Social transformation
Beginning of economic populism?
What happened with Gamestop is the beginning of economic populism. Robinhood weaponized the Occupy Wall Street movement, social drove viral interest, and nearly everyone hates Wall Street and Robinhood. There’s a lot to unpack here, political, economic, social, and technological, but understanding how all these themes come together is crucial to understand the future of fintech…..
In this interconnected world cooperation and reciprocity are the best strategies of all
There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”
Bottom line:
If you manage to see how interconnected the game really is, then it becomes evident that cooperation and reciprocity are the best strategies of all.
-STORY.FUND
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women
“I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no courts to save it.”
~ Judge Learned Hand
(1872-1961), Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Moonshot Mindset
What if you could achieve 10X growth while your competitors achieve 10% growth?
A Moonshot is going 10X bigger or better when everyone else is pursuing incremental change.
Most companies ask questions such as, “How do we reduce costs by 10%?” or “How can we increase profits by 10%?”
Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens
Prof. Yuval Noah Harari (@harari_yuval) is a historian and bestselling author who is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals today. His popular books—Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century— have sold 27.5 million copies in 60 languages. They have been recommended by Barack Obama, Chris Evans, Janelle Monáe, Bill Gates, and many others. The Guardian has credited Sapiens with revolutionizing the nonfiction market and popularizing “brainy books.”
He is also behind Sapiens: A Graphic History, a new graphic novel series in collaboration with comics artists David Vandermeulen (co-writer) and Daniel Casanave (illustrator). This beautifully illustrated series is a radical reworking of his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. The series will be published in four volumes starting in fall 2020 with Volume 1, The Birth of Humankind, which is out now.
Wild Hearts and Wild Ideas
My guest today is Niki Scevak, co-founder and partner at Blackbird Ventures. Blackbird is a leading VC firm in Australia and New Zealand and has invested in companies like graphic design platform Canva and autonomous vehicle company Zoox. Our conversation covers the types of wild ideas Blackbird invests in, the landscape of venture and start-ups in Australia and New Zealand, and everything Niki knows about gross margins and customer acquisition. We also introduce a new concept on the show I’m calling Breakdowns, where we dive into a single business, what it does, how it operates, and what makes it tick. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
( contributed by Glenn Barry)
ONE TUSK 