Five Links for December 2023
Every month, I share the most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share with your friends.
note: would love your help … Placekey 2.0 launched today — open entity resolution for places and addresses. Placekey helps with deduping, matching, linking, syncing, and merging physical places. If you are open to it, would be great if you can do three things: (1) upvote on ProductHunt; (2) comment on the LinkedIn announcement; and (3) like the Tweet. thank you!!
Here are five links worth reading…
The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce by Tom Wolfe
One of the best pieces I have read in a LONG time: How middle America and its 19th century values (and one midwesterner in particular) engineered the microprocessor and the age of computers.
Crony Beliefs by Kevin Simler
Reckoning with the “terrible gulf that separates the inside and outside views of beliefs”– why our own views are sensible, and everyone else’s look crazy.
Bonus (Listen): Michael Seibel, Y Combinator Group Partner on World of DaaS pod
An amazing, candid conversation with Michael Seibel, who’s invested in thousands of companies through Y Combinator (and was the CEO of Twitch). Michael likely has better data than anyone in Silicon Valley on what makes companies successful.
listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube:
Tragedy of the Uncommon by Dror Poleg
The assumption that exclusive = valuable is deeply ingrained, but Dror explains how exclusivity counterintuitively creates worse spaces. (example: the average public beach in Israel is nicer than the average private one in the Hamptons)
Top 100 Most Expensive U.S. Zip Codes 2023 by Property Shark
There are always a few unexpected locations in this round up. Maybe not a surprise: 79 of the 100 most expensive zip codes were in California.
Bonus (Second Act): Deposed King of FTX Learns Mackerel Trade
You often hear that you could “drop a really good founder into any place/time/situation and they’ll excel.” SBF might not be that founder, but it’s always interesting to see how people adapt to new circumstances. (bonus points for this mackerel market analysis)
Bonus (Listen): Entity Resolution with Placekey on the Mapscaping Podcast
I sat down with Daniel O’Donohue on the Mapscaping podcast to discuss entity resolution and Placekey. This is a great deep dive on the complexities of geospatial data and more broadly, the value of making more data sets joinable (a much harder problem than it sounds like)
More reading links at https://twitter.com/AurenReads
Books I read last month:
Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
HT: Dan Hiddleson
Canceling of the American Mind
HT: Greg Lukianoff
Elon Musk by Walter Isacson
College:
Great for: signaling
Not great for: learning
Auren Hoffman is CEO of SafeGraph (geospatial data on physical places) and GP at Flex Capital ($200M Series A and B VC firm). Engage on Twitter: @auren
and please share Five Links with your friends.
Auren, I'm a new subscriber so just looking back a few months. Love your content so far but don't think I agree with your take on college learning here. The best college experiences - and college learning - can't be measured in most efficient "learning hours" but rather in where you start and where you get to over four years. The growth happens in three, not two, dimensions, in and out of the classroom, and like an accordion, sometimes compresssed, sometimes stretched out but for the ultimate effect of forming a deeper, richer, broader human.