May 18, 2019

Josh Wolfe: The Magic of Science – North Star Podcast

Check out the North Star Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes

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

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

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

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

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
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

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

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

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

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

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

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