Rational VC Podcast

What are these "hard things" these grifters talk about? They all talk like they grew up orphans in a slum in Kinshasa. Just shut up.

It's so important to have people in your corner who have a vision for your life that exceeds the limitations of your own world view because when those people speak life into you magic and wonders can happen.💫

Writing, Publishing & Marketing a Book in the AI Era Tren Griffin (@trengriffin) is the author of Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor and the 25iq blog, and is writing his eighth book. Tren joins us to discuss why writing a book is rarely about money, why every author is really starting a business, how to build a book in public, and why deep knowledge makes for better AI prompts. He also reveals the Charlie Munger lesson that changed his life during the dot-com boom. Out now on Infinite Loops, with @jposhaughnessy. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:51 Why Jim Started a Publishing Company 1:23 How Book Deals Are Changing 1:53 Why Write a Book If It Won't Make Money 2:57 How a Book Put Jim on the Map 3:33 Books That Reach Decision Makers 5:28 Every Author Is Starting a Business 6:34 Inside Infinite Books: AI Fact-Checking and Marketing 10:06 Paying It Forward and a 70/30 Author Split 13:14 Write for Yourself, Then Tell Stories 14:09 The Morgan Housel Hire That Got Away 15:50 Why Infinite Books A/B Tests Its Covers 18:26 Finding a Book's Readers With Data 19:52 Give Before You Ask 20:30 Word of Mouth and Customer Acquisition Cost 21:58 Free AI vs. Frontier AI 25:14 AI Indexing and Text Blindness 28:34 Nobody Has Perspective on Themselves 29:02 Why Writing for Money Backfires 33:13 What Authors Hate About Publishing 35:10 Bill Gurley's Runnin' Down a Dream 36:50 The Grocery Store Theory of Life 38:51 Charlie Munger: You Only Have to Get Rich Once 41:08 Simplifying the Kelly Criterion 43:31 The Curse of Knowledge 44:57 How Tren Profiles Great Investors 46:52 What Bad Reviews Teach 50:29 Why AI Feels Like the 1993 Internet 50:45 AI Is Dual Use, Like Fire 56:26 AI Lets Authors Own the Whole Stack 58:00 Why Books Follow a Power Law 59:55 How to Build a Book in Public 1:02:51 Marketing When Distribution Costs Almost Nothing 1:04:32 Why Writing Needs Uninterrupted Time 1:06:04 Why Jim and Tren Stopped Using Google 1:07:38 Knowing More Makes You a Better Prompter 1:08:24 Is Serious Reading Dying? 1:15:08 Using AI to Read Hard Books 1:18:53 How to Become More Curious 1:21:50 Try Everything, Collect Stories 1:23:14 The Great-Story Test 1:25:13 Growing Up Curious in Seattle 1:29:16 Tren's Next Book 1:30:42 Happiness Is a Byproduct 1:31:48 Don't Take the Turd 1:34:36 Reciprocity, Manipulation and Social Media 1:38:52 No W-2 Doesn't Mean Retired 1:40:18 Never Retire: Jim's Grandfather's Advice 1:42:03 Two Ideas for the World

I am concerned a lot of people are going to learn the wrong lesson from extraordinary individuals like Nik. Is he amazing? YES. Has he built a spectacular business? YES. Do I have tremendous respect for him? YES. Should *you* mimic him? For 90% of people, the answer is NO. Would *you* burn out if you even remotely attempted to replicate his work? For 90% of people, the answer is YES. You need significant self-awareness to understand where you stand, what you truly want out of life, what risks are you willing to take, what pain are you ready to endure and for how long. And self-awareness is surprisingly rare. It's not easy. It's like when people tell me "Steve Jobs did this and that". OK buddy, but you ain't Steve Jobs.

A Princeton Ph.D. applied to 2,300 jobs. He still can’t get one, per WSJ.

I’ve been DJing since 2018. I’ve played at clubs, small festivals, Burning Man, etc. I’m technically professional but it’s a side quest for me. I mostly play for / with friends to have fun and spread joy.

Because he disclosed how much he gets from there and you know how that goes 🤷🏾‍♀️