Blog Archives

Suck it Up and Tough it Out - The Lessons Hardship Can Teach

Polish Kresey 1944 tough

Tom Petty used to sing that you don’t have to live like a refugee. On the other hand, John Mellencamp said “suck it up and tough it out, be the best you can.” So what would most people choose?

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Why I'm Writing The Book: The Philosophical Investor

Why I'm Writing a Book[Updated March 11, 2015]

“We should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living. writing is sensual, experiential, grounding. We should write because writing is good for the soul. We should write because writing yields us a body of work, a felt path through the world we live in.”

― Julie Cameron

Writing is one of my greatest pleasures.

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How to Unify Countries - The Power of Sports

Unify Gary with Tribal Leader

With the World Cup having been completed this past weekend I thought I would tap into some interesting research about soccer and its ability to unify countries that are typically very tribal and fractious. I saw some of this firsthand during my recent trip to Africa where it was pretty evident that tribalism is very much alive and well.

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Rand, Soros, Munger, Dalio, and The Founding Fathers

Rand

Like most people, especially investors, I’ve been wondering about whether there is a philosophical prism through which Donald Trump sees the world other than through deals and negotiations. In business, especially in real estate, there are often objective outcomes to shoot for to know if you are winning,

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When One Thinks of Disruptors - FDR or Tech Titans?

FDR Churchill Bezos

When one thinks of disruptors it’s not surprising to think of modern tech titans like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Reed Hastings, Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, Marc Benioff, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, etc. I was reading an interview with the great American writer Philip Roth in the New York Times and he referenced books that he has recently read and what triggered his interest in them.

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Love as the Basis for Customer Service and Marriage

Love Gary and Roneet Carmell

In this third and final post related to The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, this week I will talk about the ways that Fromm says we can learn how to master the art of love and how it can be applied to serving one’s customers.

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Houston - We Have A Problem!

Harvey-Hurricane-Harvey

With the extraordinary events that took place in Houston, southeast Texas, and Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Harvey I felt that it was much more relevant to discuss this catastrophe versus part two of demographics and interest rates emphasizing Japan.

Houston: Hurricane Harvey

An estimated 27 trillion gallons of water has blanketed southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana.

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The Wisdom of Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr.

Chief Justice John Roberts

Charlie Munger is a big proponent of solving problems and optimizing through inversion. For example, if you want to live a happy, productive, and successful life it is probably more valuable to study those people who you think have been unhappy, unproductive, and unsuccessful.

It is just as important to know what not to do and avoid those actions and decisions as it is to know what to do.

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Fitness Camp Was Life Changing - Now I'm a Believer!

Fitness-Camp-Gary-Carmell

Ben Carlson wrote an excellent piece about how knowledge is not enough in life. If one desires to effect change then knowledge without action is just an interesting academic exercise. It can actually end up being demoralizing as nothing is more frustrating than knowing what to do but lacking the desire to carry out the action and the discipline to stick with it.

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Deep Domain Knowledge - Finding Your Calling

niece Dr. Wolf - May 2017

A few weeks ago I referenced Bob Dylan’s recommendation that we find our calling. I saw this in action last week and had this supplemented by some of the things I read. I had the pleasure to go to Philadelphia to attend the graduation of my niece from the University of Pennsylvania where she was awarded a Ph.D.

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