048 Thinking about inversion
048 Thinking about inversion by MIKE
Nov 17, 2016•9 min
Mike's Notes
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Episodes
047 What happened to Nasty Gal?
047 What happened to Nasty Gal? by MIKE
Nov 14, 2016•10 min
046 Chesterton fences on submarines
046 Chesterton fences on submarines by MIKE
Nov 10, 2016•9 min
045 The Harry's Model
045 The Harry's Model by MIKE
Nov 09, 2016•10 min
044 Bezos and Amazon
A few (more) things I learned from http://amzn.to/2evaRPp This episode does not cover disruption theory. Intro: BenSound.com Outro: Topher Mohr
Nov 01, 2016•30 min
043 Amazon & Disruption
Inspiriation: http://amzn.to/2evaRPp Looking at 4 things in the framework of Amazon. 1/ Christensen's Disruption Theory. 2/ How many Harvard MBAs does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 3/ The roll of luck and skill in Amazon's early days. 4/ Maniacs. Intro: Bensound.com Outro Topher Mohr
Oct 22, 2016•22 min
042 The Two Jar Model
Inspiriation: http://amzn.to/2ecUWVU Blog: http://thewaiterspad.com Intro: http://bensound.com Outro: Topher Mohr & Alex Elena
Oct 17, 2016•22 min
041 The Outsiders
A podcast version of this post: https://medium.com/mikes-notes/advice-from-the-outsiders-3cf9eb9827c7#.ehnyua55z Based on this book: http://amzn.to/2dsO7A5 - 1/ Be different and find truths. 2/ Keep an (inner) scorecard. 3/ Decentralize. 4/ Forecasting well is hard; a high investments (in time) and low return activity. 5 Keep a low overhead. 6/ Think like a croc. - Intro music: BenSound.com Outro music: The Creek, Topher Mohr & Alex Elena
Oct 14, 2016•21 min
040 Belichick's Pattern Recognition
Part of this book: http://amzn.to/2e555b7 Intro by Ben Sound. Outro by K-391
Oct 12, 2016•15 min
039 What is the Most Important Thing?
A few ideas from Howard Marks book The Most Important Thing 1/ It's not easy. 2/ Mapping and cycles as models. 3/ Margin for errror. 4/ The future is unknowable. 5/ Live to fight another day. Intro by BenSound.com Outro by Tophor Mohr and Alex Elena.
Oct 08, 2016•33 min
038 Why does a startup fail? #1 Customers
The first section of my book, 28 Lessons from Startups That Failed, http://amzn.to/1nztynB There were five ways founders made the customer mistake: 1/ There were no customers to begin with. 2/ The customers were part of a bureaucracy 3/ The customers weren't asked to buy 4/ Founders talked to non-customers 5/ The customers were free users
Oct 02, 2016•23 min
037 Six things Instagram did right.
Six things I noted about Instagram's success. 1/ Imitation is a place to start, but not finish. 2/ A lower overhead is a longer survival. 3/ Luck matters. 4/ Win on third down. 5/ Good timing helps a lot. 6/ Everything is a trial by fire. Intro music from K-391, outro from Topher Mohr and Alex Elena. I'm on Twitter, @MikeDariano, On the phone, 559-464-5393, On the web, http://thewaiterspad.com
Sep 25, 2016•45 min
036 Pattern Recognition
Stories of pattern recognition and ideas about how to do it better.
Sep 17, 2016•22 min
035 The Education of Bill Belichick
Inspiration: http://amzn.to/2bnwdxU In what ways can we take Belichick's football decision making skills and apply them to our own lives? 1/ Red teaming (cutting Bernie Kosar). 2/ Relentlessness (Tom Brady too). 3/ Being a secret finder (fitness, film). 4/ Getting lucky (and knowing it). Here's the blog where I'll be writing more about red teaming, http://thewaiterspad.com. Intro music from BenSound.com, outro by K-391.
Sep 10, 2016•34 min
034 NFL bets/ making good forecasts
Does Bill Simmons make super forecasts? Let's look at his NFL podcast preview and see. We'll look at: 1/ Finding good value and not obvious winners. 2/ Stay away when things are too hard. 3/ Mean reversion when randomness abounds. 4/ SITG. 5/ Invert (always invert!). 6/ What are the full range of outcomes?
Sep 03, 2016•37 min
033 Failure is Not an Option
Life lessons from (just the early part) of http://amzn.to/2bYAKGb, by Gene Kranz, flight director for the NASA Apollo missions. What does Kranz have to teach us? 1/ you will never be ready 2/ the value of role play 3/ pattern recognition 4/ don’t just do something, sit there. 5/ 10k hours and the support you need
Aug 30, 2016•29 min
032 Ideas from Michael Mauboussin
An investigation of things Michael Mauboussin told Barry Ritholtz in their Bloomberg podcast. The big ideas: 1/ Know the pot and the payout. 2/ Incentives matter. 3/ The inside and outside views. 4/ Wonderful storytelling machines. Intro: BenSound.com Outro: K-391 A digital version to read: http://amzn.to/2bvKhpH
Aug 24, 2016•47 min
031 Notes from Andy Grove's 'Only the Paranoid Survive'
From a person who walked the walk and talked the talk. Four ideas from Grove. 1/ Be there to know what’s going on. 2/ Have a Devil’s advocate. 3/ Decentralized command is a powerful tool. 4/ People are involved and people have emotions. Intro: BenSound.com Outro: The Creek by Topher Mohr Inspiration: http://amzn.to/2aRqYnm Notes: https://thewaiterspad.com/2016/08/17/10267/
Aug 18, 2016•36 min
030 Coaching lessons for life, from Anson Dorrance
What does the best American college coach have to teach us? 1/ The value of hustle and the grind. 2/ Want success? Increase the denominator. 3/ You'll need some luck. 4/ Imitate to start. 5/ Focus on your most important things. Intro: BenSound.com Outro: K-391 Inspiration: http://amzn.to/2blaUyu Note: This was more a freestyle, rambling episode. The tighter format will be back.
Aug 15, 2016•31 min
029 The beginning of UNC women's soccer
1/ Scratch your own itch. Laura Brockington just wanted to play soccer. She was motivated and invested. 2/ Easier now than ever. New things will always be hard. Outcomes will always be unclear. But it’s never been easier to try. 3/ Make it easy for someone else to say ‘yes’.In an upcoming episode we’ll dive into one of the best books on this, Getting to Yes. 4/ Surf well. If you know how to surf and are one of the first at the beach, you can ride the waves all day long. Don’t lose that advantage...
Aug 09, 2016•21 min
028 Yahoo!(?)
What happened to Yahoo? Taking notes from Kara Swisher and Eric Jackson, there were five things I noticed: 1/ Beware of executives that succeed because of rising tides and tailwinds. 2/ Don’t forget about the MIT 3/ Built up experiences (or read books for a shortcut) to help you recognize patterns. 4/ Know your strengths and your weaknesses. Punt what you don’t do well. 5/ Reduce stakeholders to get more options. You need a long runway to experiment. the more career capital you have, easier cutt...
Aug 02, 2016•24 min
027 Plan B, Tailwinds, Fat Pitches
Inspiration from Jack Schwager's podcast with Barry Ritholtz. Here we talk about: 1/ Plan B (Kahneman and Fast & Furious) 2/ Rising tides and Buffett's ducks 3/ Patience for fat pitches. What Louis CK hit but Mark Zuckerberg missed. Intro: BenSound.com Outro: K-391
Jul 28, 2016•24 min
026 Early Buffett
Another Warren Buffett episode. This one focuses on his early (pre-1976) writings. We’ll examine: 1/ How Buffett used red flags to tell people when to switch investments. 2/ How Buffett focused like a flashlight. 3/ Buffett’s advice for “turning over a lot of rock,” and three ways to encourage your search. 4/ Buffett was like a pirate. A good haul and he’d be rich, a poor captain and the crew could take over. These are win win situations. 5/ Buffett knew he was dealing with people, and acted acc...
Jul 20, 2016•31 min
025 Neville Isdell, former Coca Cola CEO
Neville Isdell was the former chairman and CEO of Coca Cola. I found his book on accident, happily. Isdell's story isn't well known - or at least to me - and so his 'off the beaten track' experiences are extra valuable. What helped a kid born in Ireland, who grows up in Africa, starts his career in white South Africa and goes on to work in the Philippines and German succeed? There were five themes in my notes: 1/ Isdell was motivated by more than money. Once we take care of our basic needs (not ...
Jul 14, 2016•33 min
024 Warren Buffett
Nothing new here, just a reminder -- which we all need. Buffett isn't brilliant because he's rich. Fellow billionaire Seymour Schulich wrote, "The word ‘billionaire’ is a very crude and inaccurate measure of how well I have played the game of life.” Buffett is popular because of how he did it, not what he did. This episode looks at 5 ways. 1/ Buffett seeks few possessions. 2/ Buffett waits "for the right pitch." 3/ Buffett focuses on results. 4/ Buffett values good work over good tools. 5/ Buffe...
Jul 09, 2016•17 min
023 Wesley Gray explains stakeholders and culture
Two ideas today; stakeholders and culture. Stakeholders are the people you answer to; investors, advertisers, internet providers, and spouses. Culture is the spirit of a place. It's something "you have to see to believe." This podcast was inspired by: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2016-06-24/interview-with-wesley-gray-masters-in-business-audio. Intro music from BenSound.com. Outro music from K-391.
Jul 04, 2016•11 min
022 Hershey's Strategy
Even though he lived (and thrived) 100+ years ago, Milton Hershey succeeded in business using techniques people still suggest today. In this episode we'll look at seven of them. 1/ Hershey was a relentless tinkerer. 2/ Hershey had a deep understanding 3/ Hershey had a supportive spouse. 4/ Hershey had a moment. 5/ Hershey had good people around him. 6/ Hershey was lucky. 7/ Hershey escaped the competition. Intro from Bensound.com
Jun 30, 2016•17 min
021 Three lessons from parodies
Advertising parodies are funny but prove serious things. In this podcast episode we look at three: 1/ How stakeholders influence range of motion. 2/ Gray areas, and lines not to cross. 3/ Why good comedians are deep learners. Inspiration from http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/commercial-parodies-1.3637767 Intro music from BenSound.com
Jun 28, 2016•16 min
020 Sunk Costs
One way we "fool ourselves" (Feynman) is the sunk cost bias. Dr. John Cooke saw it in his academic research, Mohnish Pabrai saw Charlie Munger avoid it, and Richard Thaler saw it but didn't know it. What are sunk costs, and how can we avoid them? After asking the question, Feynman also gives us the answer.
Jun 23, 2016•10 min
019 Bussiness Advice from Phil Knight and Peter Thiel
Though the founding times were 40 years apart, both Knight (http://amzn.to/1YehxD3) and Thiel (http://amzn.to/1UkFFTc) have similar thoughts about starting businesses. This episode looks at five: 1/ Why to look for secrets. 1:05 2/ Where to look for secrets. 2:37 3/ Relentless searchers. 4:43 4/ Good people. 7:45 5/ Org. culture. 9:20 Intro music by BenSound.com
Jun 21, 2016•12 min
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