Sunday Reads and Listens...The Future Is Bright!

Discover premium cycling and performance brands from around the world. Shop exclusive and curated collections featuring essentials for training and racing. Enjoy free shipping and free returns on all US orders, and for a limited time, save 15% off your order with code Panic15. Valid on full-priced items. Shop now!

Happy Father’s day to all you dads.

I am officially in Coronado for the summer. I tell people that ‘porch’ Howie is the best ‘Howie’. I do my best thinking and working in Coronado.

Ellen has been stuck dealing with our Coronado home renovations for the last year as a water leak wreaked havoc. The work is not yet complete, so we are living in our bedroom for now and hoping to have the whole home back by August 1.

This afternoon I will go to the range at San Diego Country Club and watch the final round of the US Open golf'.

Let me get right to Sunday reads…

Most of what I write about is investing which means I write about technology. Few predicted that this would be a great year for technology stocks, but it has been.

Why?

Nobody knows why on timing, which is why it is important to be ‘IN’ the market, but I like Fred Wilson’s riff on technology:

The combination of computer science advances in machine learning, decentralized systems (blockchains), and new forms of interacting with compute (chat interfaces, heads up displays, voice, etc) presents the most potent cocktail of innovation I have ever seen. We are also seeing amazing scientific advances in areas like renewable/clean energy, health and wellness (biotech), robotics, and many other areas.

These are bright times. As bright as they come.

Indeed. This is why I read newsletters and blogs of people that think clearly and share consistently and don’t watch or listen to news.

I have been using Midjourney (AI) every day and sharing my ‘prompts’ on the blog. I liked this post from Auren Hoffman (who has a great newsletter) on his journey with Midjourney.

Auren linked to a few other posts I loved this week…

In Praise of Memorization. Mastering the oldest “productivity hack” in the book, and why it works.

The age of average. In the 1990s, two Russian artists paid polling firms to create surveys on the “ideal” painting in a dozen countries around the world. The paintings all turned out more or less the same. Three decades later, that phenomenon has crept into all corners of style and culture around the world.

I really liked this post from Morgan Housel…

Compounding Optimism. I often talk about my investing style as trend following. As a seed investor I express this as incrementalism. I can’t prove it works, but it has worked for me. Not being able to peer too far into the future continues to work as an investment strategy.

As for listens…

Two more from Auren Hoffman who has a podcast.

The first is with Avlok, the CEO of Angel List. I am investor in Angel List and have chatted with Avlok often about strategy. In this podcast he talks about AI and dual threat CEO’s.

Second is Sebastian Mallaby - The Greatest Storyteller in Venture Capital. Sebastian is the author of ‘Power Law’ which I did not know. Excellent.

Have a great Sunday.