I’ve been pretty religious about weight lifting and cardio this year: cardio daily and weights five times a week. The last week or two, I haven’t been as consistent with the weights, and I’ve noticed that my productivity is a bit off. Holiday mode? Maybe.

The more likely explanation is that lifting weights gives me energy, which makes me more productive.

Going into the last few weeks of the year, I want to lift consistently so I can finish the year as productively as possible and start 2026 on the right foot.

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: 92
• Total blog posts published: 609

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed in the week ending 12/7/25 (link to the previous week’s commitments):

• Read Quality Investing, a framework on what characteristics make a public company “high quality” and how to evaluate them

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Publish a post about each book I synthesized during my Thanksgiving challenge (see here)

Asks:

• No ask this week

Week two hundred ninety-seven 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 related to this project

What I learned:

• Andrej Karpathy created a free tool for reading books with AI (see my post here). Good idea, and useful tool. I like reading physical books, so that’s still a point of friction for me. But this tool is validation that a problem exists and people are trying to solve it (but not that the problem is painful enough for them to pay for a solution).
• In the comments after Karpathy’s post sharing his tool (see here), other people shared tools they’d built to solve this problem. I haven’t tested them, but a few seem interesting, and I want to play with them. X comments can be an overlooked gold mine.

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

Today, it hit me that 2025 is almost over. Only four more weeks. It feels like the year flew by. I’ve realized that it’s time to start thinking about 2026. I’m not a fan of setting traditional yearly goals. Because luck and randomness are involved, I can’t control whether I achieve a desired outcome. Instead, I like to focus on habits that, if done consistently throughout the year, materially increase my chances of a positive outcome at the end of the year.

I’ll be thinking about 2026 over the next few weeks and identifying the new habits I want to embrace.

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: 91
• Total blog posts published: 602

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed in the week ending 11/30/25 (link to the previous week’s commitments):

• Read Dangerous Dreamers, a historical narrative about the people, especially Michael Milken, and events that set the stage for the junk-bond boom, LBO wave, and eventual S&L turmoil of the 1980s
• Completed my Thanksgiving challenge (see here)—I’ll share the results in posts this upcoming week

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• No ask this week

Week two hundred ninety-six 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 related to this project

What I learned:

• This is more of a personal realization than anything, but synthesizing what I read is key to enhancing my understanding of what I read.

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: 90
• Total blog posts published: 595

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed in the week ending 11/23/25 (link to the previous week’s commitments):

• Read Einstein of Money, a biography of Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, the only boss Warren Buffett ever had, and one of Buffett’s most influential mentors
• Finished my latest weekend project. I tested and updated every book image and confirmed and updated all links to Amazon.com. I’ll share more details in the coming days.

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• No ask this week

Week two hundred ninety-five 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 related to this project

What I learned:

• The pain entrepreneurs experience when they make a material mistake is immense. That pain leads them to reflect, which in turn leads to insight and a valuable lesson. Entrepreneurs want to hear other entrepreneurs’ stories to fully understand the mistakes that led to insights and lessons learned. This is best done through conversation so questions can be asked.

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

Today I looked at the calendar and realized that Thanksgiving is next week. I feel like it snuck up on me. In 2023, I challenged myself and set an aggressive reading goal: read an 800-page book during that break (see here). I enjoy these holiday challenges. Even though I sometimes make them too aggressive, it’s definitely something I want to keep doing.

That said, I need to figure out what my 2025 Thanksgiving challenge will be. I haven’t thought about it at all and have no clue what I want to do this year. I do know it won’t be reading an 800-page book!

I’ll spend some time thinking about it this weekend so I can go into next week with a clear goal.

Today I had a debate with a friend about the AI bubble narrative and the financial media. He said the debt issued by AI companies would be a problem. I asked him to prove it, and he showed me an article from a financial publication. I promptly rejected it and told him I wanted to see first-source data and for him to walk me through his analysis and conclusion based on that data.

I have no opinion on whether we’re in an AI bubble in public markets. But when I’m evaluating something, I aim to come to my own conclusions. I try not to rely on interpretations from people who aren’t deeply knowledgeable or involved in the situation. For that reason, I’m a fan of finding first-source data so I can see the facts for myself, analyze them, and come to my own conclusions.

When someone is trying to convince me of something I have no opinion on or knowledge of, I want to understand their conclusions and how they arrived at them. If they cite interpretations of others (especially the media), it’s often a sign they haven’t looked at the first-source data or done their own analysis to come to their own conclusion. Naturally, I’m more skeptical in those situations. Conversely, when someone has looked at first-source data and can articulate why they reached their conclusion based on it, I’m much more inclined—even if I disagree—to listen intently with an open mind.