
August 31, 2021
How To Stay Curious (#150) | Jim O’Shaughnessy on The Danny Miranda Podcast
Check out The Danny Miranda Podcast episode page
Key Takeaways
- Technology is an extension of our potential – all the tools you need to start a company are on a smartphone
- The Great Reshuffle: We have collapsed time, space, and geography – curiosity, technology, and creativity have no boundaries
- “When there is a modicum of truth, you fall so easily into dogma. Dogma is the death of thought. The death of thought is the death of you” – Jim O’Shaughnessy
- Claude Shannon – The amount of information humans can take in has limits, when we reach our limits we seek simple explanations
- Curiosity is the secret to remaining unbiased and fluid with ideas, the antidote to controlling narratives
- Jim O’ Shaughnessy’s Life Lessons for Curiosity:
- It’s ignorant to believe that everything we know as truth now cannot one day be false; there’s no progress in tying your ego to your certainty
- It’s very powerful to understand what you do and don’t want, people will love you more for being you
- Be persistent and always ask
- Be aware of your lucky moments and take advantage of them
- Activity: Take an hour-long walk and simply write down everything that comes to your mind, be aware of your own curiosities
- Sometimes we forget that America is overall good and generous
- If your car breaks down on the side of the road someone is probably going to pull over to help out
Intro
- Jim O’Shaughnessy (@jposhaughnessy) is an author, investor & founder of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, and is also the host of the Infinite Loops podcast. Jim and Danny discuss life advice for remaining curious in a rapidly changing technical environment and how to survive a war on information.
- Host: Danny Miranda (@heydannymiranda)
Technological Curiosity Topics
- Jim is 61 years old but is extremely well-read on technology and fluent on Twitter – check out his profile
- “Beginner’s mind” – When you come to new subjects in technology, explore purely and negate your bias and comparisons
- Technology is an extension of our potential – all the tools you need to start a company are on a smartphone
- The Great Reshuffle – check out Jim’s Podcast Notes on the topic
- We have collapsed time, space, and geography – curiosity, technology, and creativity have no boundaries
- Opportunities will expand past societies incontrollable disadvantages
- Opinion: Biotech could have some massive home runs in the near future
Twitter and Information Danger
- Twitter is a Schelling Point – a solution that people tend to choose by default in the absence of communication
- “Twitter is the new university” – Jim O’Shaughnessy
- Claude Shannon – The amount of information humans can take in has limits, when we reach our limits we seek simple explanations
- In times of weakness, incorrect narratives and propaganda can spread quickly, as we see on social media
- We quickly self-identify with this information to assimilate and defend our social media tribe
- “When there is a modicum of truth, you fall so easily into dogma. Dogma is the death of thought. The death of thought is the death of you” – Jim O’Shaughnessy
- People need things to believe in, we are too easily tempted to grab the lowest hanging and often incorrect fruit
- The Bit Player – Movie/Documentary on Claude Shannon. Jim believes he should be as recognized as Einstein.
- Sometimes we forget that America is overall good and generous
- If you break down on the side of the road, probably someone is going to pull over to help out
- The media has monetized the doom narrative that only accurately represents a small fraction of our population
Jim’s Life Lessons for Curiosity
- Jim sent out 65 proposals for his book and only had two positive responses
- Invest Like the Best by Jim O’Shaughnessy
- Be persistent and always ask, the worst thing someone can do is say no
- Always be comfortable saying ‘I don’t know’ because then you can always ask ‘why’
- It’s ignorant to believe that everything we know as truth now cannot one day be false, there’s no progress in tying your ego to your certainty
- It’s very powerful to understand what you do and don’t want, people will love you more for being you
- In 1999, Jim wrote an article titled The Internet Contrarian which claimed the internet is the biggest bubble ever and even the winners like Amazon would lose 95% of their valuation
- Ironically, Jim was wrong and founded an internet company called Netfolio
- Hold your opinions loosely
- Be aware of your lucky moments and take advantage of them
- Ironically, Jim was wrong and founded an internet company called Netfolio
- Activity: Take an hour-long walk and simply write down everything that comes to your mind, be aware of your own curiosities
- Try to unstick yourself from time, you’ll be far more willing to analyze reactions rather than events
- You can’t control events, you can control your reactions (to an extent)
Jim O’Shaughnessy’s Grandfather’s Story
- Born in 1885, 13th child in an Irish-Catholic family in Stillwater, Minnesota
- Jim’s great-grandparents were successful shoemakers and ensured all their children went to college:
- He and his friends were expelled from St. John’s University for skipping an important prayer service and having a keg party in the woods instead
- Didn’t tell his parents and sought admission to The University of St. Thomas (in St. Paul)
- Unknowingly spoke with the president where he confessed he had no excuses and every right to have been kicked out of St. John’s – he was admitted immediately
- His friends applied first with all the excuses and denied wrongdoings, they were all rejected
- Honesty can go a long way
- Jim’s grandfather became an extremely successful oil wildcatter
- Gave away 95% of his wealth
- “Money is like manure, if you pile it all in one place it stinks to high heaven, but if you spread it around it is a great fertilizer” – Jim O’Shaughnessy quoting his grandfather
- Taught Jim that your reputation is who you are