August ‘24 recap
Podcasts, books, and articles that I enjoyed this month and some stuff I wrote:
Podcasts:
If exercise was a pill you could take, it would be the best drug to help almost all parts of your life. Every 1 minute of moderate exercise extends your life 5 minutes. This is a good 80/20 episode for anyone to understand the impact of exercise, what we’ve learned in the last 80 years of studying exercise, and the future.
Books:
I finished several books this month, here are my quick thoughts on each:
Comfort Crisis | Michael Easter:
Stepping outside of our comfort zones, embracing discomfort and challenging ourselves physically and mentally, and getting out in nature is important for our health and happiness. I mostly enjoyed this book, but also think it’s one that you can jump around and reach each section rather than straight through.
One of the guests on a podcast I listened to recently recommended this book by Anthony De Mello, an Indian Jesuit priest who blended Christian mysticism with Eastern spiritual practices. His teachings were often in conflict with the Catholic church, and because of his fame and reach the Pope excommunicated him and the Vatican published this article about his writings.
This book is all about living in the moment, self-awareness, and separating the “me” (the version of you that is driven my societal norms and expectations and looking for external approval) from the “I” (the real, genuine you)
The book is an easy read because the chapters are short and it is mostly written excerpts from conferences de Mello had. But it’s also a hard read because the concepts are a bit tricky to wrap your head around, and some are hard not to outright disagree with.
Man’s Search for Meaning | Victor Frankl
A classic that had been on my “next to read” list for awhile. The first half of the book is the best, Frankl’s recounting of his experiences at concentration ocamps during the Holocaust.
The raw stories plus Frankl’s insights as a psychiatrist make his perspective unique and interesting.
Articles:
Including some quotes and graphs I liked from a couple of deeper dives this month:
Lux capital Q2 LP letter | Josh Wolfe: Some quotes that stuck with me:
Today’s AI investors are always seeking Yesterday’s Yes: people want to be invested today where they should've been investing years ago.
Expectations are always ahead of fundamentals, and the higher the expectations, the faster the capital flows. Overall VC investment in AI represents about 5% of the deals done yet 20% of the capital invested.
An average of around $125 billion has been invested in U.S. VC over the last two years, and to match the last two decades of liquid NASDAQ performance, these funds in aggregate need to compound at a benchmark of 11%. Factor in fees and an average holding period of seven years, and the math suggests VCs need to secure at least 3x gross multiples on invested capital ($375 billion). With VCs collectively owning about 60% of a typical company at exit, $625 billion of market cap must be created.
We continue to expect the extinction of as many as 30-50% of VC firms.
Failure comes from a failure to imagine failure.
Fed rates and the macro economy
For the 50 largest software companies, median revenue growth has declined for 2.5 years, hitting 20% in Q2 2024. Valuation multiples have dropped 58% and now trade at eight times projected revenue.
