Thread by @george__mack

5 THINGS I'VE LEARNT IN QUARANTINE...

Here's what I've learnt + been thinking about this week.

Hopefully it will help make your hole experience more enjoyable.

THREAD...

1. THE BARBELL APPROACH FOR PERSONAL FINANCE

"Spend like a king on speed, like a pauper on everything else."

Useful heuristic before whipping out the cash - "Does it make me go faster?"

Absolute gem for @danielgross

2. KASPAROV'S SYSTEM MINDSET >

Outcome mindset = X is a bad move, therefore won't do that move again

System mindset = What was the thought process that led up to X? How did I prepare for that decision? What assumptions did I have?

h/t - @SafiBahcall

Outcome Mindset helps you prevent that mistake from happening again.

System Mindset helps you prevent the thought process that led to that mistake from happening again.

You not only prevent that one mistake but potentially hundreds of others.

You address the root cause.

E.g. Rowing with partner about the dishes

Outcome Mindset = "I won't mention the dishes again"

System Mindset = "When I get home from work, I'm tired and take it out on them"

Fix the outcome, you prevent 1 potential argument

Fix the system, you prevent n potential arguments

3. BETTING ON YOURSELF

@realGeorgeHotz tells @lexfridman the story Elon Musk had a job offer for him to build vision system for autopilot at Tesla.

They talked about what a potential contract they'd both like and it blew my mind...

"I would get paid $12,000,000 tomorrow if I delivered it tomorrow. And I would lose $1,000,000 for each month I didn't deliver.

So if I made it after 6 months, I would get $6,000,000. If I didn't make it in 12 months, I would work the 12 months for free."

"Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcome" - Munger

It's ironic that people spend years watching motivational videos and don't do shit

George wouldn't need to watch one motivational video if he had that contract

It reminded me of this:

4. THE WORLD'S GREATEST A/B TEST

When tube workers went on strike, 8 in 10 commuters had to change their route.

When the tube workers came off strike, 5% of commuters stuck to their new routine.

The routine they they was forced into actually turned out to be more efficient!

For workers lucky enough to be at home with a stable paid income, security and health for the next few months, this is an experience made available only for the ultrawealthy or the retired.

Long term changes to workers routines will result from this A/B test.

5. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM WITH THE CORONA PANDEMIC

According to the Global Security Health Index, the UK and the US were some of the most prepared countries for an outbreak like this.

Anybody living in these 2 countries can test to just how unprepared it felt they were.

The Elephant In The Room is how unprepared some of the least prepared countries on that list must be for a pandemic.

This has largely been ignored by the mainstream media so far.