Continuing with my new protocol, here I’m going to share content I consumed and learned from. This week, I spent time doing general learning about a variety of topics.

What I consumed this week and what I learned from it:

• ·Microsoft on turning human know-how into balance sheet IP – YouTube interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Interesting to hear that he views Microsoft’s job in the AI era as building an ecosystem that enables more value to be created by others on top of Microsoft’s platform. He thinks the goal is to help others create their own AI using his platform. His views around IP being generated by capturing know-how from human capital and feeding it back into a custom model for a company stuck with me. He thinks that adding that IP to the balance sheet is now feasible because, for the first time, the know-how that resides in the heads of workers can be captured and made available throughout the entire organization. His idea that the margin of victory among high performers is small stuck with me and reminded me of power law outcomes.
• Ex-Goldman CEO is a day trader in retirement – YouTube interview with Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs. I had no idea that he grew up poor in the Brooklyn projects, which drove him to succeed. He acknowledged timing and random luck and how they played a huge role in his being offered the CEO role. I also found it interesting that as a retiree, he is now an avid day trader with a huge chunk of his wealth in risky assets.
• Why Ponce City Market and Chelsea Market thrive – YouTube interview with Matt Bronfman, CEO of real estate developer Jamestown, the developer of Ponce City Market and Chelsea Market. I had no idea that most of the money for Jamestown comes from mom and pop investors in Germany. Jamestown is basically raising money from German retail investors who wanted to diversify out of their national currency. The company raises a new fund every year or two and is currently raising its 33rd fund. They started by acquiring and operating developments with tenants such as Walmart. Then they decided they needed to get out of the commodity real estate business and begin creating unique spaces that differentiate them from competitors and that make tenants’ employees excited to go to work.

That’s what I learned from what I consumed last week.