Hey Everyone,
Welcome back to The Chomp—your weekly dose of the best content from the internet and beyond, designed to expand your mind and get you thinking. Let’s dive into it.
Quick Bites
Americans Are Moving Less: The headline here says it all. Less than 10% of Americans moved to new locations in 2018-2019, which is the lowest on record since the Census Bureau started tracking this data in 1947. This quick Axios article breaks down the data and offers insight into what it means and why it matters. (2 min)
The Crucible Of Leadership: Jerry Colonna is a revered executive coach and venture investor who has dedicated his life to helping humans become better leaders. A few years ago, Jerry wrote a guest post about leadership on Fred Wilson’s AVC blog. Fred reposted the article this week after Jerry gave a talk on the topic. Highly recommended for anyone with aspirations of becoming a leader in their craft. (8 min)
Success & Perception: Success often leads to distortion in the way that we see things. It also changes our perception of others and their successes. This fascinating essay from author Colin Wright explores the various perceptions about success and how it’s attained. It’s worth delving into and taking a step back to think through something that’s always on our minds, whether conscious or not. (8 min)
Deeper Dives
How to Lose a Monopoly: Microsoft, IBM, and Anti-Trust: Following up on last week’s Stratechery post I shared, this recent piece from Benedict Evans offers a different perspective on the topic of generational change in big tech. Through the examples of IBM and Microsoft, Evans argues that market power in one generation of tech doesn’t necessarily lead to market power in the next. “It doesn’t matter how big your castle is if the trade routes move somewhere else .” In tandem, both of these pieces offer excellent insight into where we’re likely headed over the next decade. (11 min)
How to Overcome Your Brain’s Fixation on Bad Things: Due to negativity bias, humans have a tendency to give more weight to things that go wrong than to things that go right. It’s a propensity we all share, and overcoming negativity bias is no easy task. Social psychologist Roy Baumeister and New York Times writer John Tierney recently penned a new book exploring the topic called The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It. This interview with both authors in UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Magazine offers a useful summary of their findings and some insightful takeaways from their research. (10 min)
Media
Invest Like the Best Ep. 154 with Matt Clifford – Investing Pre-Company: In this episode of Invest Like the Best, Patrick O'Shaughnessy dives into the nascent world of talent investing with Matt Clifford of Entrepreneur First. This is a super interesting conversation about a space that hasn’t existed in the past but could have a huge impact on the future of entrepreneurship. Definitely worth a listen.
Tweet of the Week
Song of the Week
Apple Music Link
Books
Currently Reading
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York(Robert A. Caro)
Dark Age: Red Rising #5 (Pierce Brown)
Recently Read
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life(William Finnegan): This is easily one of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read. William Finnegan is an incredible writer and it’s no surprise his reflections on his life in Barbarian Days won him a Pulitzer Prize. This one is well worth your time—whether you’re a surfer or not. (5/5)
Parting Thoughts
This Week in History
On January 15, 2001, Wikipedia was launched and the world’s online encyclopedia was born. By 2007, Wikipedia was one of the top 10 most popular websites in the world and leather-bound encyclopedias were essentially rendered useless. (Source)
“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo
If you found something that piqued your interest this week, please help me out in expanding the reach of The Chomp by forwarding it along to a friend or sharing it with others in your network on social media. Until next week.
-Cody