Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 78
• Total blog posts published: 511

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read The Bogle Effect, a biography about John Bogle and his journey to found Vanguard and transform it into a pioneer and worldwide leader in indexing
• Added two more books that I read in 2019 and 2018, these about pinpointing your unique ability and the founding of Twitter (now known as X), to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred eighty-three was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles last week

What I learned:

• The latest AI tools enable users to connect their personal file storage (think Google Drive or Dropbox) so LLMs can use files to create more-tailored responses. Feeding the content of books to an LLM and connecting to something like Google Drive would be helpful to entrepreneurs as they try to solve problems. The LLM would have more context on that entrepreneur’s situation. The downside is that the information in file storage systems is unstructured, which makes it challenging for LLMs to use it effectively and provide consistent responses.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

I’ve gotten used to setting a challenge for myself each holiday. It’s fun and has pushed me to do more with my off time. Sometimes I hit my challenge goal, sometimes I don’t, but I always learn something.

The Library on this site has been a project for the last few months. It contains all the books I read in 2024 and so far this year, and I’ve been adding those I read before 2024 as a long-term weekend project. I usually add two books per weekend. All the books I read from 2020 through 2023 are in it now, and the total is up to 119.

This long weekend I’m going to push myself to add four books instead of two. Wish me luck!

Yesterday, I hit a milestone with this blog: my 2,000th post. I’ve posted every day for 2,000 straight days—roughly 5.5 years. I started writing because of a challenge (see here). I didn’t know where it would take me or how long I’d do it. Five years later, I’m still at it and thankful that I picked up this habit and stuck with it. It’s become the main way I reflect, think, and crystallize my thoughts and learnings. It’s been a great tool that has helped me evolve and fully embrace lifelong learning. It’s also been a great way to document my thinking and see how it’s evolved.

They say that taking a simple concept seriously can result in outsize results if you stick with it consistently. I’m doing that with this blog. It’s simple, I take it seriously, and I’m sure it will lead to an outsize impact on my life.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me and read my posts. I appreciate it and hope that sharing what I’ve learned has helped you in some way.

2,000 down, 20,000 to go!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 77
• Total blog posts published: 504

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, a historical recount of the relationship between financial bubbles and new technologies. Venezuelan economist Carlota Perez describes a cycle driven by the relationship between the two that can be traced back over one hundred years.
• Added two more books that I read in 2019, these an inside perspective on angel investing and a biography about the opioid crisis and one of America’s biggest pain clinics, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred eighty-two was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles this week

What I learned:

• Many AI entrepreneurs leverage models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. They access them via API and build solutions on top of them. Some students at top engineering schools are building their own models from scratch and completely avoiding using OpenAI and other well-known providers of LLMs.
• Speed is one of the biggest advantages entrepreneurs can have. The faster they can move, the more experiments they can run. The more experiments they run, the more they learn and the closer they get to an ideal solution. Reading is pretty slow, but books contain solutions to many problems entrepreneurs face. Helping entrepreneurs quickly sift through books to find the right piece of information at the exact time they need it is tremendously valuable to them.  

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

Books are connected to other books, but it’s not easy to see the connections unless you read an entire book. That makes how books are networked, or connected, invisible. The primary way I discover books is seeing them mentioned in another book. I’m constantly making mental connections of ideas, periods, events, or people mentioned in several books. This blog shows the connections between books, but it hasn’t been easy to understand how many connections a book has . . . until now.

Starting today, when you view the Library page, you’ll notice that next to each book is the number of other books in my library with a connection to it. It’s an easy way to quantify a book’s network. If the quantity of connected books is interesting, you can easily see each connection by clicking “Learn more” to see the book’s profile.

I’m excited about this. I haven’t seen anything like it on other blogs. It’s helped me think more deeply about book connections. I hope that understanding how networked a book in my library is will help people find books they find useful.

If you want to see for yourself, check it out:

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 76
• Total blog posts published: 497

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read The Most Important Thing, a framework by Oaktree Capital co-founder and investor Howard Marks about the guiding principles of investing
• Added two more books that I read in 2019, these an inside perspective on venture capital from a seasoned investor and a biography about a software engineer who became a crime lord, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred eighty-one was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles this week

What I learned:

• Understanding what has happened helps us understand what’s happening now and what might happen in the future. However, it’s not always easy to get context on historical events or periods. Reading multiple books to piece together history is often necessary. Giving people historical context from multiple books in a way they can access quickly is tremendously valuable to them.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 75
• Total blog posts published: 490

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules, a framework for how Warren Buffett ran his pre–Berkshire Hathaway partnership, Buffett Partnership Ltd., from 1956 to 1969
• Added two more books that I read in 2020 and 2023, these about venture capital deal structures and financial crises, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred eighty was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!