Weekend Reading
Writing worth reading - 17th/18th August 2024
Silicon Valley’s Trump supporters are making a big mistake by Michael Moritz
“When confronted with the malleable question of character, the Trumpers will squawk about Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton and Whitewater real estate, or the philandering proclivities of (pick your favorite) Presidents Clinton, Johnson, Kennedy or Roosevelt. All politicians, they will argue, are flawed. But even Richard Nixon, crook that he was, had sufficient respect for the rule of law to resign following the Watergate scandal.…”
America’s Top 50 Givers Meet the philanthropists who gave away the most money in 2018. by Jennifer Wang
“Most of the top philanthropists are also among the richest Americans in the country. Nine of the top ten givers made it to the ranks of the 2019 Forbes 400 list; altogether, 39 of the 50 top givers are Forbes 400 members. For the fifth year running, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett tops the list at No.1, while Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Bloomberg, the Walton family and George Soros round out the top five. In total, America's 50 most generous philanthropists gave out $14.1 billion in 2018, up from $12.6 billion in 2017 and $12.2 billion in 2016. Collectively, the group's lifetime giving—a tally of funds distributed by their foundations plus direct gifts—exceeds $173 billion. Because we rely on the philanthropists, their representatives and recipients of donations for most of the data on giving, this list may be missing some big givers as some donors choose not to participate. See below for methodology and details on all the givers.…”
Lessons from Keith Rabois by Mo Golshan
“.. Work ethic (or lack thereof) is contagious and may even be subject to the reduction to the least common denominator problem*. Intelligence may be spread partially via osmosis and lack of intelligence probably is relatively contagious (i.e. everyone starts operating at below par). As a result, one bad hire on the work effort scale can infect the entire company and ruin it; one great or bad hire on the intelligence score will probably not dictate (or affect as dramatically) the IQ level of the remainder of the team.…”