September 2019 Reading List

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Blog posts & books from the past month I'd actually read again.


Misc. blog posts (v. startup heavy this month)

How Relationships Refine Our Truths: Adrienne Rich on the Dignity of Love - Brain Pickings

• "An honorable human relationship — that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word “love” — is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other."

The days are long but the decades are short - Sam Altman

• I recently turned 30; this was apropos

Misunderstanding 'Skin in the Game' - Alex Danco

• "When Taleb talks about “Skin in the game”, he’s talking about survival....Skin in the Game isn’t an incentive; it’s a filter."
• "Another way of saying this is that people don’t have skin in the game; systems do. Systems with skin in the game are ones where the good performers are more likely to survive than poor performers; it has nothing to do with how people are incentivized. It’s Buffett’s line: In order to win, you must first survive."

The founders guide to markets - Erik Torenberg & Anuj Abrol

• Thiel vs. Rabois theories of markets
• a tweet breaking down the two perspectives 

Advice on growth, product, and leadership - Lenny Rachitsky

• 20 ways products/business can be differentiated 

New tech inside iPhone 11 is the future of everything -  Mike Elgan

• Ultra-wideband positioning is the real innovation contained in the iPhone 11 
• The U1 chip enables ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning, which means it’s designed to pinpoint the locations of nearby objects; "living room scale GPS"

Venture Capital

• Inside the Mind of a New York VC: Steve Schlafman of Primary Venture Partners - Bart Clareman
• Supporting Founders as They Grow and Build Capacity for Leadership at Precursor Ventures 
• The Antidote to Getting a VC Job: 10 Prescriptions for Aspiring Investors - Michael Tefula
• Breaking down the typical vc/startup diligence process - Tomasz Tunguz
• On My Mind - #7: Here's my investment memo template - Michael Dempsey
• Identifying and Capitalizing on Macro Market Trends - Chip Hazard
• The Four Main Things that Investors Look for in a Startup - Mark Suster

Books

• Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
• How Can I Get Through to You?: Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women - Terrence Real