Dickie's Digest - Operating Values, Poker, and Amazon
Hey there! Happy Sunday.
Another packed Digest this week - there’s a little bit of something for everyone.
Have an epic week!
Dickie
⚖️ My 11 Operating Values (and how I found them)
This weekend I did some reflection on personal values. I wanted to come up with a list of values as a filter to help me make better decisions. I’m working on a post that breaks the process down in detail, but in the meantime, here are the 11 I came up with (and how I found each of them).
Also, I realized the link to My 10 Go-To Reflection Questions (and where I found them) was broken last week. You can find that essay here.
🛍 Jeff Bezos Opening Remarks to Congress (link)
Jeff Bezos’ opening remarks to Congress really blew me away. I was unfamiliar with his background and most of his early struggles building Amazon. There are some great quotes on minimizing regret, learning from failure, and embracing criticism, along with a few about the future of Amazon. You can read my favorite quotes in this tweet thread and read the full remarks here.
My favorite quote:
"When I’m 80 and reflecting back, I want to have minimized the number of regrets that I have in my life. And most of our regrets are acts of omission—the things we didn’t try, the paths untraveled. Those are the things that haunt us."
📚 Curated Book Recommendations from the World’s Top Thinkers (link)
I came across this link and was blown away. It’s a curation of the top book recommendations from some of the world’s most prominent people. You can:
See the recommendations of each person individually (like Jeff Bezos or Patrick Collison).
Browse by genre to see a curated list of the most recommended books on investing, technology, history, etc.
I spent at least an hour scrolling through this website and found four books I’d never heard of that are now at the top of my list. Check out the website here.
💤 Sleepy minds focus playlist (link)
Another week, another 🔥 focus playlist. One of these days I’ll combine every one I’ve linked to into one master playlist. These are pure ambient beats, no lyrics, no piano. If space played background music as you floated through it, it would be this playlist.
🎧 This week in podcasts
Another strong week in podcasts.
The best one I listened to was poker legend Maria Konnikova and Shane Parrish talking decision making, poker, mentorship, and luck.
Another one I enjoy was global macro legend Mike Novogratz on the Tim Ferris Show. Mike and Tim talk bitcoin, macro trading, psychedelics, and how to better know yourself.
📚 Kindle Highlight of the Week
We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive recirculation.
From Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant, which I read on my Kindle Paperwhite. I can honestly say the $129 I spent on this Kindle is the best purchase I’ve made in years.
🥃 Chasers
Watch these two kids listen to Phil Collins for the first time - you won’t be disappointed.
Thanks for reading!
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