The Journal no. 2 – December 31, ​2017

Welcome to the second issue of The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Articles

Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain By Kai Stinchcombe -Hackernoon

How Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing apps are outmaneuvering Uber. By 13D Research

We’re Going to Need More Lithium By Jessica Shankleman, Tom Biesheuvel, Joe Ryan, and Dave Merrill – Bloomberg

The Year in Money By Laurie Meisler – Bloomberg

The future of grocery shopping has arrived in China By Karen Hao – Quartz

Who is Marcus Aurelius? The Last Great Stoic of Rome – Farnam Street

How to Remember What You Read – Farnam Street

The Buffett Formula: Going to Bed Smarter Than you Woke Up– Farnam Street

Cool sh*t

cocoon modules + coco-mat envision nomadic dwelling with a container house prototype – Designboom

yuan architects elevates housing in taiwan to provide privacy and outdoor activity space – Designboom

RIGI design renews a single family building in shanghai and lights it up – Designboom

All-Electric Morgan EV3 Will Go Into Production in 2018  -HypeBeast

Yamazaki USA Tower Magazine Rack – Cool Material

Kahn Design Flying Huntsman 6×6 Soft Top – Cool Material

Lift Standing Desk – opendesk

Videos

Mark Cuban In Conversation With Kyle Bass | Real Vision Video – 55 min

How Machines Learn – 9 min

Charlie Munger Commencement Address – USC – 33 min

Podcasts

Live Episode! The Home Depot: Arthur Blank – 33 min

Lessons from Bozoma Saint John — From Spike Lee to Uber, From Ghana to Silicon Valley – 106 min

Principles: Life and Work

I am currently reading Principles by Ray Dalio. I heard about Ray Dalio a couple of years ago by watching How The Economic Machine Works, a fascinating video. Since He is a private person, I was very excited when I heard that he has a book coming this year. Principles is a three-part book. The first part talks about Ray Dalio’s Career and what it took him to overcome his failure. The second part is Ray Dalio’s Life Principles, which is what I am currently reading, and the final part is Ray Dalio’s Work Principles.

Here are some interviews about the book with Ray Dalio:

Ray Dalio, Principles, The Evolution of Bridgewater Associates, & Meditation | #AskGaryVee 275 – 63 min

Tony Robbins interviews billionaire Ray Dalio – author of Principles – 66 min

Life Lessons from a Self-Made Billionaire: My Conversation with Ray Dalio – Farnam Street

Ray Dalio, The Steve Jobs of Investing – Tim Fessis – 128 min

How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio – 31 min

Here is an excerpt from the book that made me think about the size of the universe :

“Through our own eyes, we are everything – e.g., when we die, the whole world disappears. So to most people (and to other species) dying is the worst thing possible, and it is of paramount importance that we have the best life possible. However, when we look down on ourselves through the eyes of nature we are of absolutely no significance. It is a reality that each one of us is only one of about seven billion of our species alive today and that our species is only one of about ten million species on our planet. Earth is just one of about 100 billion planets in our galaxy, which is just one of about two trillion galaxies in the universe. And our lifetimes are only about 1/3,000 of humanity’s existence, which itself is only 1/20,000 of the Earth’s existence. In other words, we are unbelievably tiny and short-lived and no matter what we accomplish, our impact will be insignificant.”  – p. 149

Thanks for reading, happy new year and see you next week!

Balal Rasool

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