Martin Reeves: How to build a business that lasts 100 years

In this TED Talk, Martin Reeves offers an inter-disciplinary approach on how entrepreneurs can build long lasting companies with ideas from Biology.

Sattvik Mishra: Experimenting with content

In this Ink Talk, Sattvik Mishra, Scoop Whoop shares his lessons and the thinking that drives stories at ScoopWhoop.

Here is the Startup Journey's take on the highlights of the talk.

The Best Video on Blockchain (Maybe)

In a TED video, Don Tapscott (@dtapscott) lucidly explains Blockchain, the technology underlying Bitcoin and how it can be used in other areas including securing land ownership rights, cheaper remittances, protect private data and make self enforcing contracts for music and financial instruments. The talk includes how Blockchain overcomes the problem of "Double Spend Problem" faced in the Internet of Information in order to create an Internet of Value.

Quick Link: Jason Friede of 37Signals/Basecamp on Startup Grind

Off Topic: How exactly does corruption money find its way to Swiss Banks & NY Apartments?

NPR's Planet Money has a fascinating account of how the son of Taiwan's (now former) President routed bribery money from suitcases full of cash to a Swiss Bank and from there (via 3 layers of shell companies) used it to buy an high-end apartment in New York.

Marc Andressen with Tim Ferriss

Click Here for this good interview with the founder of pioneering web software firm browser Netscape and disruptive VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Parts I liked best:

Difference & Similarity between VCs and Value Investors [42:25]

"Anything Warren Buffet is willing to invest in, we run screaming in the other direction. He invests in Heinz Ketchup since people have been using it for over a 100 years and therefore it's a good guess that they will continue to do so for the next 100. Basically, he's betting against change and we are betting for change. When he makes a mistake, it's because something changes that he doesn't expect; we make a mistake when something doesn't change.

But what both schools have in common is Original Thinking and the willingness to look at things as they are ("the core of the business") as opposed to what somebody says about them or it's believed to be. Also, Value Investing is the only place in the market where there's Long Term investing."

Importance of inculcating a Culture of "Building Things" [44:50]

"Smart People Should Build Things" (based on a book title) and "Be So Good that they can't Ignore You" (from the book Born Standing Up by Steve Martin)

Importance of Reading Biographies: "Technology changes; people don’t." [22:28]

"While following contemporary stuff is good, I find it more useful to go further back and read (well written) Biographies about Edison, Disney, Ford, Rockefeller, etc."

How he deals with FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to investing [38:47]

Why he does not believe AI is going to either kill jobs or people . [48:01]

Why & How to Harness Young Men: The Sebastian Junger Interview (by Tim Ferriss)

Awesome Awesome Interview with the Author and War Correspondent.  Huge insights into human behaviour - especially into what makes young men tick and why some kind of national service must be made compulsory. Once you listen, you would also understand exactly what Winston Churchill meant when "Never let a good crisis go to waste".

My Favorite segments:

• On striving for political correctness in gender [43:59]
• PTSD, the C-Train, and returning to New York City after being at war [1:08:14]
• On the lonely nature of society [1:12:01]
• On the role of journalists:
• “The point of journalism is to tell the truth. It is not to improve society. There are facts and truths that feel regressive, but that doesn’t matter. The point of journalism isn’t to make everything better; it’s to give people accurate information about how things are.”

Quick Link: Seth Godin with Tim Ferriss

Fun & Thoughtful interview.

Highlights include:

How Seth Godin processes email [51:44]

What would Seth do to educate children [1:34:22]