlooking the beautiful fellow trooper Isabelle who is infatuated with him. “You once asked me for advice. You want some now? Never pass up a good thing.” He wisely takes this advice. 

It’s a fun, silly at times, entertaining and yet serious movie at heart. I think people drew the wrong lessons from this movie. There is much to appreciate and in the long years of relative peace since 1997, we have forgotten what true evil is and that mindless violence can come at any time from threats within our society and from outside our western civilization. Vigilance is necessary now more than ever.  

Anger Management 201: My Constant Internal Battle

I had landed in Vancouver at the end of May 2025, and my dad picked me up. As my father was turning the corner on the road, some car behind us honked at us. I rolled down the window and gave the driver a middle finger. As we drove on, the guy sped up beside and glared at me, about to say something. I rolled down the window and yelled at him in rage: “WTF you going to do A–hole?, I will F–k you up” like a madman. I scared him and honestly scared my dad as well. Not my best moment. I’m lucky I did not have a weapon with me, I see nothing but red in these moments.  

Thankfully this was a wake up call, I was much more conscious throughout the rest of the trip. Something about Vancouver just triggers me. Something about being disrespected triggers me. 

I’ve long had anger management issues throughout my entire life. And it has cost me dearly. 

As Horace wrote: “Anger is a short madness.”

If I am honest, I am angry most of the time. Angry at the world, angry at myself for not doing better, at the idiot corrupt elites and politicians, old colleagues & business partners who treated me badly, rude people, idiots on X/aka Twitter. Most of the time, I bottle it up or transmute it into more positive things like an insane work ethic. It’s dirty and negative fuel and it works so damn well. But as I’ve gotten older, this only gets you so far. 

I’ve learned that anger is a loss of control. And as a man, if you lose control, you lose. Period. It’s about remaining calm, cold and collected in these moments. That is how you win. 

So I exercise & train hard, I meditate, I sleep well, I breathe and count to 10. I try to de-personalize. Then I see the situation more clearly and then act accordingly. 

Ford Frick once said: “Keep your temper. A decision made in anger is never sound.” 

Or better said for Godfather fans, be Michael Corleone who was always calm & controlled, not Sonny Corleone whose raging temper got him killed. Note to self here.

Ramen Girl: Finding Your Path by Finding Your Heart

I had forgotten about this movie. I watched it on a plane in 2008 during my Yahoo! International years. I must have watched this movie a dozen times.. Starring the young and beautiful Britney Murphy, may she rest in peace. It takes place in Japan, where a young American girl named Abby is dumped by her boyfriend, sad, lost and alone in Tokyo, she stumbles upon a small ramen shop. And her life changes as she experiences ramen for the first time. The full description and synopsis can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ramen_Girl. 

She starts off as a server helping out but expresses her desire to become a ramen chef . She undergoes a brutal apprenticeship under the ramen master, but she slowly learns despite the language barrier. Along the way she meets a handsome Japanese man, who, like Abby, feels trapped by family and social expectations, sacrificing their dreams by following the career of a salaryman when he just wants to explore the world and write music. 

Abby seems to be able to get the technical aspects correct but for some reason the ramen still feels off. So the chef brings her to meet his mother. This is where the insight happens and why I think Japanese food is so good. The mother says the reason the ramen does not taste perfect is that she cooks from her head which is full of noise. “You must learn to cook from a quieter place deep inside of you.” 

Because there is no soul. No feeling. You put and infuse your feelings into the food you cook:  “Each bowl of ramen you prepare is a gift to your customer. The food that you serve your customer becomes a part of them. It contains your spirit. That’s why your ramen must be an expression of pure love. A gift from your heart.” When Abby says she has never felt love, only sadness & pain, the mother says, “put your tears in your ramen”. And it works. 

I won’t go into the rest of this movie which was lovely and touching. But It reminded me of why I love Japan. It reminded me of what is missing in most of the world. It reminded me of what excellence is. It reminded me of craftsmanship. 

It’s about putting all your heart and soul into something. Whether it’s your business, your food, your family. People can tell. People can tell whether you have put effort into something. This is why I hate eating buffets, it’s just one big industrial line of food. How can it be good? You can tell when a chef puts their heart and spirit into the food. 

We can all do with a bit more heart and soul in everything we do. This movie was a great reminder. 

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