About Compounding

Shane Parrish of Farnham Street pointed out that “Compounding,” is a really useful concept, especially when applied to things outside of finance, where the term refers to earning interest on interest.

Then along comes an article by Daniel F. Chambliss, "The Mundanity of Excellence," reminding us that great talent can happen only when we stand on the shoulders of numerous sub-talents:

Excellence is mundane. Excellence is mundane. Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all to- gether, produce excellence. When a swimmer learns a proper flip turn in the freestyle races, she will swim the race a bit faster; then a streamlined push off from the wall, with the arms squeezed together over the head, and a little faster; then how to place the hands in the water so no air is cupped in them; then how to lift them over the water; then how to lift weights to properly build strength, and how to eat the right foods, and to wear the best suits for racing, and on and on. Each of those tasks seems small in itself, but each allows the athlete to swim a bit faster. And having learned and consistently practiced all of them to- gether, and many more besides, the swimmer may compete in the Olympic Games. The win- ning of a gold medal is nothing more than the synthesis of a countless number of such little things—even if some of them are done unwit- tingly or by others, and thus called “luck.”.

One final thought: It has increasingly appeared to me that anything good that has happened (and many bad things) are the result of work I’ve done (or failed to do) over many years or decades. Compounding is behind my biggest successes and failures. One of the biggest ways this show up in in your reputation. As the saying goes, a good reputation is hard to earn and easy to lose. When you've spent your entire life trying to be trustworthy, truthful and kind, that opens doors for you, over and over. But you might forget that this superpower was something you assembled over decades.

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Michael Shellenberger Discusses The Origins of San Francisco’s Homeless Problem with Joe Rogan

This is an excerpt from a much longer discussion. Michael Shellenberger is discussing San Francisco's homeless problem with Joe Rogan. One of his conclusions is the well-intentioned attitude by many liberals that all homeless people are purely victims and that they cannot be blamed for any of their behaviors, including their uses of dangerous drugs.

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Mother Trees that Care For their Children Trees

What I'm currently reading: Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard (2021). Simard makes a stunning claim. Here's an excerpt from her introduction:

My queries started from a place of solemn concern for the future of our forests but grew into an intense curiosity, one clue leading to another, about how the forest was more than just a collection of trees.

In this search for the truth, the trees have shown me their perceptiveness and responsiveness, connections and conversations. What started as a legacy, and then a place of childhood home, solace, and adventure in western Canada, has grown into a fuller understanding of the intelligence of the forest and, further, an exploration of how we can regain our respect for this wisdom and heal our relationship with nature.

One of the first clues came while I was tapping into the messages that the trees were relaying back and forth through a cryptic underground fungal network. When I followed the clandestine path of the conversations, I learned that this network is pervasive through the entire forest floor, connecting all the trees in a constellation of tree hubs and fungal links. A crude map revealed, stunningly, that the biggest, oldest timbers are the sources of fungal connections to regenerating seedlings. Not only that, they connect to all neighbors, young and old, serving as the linchpins for a jungle of threads and synapses and nodes. I’ll take you through the journey that revealed the most shocking aspect of this pattern—that it has similarities with our own human brains. In it, the old and young are perceiving, communicating, and responding to one another by emitting chemical signals. Chemicals identical to our own neurotransmitters. Signals created by ions cascading acrossfungal membranes.

The older trees are able to discern which seedlings are their own kin.The old trees nurture the young ones and provide them food and water just as we do with our own children. It is enough to make one pause, take a deep breath, and contemplate the social nature of the forest and how this is critical for evolution. The fungal network appears to wire the trees for fitness. And more. These old trees are mothering their children.

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2021: When it was Necessary for Experts to Argue that there are Only Two Sexes.

This letter should not have been necessary. There are two, and only two, sexes. That should be the starting point for all discussions of transgender issues. Here's an excerpt from an Irish Journal of Medical Science letter titled: "The Reality of Sex":

We regard the claim that sex is neither fixed nor binary to be entirely without scientific merit—there are two sexes, male and female, and in humans, sex is immutable (disorders of sexual development are very rare and, in any event, do not result in any additional sexes). Such politically motivated policies and statements have no place in scientific journals. It is essential that impartiality be maintained in order to preserve public trust in science as a process dedicated to producing shared knowledge.

We call upon authors and editors to resist non-scientific pressures to suppress honest and accurate discussion of these matters, particularly in the field of medicine where diagnosis, prognosis and treatment can depend on a patient’s sex.

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Rogan Pushes Sanjay Gupta to Cough Up the Truth About Gupta’s Employer, CNN

Sanjay Gupta is one of the good guys. During the pandemic, he has provided a lot of good information regarding COVID. That said, Joe Rogan had him on the ropes as Gupta tries to defend the misconduct of CNN, Gupta's employer. Well worth watching and excellent analysis by Krystal and Saagar.

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