[Throwback] Wisdom Nuggets #4

Scary vs. Dangerous—We meet again—Oh, what a world

Hi all,

The “Prison vs. Harvard” debate rematch happened… and it was close.

Harvard’s debate team edged out inmates from New York’s Eastern Correctional Facility on Friday by a judge’s vote of 2 to 1. This is especially impressive for the inmates considering they had no access to the Internet to prepare…

The Eastern Correctional Facility inmates are all members of the Bard Prison Initiative, which enrolls more than 325 inmates in college classes across seven New York state prisons. Their debate team has acquired a record of 12-4 over the last few years, trouncing teams from Brown and Duke.

It’s refreshing to hear such an inspirational underdog story. And I imagine it was good sparring for the Harvard debaters, who are used to anticipating the arguments of students with similar worldviews.

On a personal front, I’ve been busy preparing for graduate school applications, which involves both productive self-reflection and unproductive scrolling through r/MBA . This week’s note is a throwback article from a few months ago, but I plan to re-group next week with some fresh content for you. Below are a few ideas I’ve been swirling around…

1. “We should be ready to change our views at any time, and slough off prejudices, and live with an open and receptive mind. A sailor who sets the same sails all the time, without making changes when the wind changes, will never reach his harbor.” —Henry George

2. The myth of artificial intelligence: Per computer scientist Erik Larson, General AI requires researchers to address fundamental gaps in how intelligence works through theory. Better engineering alone (more data and faster algorithms) won’t quite get us there.

3. Be naughty: Startup founders tend to be a bit naughty. Per Paul Graham, “They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter.”

Hope to share more soon!

Thank you,

—Brendan

[This article was originally published in January 2023]

I enjoy underlining certain passages in books to convince myself I’m retaining what I’m reading. Over the years I’ve probably underlined thousands of sentences that I’ve since forgotten about… until recently.

This week I’m sharing round 4 of some wisdom nuggets that I believe you’ll find insightful and practical. Check out round 3 here if you missed it.

Wisdom Nugget #1:

“It is the difference in life between things that are scary and things that are dangerous. There are plenty of things that are scary but aren’t dangerous. And there are things that are dangerous but not scary. And those are the things that get you.”

—Jim Koch (founder of Boston Beer Company)

Jim Koch was a consultant at BCG—arguably the best consulting firm in the world after Deloitte—when he realized he wasn’t learning anymore. The work was no longer challenging, and he was losing his passion for business. When he quit to start a brewery, people thought he was foolish, crazy, or both. But Koch realized he was doing something scary, not dangerous. The risks were actually overstated. Driving without a seat belt leads to the opposite situation.

Wisdom Nugget #2:

“Every parting is a foretaste of death, and every reunion a foretaste of resurrection. That is why even people who were indifferent to one another rejoice so much when they meet again after twenty or thirty years.”

—Arthur Schopenhauer (Essays and Aphorisms)

I’m in three weddings this year… in New Jersey, New York and California—in order of best to worst Italian food. I’m looking forward to them as rare opportunities to connect with cross-country friends and experience that joy Schopenhauer speaks of. These special moments are in some ways what being human is all about, and I think it’s what Nietzsche was getting at when he wrote, “Life consists of rare, isolated moments of the greatest significance, and of innumerable many intervals, during which at best the silhouettes of those moments hover about us." Cherish those rate, isolated moments of the greatest significance, because they don’t come around too frequently.

Wisdom Nugget #3:

“When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.”

—Khalil Gibran (The Prophet)

Sometimes I step away from work and remember my college days for a few moments. Somehow, we made drinking 40s and listening to “Return of the Mack” cool again…. in our own minds. These days, because we don’t see each other so often, it’s so clear to us what we value from the friendship and what we’re going to do as soon as we’re back together again.

Wisdom Nugget #4:

“Northern lights in our skies
Plants that grow and open your mind
Things that swim with a neon glow
How we all got here, nobody knows

These are real things
These are real things

Oh, what a world, don't wanna leave”

—“Oh, What a World”, Kacey Musgraves

(Breaking my rules again with a song)

A few weeks into my consulting job, my senior manager gave me a brief lecture on why he prefers Arial to Calibri font for PowerPoint slides. At that moment I felt painfully self-aware of how silly most of my life’s problems were. We live on this mysterious, dark rock in the vast expanse of space and yet some of our most urgent concerns can involve the shuffling of papers or toggling of font sizes. “Oh, What a World” is a reminder to take a step back and drink in the real, natural world while it’s still here—before us, around us, within us.

Thanks for reading! I love when these thoughts lead to conversations with readers. Did you find anything interesting or surprising? Reply to me and let me know.