
May 18, 2019
Josh Wolfe: The Magic of Science – North Star Podcast
Check out the North Star Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes
Key Takeaways
- When learning about a new topic, read voraciously
- “Reading is like having conversations with the best men (and women) of past centuries”
- “Failure comes from the failure to imagine failure”
- If you can identify all the ways things can go wrong, you can utilize time, money or people to minimize those risks
- Be long-term greedy
- Develop long-term relationships – both in business and friendships
- Be open-minded when meeting new people and embrace randomness
- Avoid boring people
- Avoid being boring to people
- AND avoid people that are boring
Intro
- Josh Wolfe (@wolfejosh) is the co-founder of Lux Capital – a venture capital firm that backs entrepreneurs and scientists tackling real problems, in unconventional ways.
- For more Josh, check out the below Podcast Notes:
- Josh Wolfe: The Tech Imperative – Invest Like the Best
- Josh Wolfe: This is Who You Are Up Against – Invest Like the Best
- Inventing the Future with Josh Wolfe – The Knowledge Project
- Josh Wolfe on The Future of Technology – Real Vision Classics
Josh’s Book Recommendations
- Poor Charlie’s Almanac by Peter D. Kaufman
- Malicious Resplendence by Robert Williams
- How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
- Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman
- The Minds I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett
- Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
Who is Josh Wolfe?
- Josh’s life has always been at the intersection of science and finance
- His mother pushed him to be a science nerd as a kid
- When Josh was younger, he worked at an HIV lab
- He believed he would eventually become a scientist and find a cure for AIDS
- While working at the lab, Josh noticed how the scientists would be making thousands of dollars trading options – this got him interested in finance and investing
- Josh views venture capital as the perfect hybridization of finance and science
Learning & Risk
- When learning about a new topic, read voraciously
- “Reading is like having conversations with the best men of past centuries”
- Read everything you can get your hands on
- “Reading is like having conversations with the best men of past centuries”
- At Lux Capital, there’s a quote that reads: “Failure comes from the failure to imagine failure”
- If you can identify all the ways things can go wrong, you can utilize time, money or people to minimize those risks
- Really great entrepreneurs are “risk-killers” – they stay up all night worrying about risks that might kill their business and come up with ways to stop them
- Every time a risk is killed, the company’s value goes up
The Gap Between Science Fiction and Reality is Decreasing
- Science fiction serves to show you what might eventually be possible in the world
- In today’s world, either sci-fi authors are becoming less creative or scientists are becoming too creative – the gap between the two keeps shrinking
- Robotic surgery, drone racing, and AI communication are all sci-fi ideas that now exist
- In today’s world, either sci-fi authors are becoming less creative or scientists are becoming too creative – the gap between the two keeps shrinking
Josh’s Investment Philosophy
- Competitive advantage is perpetual paranoia – it’s the idea that you must always keep an eye out for competition and be one step ahead of everyone else
- Josh explains his well-known 100-0-100 investing philosophy – which is equal parts ambition, humility and arrogance
- He’s 100% certain that Lux will be investing in the most cutting-edge technology
- He’s 0% certain what those things will be
- He’s 100% certain that Lux will find those companies at the cutting-edge of the cutting-edge
Life Advice
- Go about life with the humility that you never know who you might meet and what (or who) they might know
- Be open-minded when meeting new people and embrace randomness
- Avoid boring people – this has two meanings:
- Avoid being boring to people
- AND avoid people that aren’t interesting (aka are boring)
- Meet more doers than buffers
- Look to hang around interesting, scrappy, and ambitious people
- Meet more doers than buffers
Josh’s Mentors
- Seek out the best principles, models, and lessons from the smartest people you know and make that information into a mentor mosaic
- Josh has always seen Richard Feynman as a mentor, as well as Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins
- When someone you look up to recommends you talk to someone else, follow that interest trail and see where it goes
Lux Capital
- Every 10-15 years there’s a huge tech revolution that changes the world
- In the 1970s: The personal computer revolution
- 80s: Biotech
- 90s: AT&T
- 00s: Dot-com sites
- Lux was funded by an early investment from William Conway, the co-founder of The Carlyle Group
- Josh calls Conway the “Warren Buffet of private equity.”
- Be long-term greedy
- Develop long-term relationships, both in business and friendships
Additional Notes
- How does Josh judge an artist’s level of talent? – He asks himself, “Is the art easy to replicate?”
- If no, then the artist has a high level of talent
- The same goes for technology – really beautiful and useful technology is hard to replicate
These notes were edited by RoRoPa Editing Services