One of you suggested I should create a video recommendations section, similar to the books section. So if you find some interesting bite-size videos in the areas of economics, finance, technology, sociology or psychology, then please post it here and hopefully we can discuss them further.
But first, I thought I would share some of my favourite YouTube channels:
CaspianReport - reports on geopolitical situation of countries and regions, made in a very serious tone
ColdFusion - a peek into the future of tech, and past of largest companies, cool music and video editing
Half As Interesting - some random absurdities and peculiarities of the World, in a bit sarcastic tone
Joe Scott - a guy talks about science and tech in a very casual and funny way
Kurzgesagt - a very cool animated series about science, technology & biology
PBS Space Time - a guy goes into detail about most complex topics in physics, not an easy watch
PolyMatter - an animated series about tech companies and other random topics
The School of Life - psychology, philosophy understanding yourself, mostly animated
Tom Scott - cool places and stories from around the World from a very approachable guy
VisualPolitik - politics, with slightly annoying music
Wendover Productions - some peculiarities from politics and economics, with a focus on aviation
So here is a video I just finished watching that fits perfectly into our latest discussions.
Itās about how when we read or watch or hear something, we think we got it, but a few hours later we donāt remember much from it. It goes on about how weāre bombarded with data and notifications, and how truly understanding something needs a lot of effort. I really recommend it, because thatās what Iāve been feeling recently. I feel like Iām consuming all this smart content, but then when I try to explain it to a friend, Iām struggling to recall the key points, and I suddenly feel mentally impaired!
Excellent video that explains well one of our contemporary problem : we live in a sea of knowledge, but that doesnāt mean that we understand the world.
The recall technique and the Feynman technique the guy mentions are very good. Another technique I like to use to try to understand and remember a subject or a book is the 5 Why technique.
For instance, if I am reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond and I want to explain why human history evolved as it did :
Why did Europeans end up colonizing the new world and not the other way around - for instance Incas colonizing Europe ?
Because Europeans had Guns, Germs (like smallpox) and Steel and Incas did not. (Smallpox killed hundred times more Incas than Spanish swords)
2)Why did Europeans had Guns, Germs and Steel and Inca did not?
Because they had society based on specialization
3)Why did they have such a society?
Because they had switched long ago from hunter gatherers to agriculture and animal domestication, that allowed storage of food surplus and specialization of individuals (and european germs came form the animals they had domesticated)
4)Why did Europeans manage to domesticate animals?
Because there species available in Eurasia that met the following criterias: being able to breed in captivity (bye bye cheetah), not being picky eaters (bye lions, i donāt want to feed you tons of meat everyday), they must be docile by nature (bye buffalo, american bison, zebra and hippopotamus) and they must reach maturity quickly compared to humans so they can be put to work quickly, and bred quickly as well (bye turtles and elephants).
Actually not many animals have been domesticated for work/food production : only dogs, sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, horses, camels; all others animals failed one or many criteria.
5)Why were domesticated animals not available in the New world?
Because when the first Sapiens arrived in America 11ā000 years ago (and in Australia 40ā000 years ago), they killed all the big mammals that were living on these territories (these were the first of many human led extinctions)
I should do the same 5 whys technique to explain why some civilizations were able to be farmers to cultivate cereals and not others (at the time the only cereal available was corn in Mexico, that was not suited to grow on other latitudes in America), but you see the picture :
In general, it is my experience that you will not be able to remember the explanation past the third āwhyā. So this technique helped me understanding what I am reading/seeing.
Another important point mentioned in your video is how modern internet platforms only provide facts without us being able to connect the dots. We donāt want just facts (shallowness), we want to be able to explain them and understand the world (deepness). Thatās why :
reading a good book on a subject will be one hundred times better than looking at news related to the subject or even blogs, because it will enable you to dig deeper in the principles
we need, as advocated by Charlie Munger, a latticework of mental models to be able to quickly and effectively connect facts to how the world works.
And thus, I switched to a low-information diet and used the freed time to read good books instead.
Once again, it is very important to not get trapped into the attention economy.
EDIT: your video mentioned Barbara Oakley there is a very good farnam street podcast with her about learning how to learn.
Great video, @Bojack, thanks for sharing. Hopefully Iāll still remember what itās about when I finish posting this.
I was reminded of something I read in a Wait But Why article:
As weāve discussed before, knowledge works like a tree. If you try to learn a branch or a leaf of a topic before you have a solid tree trunk foundation of understanding in your head, it wonāt work. The branches and leaves will have nothing to stick to, so theyāll fall right out of your head.
I guess thatās why the 5 Why technique works, it forces you to work your way back to the trunk.
JL Collins: āThe Simple Path to Wealthā | Talks at Google
Author and financial blogger JL Collins brings his refreshingly unique and approachable take on investing to Google.
The author of āThe Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Lifeā, JL offers easy-to-understand, effective tips and resources to understand investing with confidence.
In this interview with Googler Rachel Smith, JL Collins discusses money and investing, including: how to think about money and investing to build wealth, how to avoid debt, how to simplify the world of 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA and Roth accounts, TRFs (Target Retirement Funds), HSAs (Health Savings Accounts) and RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions).
He also talks about what the stock market really is and how it really works, How to invest in a raging bull, or bear, market, and specific investments to implement financial strategies.
Criticism of self-help books by a guy who used to make video summaries of them. Basically he says that most self-help books are written by phonies, self-proclaimed experts, and the books are bloated and repetitive. You could sum it all up on one page, but of course then you couldnāt sell a bookā¦
This guy is posting too much for me, like 2-3 videos every day. On a first look, he seems like your typical āthe crash is comingā prophet, who is wrong for years until heās finally ārightā. However, the economic indicators and market news that he presents, are pretty compelling and something that Iāve seen mentioned on this or that page already.
So in this video he presents the UNRATE and U6RATE, which predicted all recessions since WW2.
Iāve been sitting on cash for a while now. And I really donāt know what to do now. Invest, or waitā¦
Where do you guys find time to watch all these videos? All of them could generally be summarized within 3 bullet points which take 10 seconds to read.
For your daily dose of doom and gloom, just read Zerohedge. They post the same graphs almost on a daily basis. All this can easily get on your mind so apply a sane dose of skepticism. Once you learn to read between the lines, Zerohedge is a very useful resource.
Iām also worried about high valuations of US stocks which is why US is probably <25% of my overall portfolio. I chose to buy the most battered markets which is why I invested in Turkey (ITKY) and China (CNYA) last year. This has proven hugely successful.
Starting this year I got some Argentina and Colombia (ARGT, GXG) and in February I bought Nigeria and Pakistan (NGE, PAK). Iām buying some Greece (GREK) this coming Monday.
I also bought single stocks battered by disappointing earnings (GE, BATS, AMS AG). Heck, I even bought some shares of Kraft Heinz (KHC) yesterday ā¦
I watch YouTube videos in my free time to relax. This has been suggested to me by YouTube. I donāt watch all his videos. Just this one I thought was worth sharing. Iām not sure how reading Zerohedge should be less time consuming.
What weāre looking at are some macroeconomic indicators that give us a general feeling about the whole economy. What youāre describing are really details stock picking operations, each of which probably required a long analysis and then tracking for as long as you hold it. Not sure how is this supposed to save time?
I would like to just buy VT and forget about it, but the indicators are really bad. The stock prices can only go up as long as the money keeps being printed. And it cannot go on forever.
I expect a short term dip but the money printing is already starting again. For some reason the FED thinks they should end their balance sheet reduction?!
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