Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads Jan 25th, 2026
“Winter is not a season, it’s a celebration.”--Anamika Mishra
Multipolar world and new world order? Author and economist Branko Milanovic makes the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qAvOxGESvs
2. "PE firms gain operational leverage while AI startups access more than 14,000 motivated buyers. This new go-to-market motion redefines how AI software reaches the market, bypassing the traditional enterprise sales grind in favor of networks that can deploy at scale."
https://tomtunguz.com/the-great-reversal-private-equity-corporate-ownership/
3. "The decentralized media landscape instead advantages hustlers because, like Sergey experienced in Russia in the 1990s, the system is breaking down. Volatility and crisis are uncomfortable for most, but for hustlers, it’s the gift of opportunity. In the early pandemic, I was told a smart piece of advice: It’s during crisis that the league tables change.
Hustlers are built differently. They have the dog in them. They get to start. They have a strong bias to action. They’re enthusiastic sellers. They show up every day. They’re willing to do whatever it takes. The fashion media CEO who faked having an EA to make the status-conscious fashion people think he was more important than he was. The salesman who went top to bottom in a downtown skyscraper to sell copiers. Starting a business is hard. I used to misidentify these stories as the fripperies of the successful; I’ve come to realize they’re explanations.
Hustling is back now, only it's been rebranded as “high agency.”High agency is a way to turn a blind eye to the negative excesses that are part and parcel of hustling to focus solely on the positive. Being high agency means you are willing to take risks and to stand on your own. High agency people see problems as solvable."
https://www.therebooting.com/p/the-hustlers
4. "Just like countries, publishers have different levels of sovereignty. Countries like the United States and China have a high degree of sovereignty. A small country like, say, Belgium voluntarily gives up large chunks of sovereignty for practical reasons.
For a lot of reasons that are of varying degrees of reasonableness and rationality, publishers have since the dawn of the internet given up sovereignty. And they cannot establish resilient businesses without claiming back sovereignty. This is easier said than done. The digital media ecosystem is architected to erode publisher sovereignty."
https://www.therebooting.com/p/sovereignty
5. "Clear speak: Can Takaichi deliver a positive wealth effect for the general public from rising asset prices in Japan? If she can — and does — that would be an economic success story truly worthy of being called “Abenomics 2.0.”
One thing is clear: a prime minister who transforms Japan’s rising asset prices into a true positive wealth effect for the Japanese people would indeed be doing “God’s work” — much more so than a primarily self-serving investment banker."
https://japanoptimist.substack.com/p/how-takaichis-abenomics-20-can-work
6. Michael Every has been on top of all geopolitics trends for a while. So he is worth listening to. Basically Europe is a toothless tiger and not sovereign because they don't have any hard power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vIr5y_LFtI&t=18s
7. "We’re living in an era where maritime infrastructure is the invisible backbone of modern economies. It’s easy to forget, but subsea communications cables now carry 99% of all internet traffic. 80% of global trade still moves by sea. Container freight volume has exploded—up 16x in the last 40 years. Offshore wind is set to be a trillion-dollar buildout over the next two decades. Oil & gas remains the largest ocean-based industry, with deepwater O&G growing 10x since 1990.
Market Signal:
But here’s the narrative break: the threat vectors are multiplying, fast. Multiple maritime frontlines have become active theaters of geopolitical conflict (think: South China Sea, Middle East, Europe). Latent risks like piracy and illegal fishing persist, but the toolkit for disruption has never been more diverse—cable-cutting drones, comms interference, narco-subs, state-backed fishing fleets operating in legal grey zones."
https://snailmail.slow.co/p/oceans-the-most-fragile-layer-of-the-global-economy
8. Painful truth. Global macro implications of geopolitics from Luke Gromen. Bullish on BTC & Gold because the world is going risk off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA2cvfdwy0I
9. Fascinating conversation on deal making. Live entertainment and community is the Anti-AI bet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDuqUlZZ8Vk
10. "In each and every startup, there are unsung heroes. The people who don’t often get the credit, but without whom the company simply wouldn’t operate. And if they’re customer facing, more than likely they spend a meaningful amount of their working hours as a receptacle for other people’s frustrations — whether or not there’s anything they can do about it.
So if you’re traveling this week, take an extra minute to stop and say thanks to the people helping make your travel a reality. Look them in the eyes, shake their hands, say their names and express your gratitude."
https://chrisneumann.com/archives/stop-and-say-thanks
11. Grand macro strategy (military, economic & political) from the USA which has huge implications for the rest of the world (and the investor).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raHznWlAmng
12. The next era of air superiority. This was very educational.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2yCCjPojKc
13. China looks like America in early 2010s. China leading in power generation, open source AI & key manufacturing and supply chains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuJxZ67PwNk
14. "Unfortunately, reality begs to differ. People in leadership positions want to be available to others, so they keep their calendars open. And people in IC roles often don’t get to control their calendars as much as they’d like—those pesky managers keep scheduling meeting after meeting.
But, not all hope is lost. The González study found that for knowledge workers, almost half the interruptions are self-inflicted. While it is true very few people have control over their calendars these days, we are the masters of our destiny and captains of our ship more than we think when it comes to interruptions. Another similar study also found that people who blocked interruptions found their job satisfaction to be much higher.
Checking your inbox only a few times a day—or even just twice—pays huge dividends. In my experience, almost nothing is actually urgent, and it’s better to train people that getting your attention requires effort than to train them that you’re always available. Whatever you do, any effort you put in here will be worth it."
https://justoffbyone.com/posts/math-of-why-you-cant-focus-at-work/
15. Saudi Arabia is crushing it on the hospitality side of things. Crazy luxe hotel resorts here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ij7GZ45nBs
16. Energy is life. Latest developments and Russia & USA are well positioned here in the energy world. (unless Ukraine wrecks most of their gas and oil infrastructure...fingers crossed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dsWimqipxc
17. What an incredible conversation, wise and blunt. Lots of really incredible insights on the nature of running a VC fund and life in general too. Surprisingly great interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIZ2xpIDyYI
18. This show helps you understand the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley and tech. It's one of my favorite regular weekly discussions to catch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BbWHm3KODw
19. A cold hard look at the world from the eyes of the brilliant Balaji Srinavasan. Reality is brutal (especially for America & the Political West these days).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-W18Ptd03o
20. "For entrepreneurs, this is a powerful reminder: in industries where relationships or incentives are traditionally one-sided, there is often an opportunity to flip the dynamic by putting the customer first. Lead with value before trying to extract value."
https://davidcummings.org/2025/11/29/value-first-reimagining-of-a-market/
21. Very good overview of Ukraine's long range strike capabilities. They have cards to play still.
https://missilematters.substack.com/p/from-flamingo-to-neptune-ukraines
22. "This benchmarking issue is a real problem.
What I want to point out today is that it's going to get even more difficult. When an AI system starts to perform at human level on somewhat ambiguous tasks, we will struggle the same way we struggle to evaluate humans. Many books have been written about how to hire, how to identify top talent, and yet inside companies we often can’t agree on performance for some hires."
https://investinginai.substack.com/p/is-there-any-hope-for-ai-benchmarks
23. "Before we had shiny magazine covers or modern advertising agencies shaping our sense of style, J.C. Leyendecker’s art stirred the imagination of Americans. His illustrations did more than fill pages, they spoke to readers and defined the era. With rich colors and a great command of details, Leyendecker created images that became cultural icons of his day and age. His works focused on elegance and American patriotism, influencing how people dressed and saw themselves. Long before Norman Rockwell became a household name, Leyendecker created the canvas upon which American life was illustrated. Let’s learn more about the man and his art."
https://thewaysofagentleman.substack.com/p/the-forgotten-artist-who-influenced
24. "The dominance of the US dollar has long relied on structural demand tied to scarce and essential commodities. In the 1970s, oil fulfilled that role. The petrodollar system—where Saudi and other OPEC oil exports were priced in dollars and recycled into US Treasuries—created a self-reinforcing global need for the US currency, underpinning American fiscal and monetary power.
Today, a new commodity is taking its place: compute. High-end GPUs and AI infrastructure are scarce, capital-intensive, and critical to the next generation of technological growth. Just as oil once drove global dollar flows, commoditised compute, priced in USD stablecoins, is emerging as a key driver of structural demand for dollars. Tokenised assets, programmable settlement rails, and stablecoins allow digital activity—from AI training to industrial supply chains—to generate continuous dollar circulation, linking AI growth directly to US fiscal capacity.
In this framework, Nvidia plays the role of Aramco, OpenAI is Exxon or Chevron, GPUs are barrels of oil, and what we would call cryptodollars are the modern equivalent of petrodollars. The combination of scarce compute, tokenised settlement, and Treasury-backed stablecoins forms a cycle in which the AI economy not only depends on dollars but actively funds American government spending, supporting the dollar’s reserve currency status and potentially preventing fiscal Armageddon in the US."
https://www.currencyofpower.co/p/barrels-to-bytes
25. Learned a lot about biotech and Pharma in this conversation. Long been fascinated by the biotech space. This lady is super smart. Ukrainian too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSkyiCwrBtw
26. Zeihan's take on deindustrialization in America. This will be a massive area of focus and opportunity over the next 10-15 years. Blue collar, energy & defense will be key areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtBoJotE6pY
27. The biggest investment America needs to make in the next decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpEEDnV1gXw
28. Probably one of the best interviews with Elon Musk, I've seen in a long while. Lots of interesting takes on technology and the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rni7Fz7208c&t=2034s
29. "The asymmetry is a big part of what’s happening here. Put yourself in the shoes of a venture capitalist looking for massive home run outcomes. Is it easier to believe that a company that appears to be growing will continue to grow or that a company that isn’t growing as quickly will begin to grow quickly when it gets access to your capital? Betting on something that’s already working and continues to work could return your whole fund. If growth slows or it never was quite what you thought it was when you invested, the amount of money you’ll lose is likely something you can absorb. It is far more costly not to be in the winners than it is to make a few false positive investments if you’re managing a large pool of capital.
By far, the greatest challenge in fundraising today is rising above the noise floor, given the level of activity in the ecosystem and the number of companies competing for investors’ attention."
https://chudson.substack.com/p/reflections-from-our-2025-agm-1t
30. "If you’re a founder the best way you can pitch a VC is by getting an introduction from someone they deeply trust as an expert, and a signal, in that zone of genius. This isn’t about an insider’s game of access, nepotism, or where you went to school; it’s about putting yourself at the center of that spikiness where every signal is telling others to listen, to lean in, and maybe to write that 1,000 check. It doesn’t matter where you live on the map, or what background you come from. We can all build our own luck.
Build yourself around your areas of passion, and surround yourself with the highest value, most respected signals in that space, and good things will start to happen."
https://ideas.scotthartley.com/p/network-effects-in-venture-capital
31. "The next phase of Southeast Asia’s startup story will not be written by blitzscalers. It will be led by builders who understand constraint—who treat capital efficiency, integrity and depth as strategic edges rather than constraints to tolerate.
In Out-Innovate, I argued that ecosystems outside Silicon Valley succeed not by copying the Valley. It will be by executing over the long-term for more enduring opportunities.
Possibility in Southeast Asia will no longer come from flashes of hype. It will emerge from the bedrock beneath."
https://99tech.alexlazarow.com/p/sea-dispatches-from-blitzscalers
32. "Russian oligarchs love Dubai. The city has sun, malls, and a runway five minutes from a five-star hotel. After 2022 they re-registered their planes in places like Aruba and kept flying south. Dubai asked only for a “home-base” letter — easy, painless, routine.
In June the airport added a quiet step: prove the money behind the jet is clean. Tick the box, upload a pdf, move on. Fail the check and you get one landing, then a 90-day lockout. No press note, no big speech — just an extra upload field.
The Trap That Didn’t Look Like a Trap
Crews still file the same papers. If the back-office robot spots a Russian owner, it paints the permit amber. Pilots think it’s a typo, try again, burn $14,000 a day waiting. After a week most give up and fly away — usually…
Dubai keeps the planes outside its border, but offers a lifeline: hand the jet to a local firm, let it charter Indian weddings, split the cash. The Russian keeps ownership; the city keeps the income; sanctions stay intact."
https://medium.com/@anandviv11/36b6ea294b44
33. Some Alt-geopolitics, don't really agree with all his takes but good to hear different sides to get closer to reality. Learned a new concept: Pax Judaica in the Levant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutm8lOJRqw
34. The always interesting Delian of Varda and Founders Fund. A fun interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hIwRLhUMK4
35. "The sudden arrival of AI in the workplace couldn’t have happened at a worse time. AI’s downward pressure on incomes and opportunities will occur far faster than new avenues of advancement emerge.
Americans, already economically and socially damaged by the radical expansion of corporate indentured servitude, won’t take it well (especially if the few lifeboats of economic opportunity that emerge are filled by corporate indentured servants when they show up).
If young Americans don’t believe in the American Dream anymore, a loss of faith in technological progress will soon follow.
Additionally, a combination of AI and robotics will soon make rapid progress toward eliminating the need for low-skilled domestic labor (an area where migrant indentured servants excel). This would leave millions living in migrant sanctuaries without employment, straining social safety nets.
Generations of young Americans growing up without a belief in the American Dream (a proxy for their faith in the American economic system) will become increasingly disloyal, critical, and politically volatile. These workers, deprived of the incomes and opportunities needed for marriage, home ownership, and family formation, are unlikely to see the US government or its corporate partners as legitimate. This opens the door to a radical politics, on the left or the right, that we’ve never seen before."
https://johnrobb.substack.com/p/the-american-nightmare
36. "I read the 10-K filings touting AI transformation. Then I talk to the CIOs and employees. The gap is staggering.
Press releases announce “company-wide AI adoption.” Hallway conversations tell a different story. Employees haven’t opened the tools in weeks. The data lies. Comms lies. Dashboards show logins, not usage. Activation, not integration.
This is transformation theater. The appearance of change without the pain of change."
https://writing.nikunjk.com/p/bet-the-farm
37. "I’ve been writing about Italy’s comeback for months now. The wealth migration data, the financial market performance, the stabilization of public finances – the indicators are real.
But what I find myself most excited about is simpler than macroeconomic trends.
You can replicate Singapore’s efficiency anywhere with good infrastructure and favorable regulation. You cannot replicate Florence. You cannot replicate Rome. You cannot manufacture the accumulated weight of two thousand years of continuous human achievement.
In an age where geography is increasingly optional for earning income, civilizational depth becomes the arbitrage.
Italy is art.
For certain people at certain stages – the remote professional seeking lifestyle over pure optimization, the retiree wanting Mediterranean quality of life, the successful entrepreneur looking to enjoy rather than continue accumulating, the investor seeking optionality with Bitcoin alignment – Italy might be exactly right.
Build in USD. Save in Bitcoin. Spend in euros.
Live longer."
https://palombo.substack.com/p/who-should-actually-move-to-italy