I'm an idea dealer
San Francisco, CA
Joined January 2010
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my notes from hanging out with Mr. Die With Zero (@billperkins)
background:
* made $100M+ as a commodities trader + his own fund
* wrote the book Die with Zero
* pretty dope guy. fun hang. zero corporate PR stuff
0/ You have no idea what you really want.
Most of our desires have been programmed into us by parents, teachers, movies, news etc.
Our dreams and desires are the products of great marketing. Do you really want 2 kids and a white picket fence? Where did that idea come from ?
Simple example: "I think eating fried crickets is gross. But that's just because it wasn't marketed to me growing up. If I grew up in China, I'd see fried crickets as a delicacy. It's all just what's been marketed to me"
What does winning mean for you? Success is defining what you want, then getting what you want.
1/ Everyone is worried about losing money, meanwhile they squander their life.
If you are going to be afraid of something, be afraid of squandering your life. It will override all your other fears (being liked, failure etc.)
2/ The point of the book "Die with Zero" isn't to die with zero dollars, its' to die with zero regrets.
I didn't fully get that when I read the book (whoops. how tf did I miss the main point)
3/ The title of the book is amazing. Top 5 book title.
The same ideas packaged as "live life to the fullest" or "live wihtout regrets" would be generic/forgettable/sell zero copies and have zero impact
4/ Your body is a depreciating asset
In the balance sheet of life, your body is depreciating every year.
You gotta use it before you lose it. Don't wait till you're 90 to waterski.
Certain experiences (eg. backpacking thru europe, playing sports, etc.) aren't easily movable. Backpacking thru europe, sleeping in hostels and crashing on couches is amazing in your 20s. Not so much in your 40s.
5/ Don't Do Bucket Lists, do Time Buckets instead
A bucket list is a "someday" list. You feel like you have your whole life to do it (therefore, never get around to doing it)
Better approach - "time buckets". What are a handful of things you want to do/experience in the next 5 years? Make those happen.
Eg. sam told the story of "living like a millionaire on 50 grand". He wanted to ride a motorcycle across america, couchsurfing. He knew the time to do this was in his early 20s.
6/ We die many deaths
There isn't just one death. There are many. Eg. when you get married, the single version of you dies. When you have kids, the kidless version dies. When you graduate college, college you is gone.
Appreciate what it was. mourn the loss. Then begin anew.
7/ I asked him what's NOT going well in his life right now (bc nobody is perfect). His answer:
His goal is always to be in the top 1% of health for his age.
A few years ago he was 8% body fat (top 1%) and top 1% VO2Max. Now he's 18% and 50%.
"I could give myself all kinds of excuses. I'm not sleeping well because of the new baby. But in reality, that's bullshit. I'm just not doing what I need to be doing. I"m f*cking over future Bill by not doing those things"
I've never thought about it like that. So I asked ChatGPT what that would mean for me (38yr old male) . I compared it to my current dexa + bloodwork + fitness abilities (pushup, pullup, mile run, mobility etc.)
highly recommend doing this to have much more tangible health fitness goals
full ep is on youtube youtu.be/OE32mgQCN6E?si=EvtP…
There’s an old book called “Your Word is Your Wand”
I love the idea that our words are basically spells, but they only work on ourselves.
For example, here’s a couple “word spells” that change how your brain sees the world:
"Have to" —> "Get to"
Do you “have to” go pickup your kid from school? Or do you "get to"?
Do you "have to" go to to your parents house this Saturday? Or do you "get to"?
Someone said this about exercise. Hard exercise isn’t a punishment for the shape your body is in, it’s a celebration of what your body can do.
“Yet”
Rather than “I can’t” or “I don’t know how” or “I’m not good at this”. Just add the word “yet” at the end.
3 letters and it totally changes what it means.
“I don’t have time” → “I haven’t made the time”
The average person consumes 26 hours of content (TV, social media) a week. And yet we say we don’t have time.
Liar! You just haven’t decided to make time yet.
Words are spells!
sat down with Ethan Evans (who spent 15 years at Amazon working with Jeff Bezos)
we talked about:
- what it's really like working for Jeff
- his "?" emails
- the story of Amazon Prime
- who Jeff studied
youtube.com/watch?v=0_hpTKQq…
Shaan Puri retweeted
I haven't heard from Nick Kokonas since Tim Ferriss's last interview. It's an amazing episode: youtu.be/YdRLpWQARtA. Thanks for making it happen, @ShaanVP and @nickkokonas.
so simple, so effective, yet… so rare? Why?
the best part of the elizabeth holmes movie is that it sent me down the nathan fielder rabbit hole
and I got to see the work of art that is Nathan For You season 1 episode 4
just gotta say -- the name SpaceXSI is atrocious
SpaceX -- iconic
xAI -- cool
AI rebrands to SI -- understandable
....SpaceXSI
If you’ve got an hour drive this week, listen to this podcast
1/ The A-B-Z framework to stop overthinking
2/ Why your hometown might be holding you back
3/ The story of “Iron John”
youtu.be/XnQ2Da7HcRk?si=7iaB…
If I had to compress one important idea I've learned about podcasting, it would be this:
"notice what you have an contagious irrational passion for -- and bottle it up for the rest of us"
Contagious, irrational passion.
If your interest level is rational...you're not gonna make it.
Irrational is you fall asleep listening to old talks on youtube about it. You read everything you can get your hands on. You care about it far beyond it's usefulness to you.
Contagious is also important. You know how some people's laugh makes you laugh, even when the joke isn't funny to you? You need that as a creator. Your passion must be so contagious that you get me excited about stuff I don't even care about. I watched a youtube documentary yesterday on the best scrabble player in the world.
5 minutes before that, I didn't care. But 5 minutes into it, I was hooked. The guys excitement about this scrabble god was contagious.
Most people don't have anything they're irrationally, contagiously passionate about. That's fine. Most people don't need/deserve to have a popular channel.
But I suspect many more people could have one, than currently do. That's because most people underestimate themselves. They think they need some special skill or experience. Nope.
And even if you do notice it, most people lack courage to actually go for it. They're so afraid to fail, they will instead will try to fit for what they're guessing people want. No no no. bad bad dumb dumb.
Gotta own what you nerd out about.
For me, that's business & life wisdom. I love underdog entrepreneur stories. I'm a sucker for a good quote. I love brainstorming bad business ideas. I love marketing/growth hacks. So I bottled that up into a podcast. 100M+ downloads later, I get paid handsomely to talk to my friends who are also business junkies.
Not everybody has contagious irrational passion, but if you do -- don't underestimate it.
You can tap dance to work everyday, and make hundreds of millions of dollars as a byproduct.
Bill Simmons has an irrational, contagious passion for sports & pop culture. For 20 years he's been podcasting & blogging about it with his friends.
David Senra is irrationally passionate about biographies of great men. There's a dude on youtube called "Ryan Hall Y'all" who's obsessed with the weather. I don't care about the weather, but he's so into it, I'll get sucked in.
True crime, food, business, movie breakdowns etc.. there's an infinite number of niches. But it's harry potter. you don't choose the niche. the niche chooses you. It's already chosen you. You just have to notice & accept it
A life well lived is a life well edited. When you want to improve your life, reach for scissors not glue
just discovered @sharifshameem's blog. very good. go read a couple posts sharif.io/posts
