#43 - The Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking

A few thoughts inspired from a talk by Peter Kaufman, a board member of the Daily Journal alongside Charlie Munger, shared by Brad Kaellner on his YouTube channel.

Here’s the talk:

Is there a simple two-word description that accurately describes how everything in the world works?

The answer according to Peter: mirrored reciprocity. You find it in Newton’s 3rd law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. You also find it in 99% of all the interactions you ever had with an animal or human being.

This made me think of the discomfort I had investing in Semler Scientific $SMLR, that I mentioned here. I’m looking for a company that treats all its stakeholders as valued partners and that provides a win-win situation for all involved.

Nowadays we don’t necessarily think of Walmart this way but I think it used to be such a company.

Here’s what Sam Walton wrote, taken from an article shared on Seeking Alpha:

What has carried this company so far so fast is the relationship that we, the managers, have been able to enjoy with our associates. By “associates” we mean those employees out in the stores and in the distribution centers and on the trucks who generally earn an hourly wage for all their hard work. Our relationship with the associates is a partnership in the truest sense. It’s the only reason our company has been able to consistently outperform the competition-and even our own expectations.

Compound interest = dogged incremental constant progress over a very long timeframe. That is the most powerful force that can potentially be harnessed. For example, what is the most powerful force in biology? Evolution. A dogged incremental constant progress over a very long timeframe.

Peter says that us humans don’t like to be constant, but without constancy, compounding is interrupted, therefore nothing great can be achieved.

I know two guys who did NOT interrupt their personal compounding.

The first one is Eric Zemmour, French presidential candidate for the 2022 election. Used to be one of the most hated men in the country, take a look at where he is now (this is not me supporting his political agenda by the way; fast forward to 33m for his entrance):

The second one is none other than MrBeast. I was fascinated to learn that he’s been “YouTubing” before “YouTubing” was a thing. Here’s a clip to understand his story:

The guy did YouTube and nothing but YouTube all day every day for ten years, probably putting in tens of thousands of hours into reverse engineering virality on the platform.

I would argue that both these examples showcase the incredible power of compounding over long periods of time because both of them did not start from a particularly advantaged position. As MrBeast put it, people would have bet a million dollars that he would NEVER become a YouTube star.

Update (2022-12-13)

Here’s another talk by Peter Kaufman: