13 Comments

all but the caffeine one seem interesting LOL

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Jan 27Liked by Dwarkesh Patel

In 2021 I applied a "barbell strategy" to investing which ended in tears and gnashing of teeth. My "low risk" investment was a S&P500 Index fund, but my high risk was in crypto (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other shit coins, mainly in the two exchanges, Celsius and BlockFi. Both went bankrupt and I apparently lost all my money in those exchanges--low four-digits so not that bad. But I learned that the "barbell strategy" or a "50/50" approach as in "I'll put half in this secure investment, but risk the other half in any old fly-by-night bullshit" . . . is not that great.

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Related: being either monomaniacally focused on 1 project, barely glimpsing outside your 1 focus or living a life of intellectual freedom, sleeping late, read long books, and diving into wiki-walks at your leisure

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As someone who rarely drinks coffee, then drinks a ton over a week or so, I can confirm that the experience is roughly like the spice hauler scene from Dune, literally imagining futures and outcomes at the expense of being closed to immediate reality.

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You're misapplying a useful principle in most of these cases. Barbell works in cases of interaction with a distributed intelligence; i.e., the stock market.

It works fairly well as a dating strategy (although, dating being my professional wheelhouse, I'd modify the barbell timeline to smooth its shape a bit so you're doing a little swiping regularly but the majority during the weekend; the idea of stacking dates and dealing with a few women at a time is spot-on), but meditation requires consistent practice and reading fiction isn't solely about onboarding knowledge.

I'm iffy about the others, I think "it depends" in most of those cases, but I don't claim expertise in tech and I don't drink coffee.

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Interesting: "swipe until your fingers ache (physical training necessary to prepare you for future success)."

What could he mean?

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Can't help but recognize I'm guilty of "pathetic side projects" that I have not given enough respect for. The most success I've had since starting a business has definitely been when I dedicated all my time and effort on it (obviously). Awesome blog brotha keep it up.

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