2X @Techstars founder; CEO @VivaBenefits: making renter benefits mainstream; prev. @Teacher_Talent acq. 2018; invest in diverse + impact teams @FundRadical
Edcouch, Texas
Joined August 2009
- Tweets11.2K
- Following5K
- Followers1.5K
- Likes13.2K
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
Any founders interested in pitching my friends at The Pitch?
They’re one of the most popular VC podcasts with 30M+ downloads and invest $50K–$300K in pre-seed and seed founders who pitch on the show.
Comment “DM” below. I’ll send you the invite.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
I stole this idea and now use it with every single employee.
It’s the best illustration I’ve seen of teaching someone to be high agency.
It says there are 5 levels of work:
Level 1: “There is a problem.”
Level 2: “There is a problem, and I’ve found some causes.”
Level 3: “Here’s the problem, here are some possible causes, and here are some possible solutions.”
Level 4: “Here’s the problem, here’s what I think caused it, here are some possible solutions, and here’s the one I think we should pick.”
Level 5: “I identified a problem, figured out what caused it, researched how to fix it, and I fixed it. Just wanted to keep you in the loop.”
Using this framework, here’s what I say to every new employee…
You will live at Level 4 from Day 1 and as we build trust you will rise to Level 5.
Being high agency doesn’t just mean tackling problems in this way. It means your entire way of working should be oriented to being a Level 4+ employee.
Plz feel free to steal it as well.
And ty @stephsmithio for the framework!
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
This is it.
Everything learned spending millions on longevity.
From: Your Immortal Unc and Auntie.
To: Our Immortal nieces and nephews.
0. Sleep is the world's most powerful drug.
1. Be in your bed for 8 hours
2. Same bedtime every night, any time before midnight
3. Don’t eat right before bed
4. Calm foods for dinner
5. No screens 1 hour before bed
6. Avoid added sugar (be aware it’s in everything)
7. Avoid all things in an American convenience store
8. Avoid fried foods
9. Shoes off at the door
10. Eat whole foods, particularly veggies fruits nuts legumes berries
11. Walk a little after meals or air squats
12. Get your heart rate high routinely
13. Lift heavy things
14. Stretch daily
15. Water pik, floss, brush, tongue scrape, morning and night
16. Make an effort to drink water
17. Get sunlight when you wake up (UV is low)
18. Protect skin in midday sun
19. Stand up straight
20. See at least one friend once a week
21. Avoid plastic where you can (in all things)
22. Circulate air in rooms
23. When stressed, breathe, learn to calm your body
24. Go to the dentist
25. Avoid sitting for long times
26. Protect your hearing, the world is too loud
27. Alcohol is bad for you
28. Finish coffee before noon
29. Avoid bright lights after sunset
30. If obese, look into a GLP
31. Sleep in a cold room
32. Texting while driving is dangerous
33. Turn off all notifications
34. Limit social media use
35. Don’t smoke anything
36. If you struggle to sleep, read a physical book before bed
37. 1 hour before bed have a calm wind down routine: bath, read, light walk, listen to music
38. The body is a clock and loves routine. Have a daily morning and evening schedule.
39. Avoid long distance travel where you can
40. Baby steps first: incorporate new things slowly
41. Do less… most things don’t work.
Bonus points if you get your blood checked.
Start here, it will change your life.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
Half the battle in building a startup is figuring out how to stop caring about what other people think.
How you fare against other founders and their startups’ growth. What your investors might think. What future investors might think.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
Congestion pricing in New York has led to an 11% decrease in traffic, 14% decrease in accidents, 45% decrease in noise complaints, and 22% decline in particulate pollution
e360.yale.edu/digest/new-yor…
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
The median family income in the U.S. has gone from $10K in 1971 to $106k today, an increase of 10x.
However, the median cost of a house has gone from $25K to $445k, an increase of 17x.
And the median cost of a car has gone from $3.6K to $50k, an increase of 14x.
The median cost of college has gone from $2.9k a year to $45k, an increase of 16x.
And the average cost of healthcare per person has gone from $350 to $14.6k, an increase of 42x.
The average person is worse off today than in 1971.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
My notes from the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger turned into maxims:
1. Find a simple idea and take it seriously.
2. Good ideas are rare. When you find one bet heavily.
3. Humans have been writing down their best ideas for 5,000 years. Read them.
4. Avoiding stupid mistakes is more important than being smart.
5. Don’t work with anyone you don’t admire.
6. Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy.
7. Avoiding a bad habit is easier than breaking a bad habit.
8. Work on your best idea. Don't diversify
9. Incentives rule everything around you.
10. Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
11. The most important rule in management is: Get the incentives right.
12. The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world.
13. Education is the process whereby the ability to lead a good life is acquired.
14. Be dependable for your tribe.
15. Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on Earth.
16. Don’t over optimize for growth at the expense of durability.
17. Great businesses are built by going ridiculously far in maximizing or minimizing one or a few things. Think Costco.
18. The combination of scale and fanaticism is *very* powerful. Think Sam Walton.
19. Do the unpleasant task first.
20. Don’t multitask.
21. Learning is changing behavior.
22. Avoiding stupidity for a long time *is* genius.
23. Many hard problems are solved best when approached backwards.
24. Think of ideas as tools. When a better tool comes along use it.
25. Clip your business and personal expenses. Small leaks sink big ships.
26. Make friends with smart dead people. Adam Smith, Darwin, Cicero, Ben Franklin —whoever interests you. Read their writing. Steal their ideas. They don’t need them anymore.
27. Only focus on great businesses and great businesses have moats.
28. Dominating a niche can produce profit margins that make you salivate.
29. Telling people WHY increases compliance.
30. Stay in the game long enough to get lucky.
31. Stack cash to survive unexpected problems and seize unexpected opportunities.
32. Don't confuse intelligence with invincibility.
33. Panic spreads and compounds quickly.
34. If you’re not winning —scale down and intensify.
35. Appeal to interest, not to reason.
36. Understanding opportunity cost is a superpower.
37. Don’t confuse the map for the territory.
38. People often interpret price as a signal for quality.
39. All human systems are gamed.
40. Beating back bureaucracy is a never ending battle.
41. The acquisition of knowledge is a moral duty.
42. Learning from history is a form of leverage.
43. Make sure your best players get the most playing time.
44. It is inevitable that bad things will happen to you. When they do get up, keep going, and remember the next maxim:
45. Self pity has no utility.
46. Find out what you are best at. Then pound away at it. Forever.
47. Envy is weakness.
48. The behavior of peer companies will be mindlessly imitated.
49. Emotion blurs judgement.
50. Only play games where you have an edge.
51. Avoid mob rule. Avoid demagogues. Avoid dogma. Avoid bureaucracy.
52. Optimize for independence.
53. Use money to buy freedom.
54. Aim for durability.
55. Keep the people who don’t matter from interfering with the work of the people who do.
56. What do you have an *intense* interest in? Do that for your living.
57. Self improvement has no end.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
On Middle Island, Australia, the population of Little Penguins once dropped to fewer than ten.
Foxes invaded at night, hunting the tiny seabirds until their survival seemed impossible.
Then came an unlikely hero: a large, fluffy livestock guardian dog called a Maremma.
Originally bred to protect sheep from wolves, Maremmas have a natural instinct to guard smaller animals. Conservationists decided to try something never done before: train a dog to protect penguins.
The first dog, named Oddball, patrolled the island, barking and marking territory. The result was extraordinary — the foxes stayed away.
Over time, more Maremmas joined the program. Thanks to their presence, the penguin population rebounded, climbing into the hundreds.
Scientists now point to Middle Island as a groundbreaking example of how ancient farming traditions can solve modern conservation crises.
It is not technology, fences, or weapons that saved the penguins. It was trust between species.
The lesson is bigger than one island. It shows us that guardianship and compassion are not uniquely human.
A dog, acting from instinct and training, became the protector of an entirely different species.
That is a story of interconnection — of how survival often depends on bonds that cross the boundaries of species.
In a time when extinction headlines are common, this unlikely friendship reminds us of hope. Sometimes, the savior of the smallest creatures is simply a loyal heart covered in fur.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
I have $100K that I MUST invest into one early stage Climate Tech company. Who should I be talking to?
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
Texas homeowners: there are only 5 DAYS LEFT for you to appeal or protest your property tax increases.
Learn how you can advocate for your property taxes in this piece from our CEO @PolicyRiot.
vivabenefits.com/Blog/the-on…
#taxes #taxseason #Propertymanagement #homeowner
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
A migrant bean picker near Brownsville, 1942. Note the baskets of picked beans behind him. He has a kind face, I think.
Taken by Arthur Rothstein.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
It's stuff like this has me conflicted about AI and art. I read the first few paragraphs... and I just didn't care about anything written. There's no weight to the words being expressed, no meaning beyond those of the words written. If you told me this was written by a human it would definitely have more weight to it, but knowing that it's not makes me just not care.
Maybe that's just me, but this is where I think it gets hard for AI to truly replace the creative space.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
20 years ago in Sacramento, @KingJames made his first career bucket.
Today, he returns on the anniversary of his NBA debut.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
Join us in giving a warm welcome to Logan Nagel, Viva's Director of Partnerships & the newest member of the Viva team!
Logan is joined by our CEO Dr. Michael Barnes at the ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, where they'll be joining the conversation on affordable housing.
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
When I sold my startup in 2020, I ran an A/B test: I gave half the money to Goldman Sachs, and I invested the other half
Five years later, here are the results:
sillymoney.com/p/how-to-not-…
Michael Barnes, Ph.D. 🏡 retweeted
Research shows Viva is the most effective way to help residents meet emergency savings goals.
PROPERTY OWNERS: Contact us for the full case study and learn how our benefits can help you AND your tenants save money!
