Notes from reading in Fall 2020
- Tversky was magnanimous, an insanely gifted intellectual and communicator.
- The Kahneman-Tversky partnership was more than the sum of its parts because of their wavelength-level communication.
- Serving in war:
- Being so close to death created a resolve in the men who survived; no one wanted to return to it.
- At the same time, it gave credibility and lore to their character and fearlessness.
- They found comfort in being the only people doing that kind of work.
- A remarkable attribute: pursuing work that was continuously discredited or defended by those in charge of social status, awards, money, etc.
- Even Kahneman not receiving accolades from “legend institutions” like the Ivys or Stanford didn’t change the value of his work, the merit of his thoughts, or his contributions.
- Like Tversky:
- Don’t spend your valuable time on things you don’t want to do.
- Invitations, meetings, or obligations—just walk out.
- Preserving face for optionality is time wasted that could be spent making yourself and your work extraordinary. At the end of the day, that extraordinary work unlocks the same benefits.
- Create and pursue the persona you want for yourself.
- People adored Tversky, and there’s nothing wrong with reveling in that.
- If you’re truly worth it, talk 80% of the time—own your brilliance.
- But note: The road to getting there is 1% Tversky and 99% charlatan.
- Decision-making:
- It is not about maximizing utility but minimizing regret.
- Good science means seeing the same as everyone else but thinking something different.
- You waste years by not being able to waste hours.
- Underemployment allows for rumination, creativity, and the time to let ideas simmer.
- It is easier to actually do things than to say or prove you did them.
- Acknowledge uncertainty.
- Creeping determinism:
- Historians and the world are often fooled by randomness, constructing a past that feels surprise-free. This creates a future full of surprises.
- To truly picture oneself in that period, you must embody the unknown and the uncertainty of actions. This amplifies the complexity of those events further.
- You cannot reconstruct history because of a defect in imagination—being stuck in old patterns prevents envisioning a new future.
- The job of VCs, founders, and visionaries is to truly imagine the new without being biased by the old.