Things read – Week 01 - 2025

A whimsical, hand-drawn illustration of a very old man who is fit and happy while working out in a gym, using the same color palette as the provided Santa illustration. The man is lifting weights or using gym equipment with a joyful expression, showcasing his fitness and vitality. The colors are soft and slightly desaturated, with red and warm tones prominently featured. The background includes minimal gym details like a bench, weights, and faint walls, fading into white space. The illustration has an organic, painterly feel with visible watercolor textures and thin, sketchy black outlines, maintaining a playful and lighthearted mood. The composition is in a wide aspect ratio.

Soliloquy

Just a fancy name for writing your thoughts down to have a mental clarity. Apparently, if you simply wrote down your unrealistic goals on paper, you somehow manifest it to achieve them. I love notebooks and I love writing. No harm in trying. (Tweet)

Long term compounding

Just some plain, boring advice related to investing. Just buy VTI and expect no more 6-8% of returns every year. Interestingly, he also advices to have real estate in the mix. In India, we get about 2L of deduction every year on interest paid for self-occupied house. So at current interest rate of 8.5%, ₹35-30L of housing loan would be practically free. Lots of nuances so better to consult CAs. (Tweet)

Interview with Ed Thorpe

What an amazing read! Try to eliminate weak links because it just takes one to finish you off. i.e., alcoholism or terrible skiing accident. Kind of similar to Munger – just tell me where I am gonna die so I don't go there. Recommends the book Outlive by Peter Attia. (Link)

Take something away

Another banger from Collab Fund. It's not natural to think of solving problems by elimination, because elimination doesn't signal progress. Addition does. A new mental model to apply to scenarios: What might we take away to make this problem go away. (Link)

A new way to think about money

I came across this tweet a few weeks ago but I still keep coming back to it.

I am yet to find anything written about money that expresses the epiphany I had some years ago. Money is electricity, not coal. It’s power is in the flow. If you try and hoard it, it degrades. It has to be kept moving.

And then the mindset shifts from asking how do I acquire it to asking how do I step into this flow of trillions and trillions of dollars changing hands every day?

This then makes it much easier to also spend money - when you see yourself as an ephemeral steward of it as it passes through you. There are few who feel joy when they pay others but this shift has changed everything about how I have set up my business. I want to pay people and increase the flow rather than sequester as much of it for myself and dam the flow as a result.

Lastly, money is energy. Large quantities of it will not get you peace and relaxation any more than a hundred barrels of gasoline in your house will. This is why you don’t want to hoard it.

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