Schelling Point: Cooperating Without Communicating

People who can’t communicate can cooperate by anticipating the other person’s actions
Let’s talk about Schelling points. The Schelling point is a game theory concept made famous by Thomas Schelling in his book, The Strategy of Conflict, which I recommend. It’s about multiplayer games where people respond based on what they think the other person’s response will be. More

Kelly Criterion: Avoid Ruin

Don't ruin your reputation or get wiped to zero
Let’s chat about the Kelly criterion.  The Kelly criterion is a popularized mathematical formulation of a simple concept. The simple concept is: Don’t risk everything. Stay out of jail. Don’t bet everything on one big gamble. Be careful how much you bet each time, so you don’t lose the whole kitty.  If you’re a gambler, the Kelly criterion mathematically formulates how much you should wager per hand, even if you have an edge—because even when you have an edge, you can still lose. More

Envy Can Be Useful, or It Can Eat You Alive

Envy can give you a powerful boost, or it can eat you alive
Do you want to tell us about jobs you had growing up and the one that kicked off your fanatical obsession with creating wealth? This gets a little personal, and I don’t want to humble-brag. There was a thread going around Twitter—Name Five Jobs You’ve Held—and every rich person on there was signaling how they’ve held normal jobs. More

Being Ethical Is Long-Term Greedy

If you cut fair deals, you will get paid in the long run
In the “How to Get Rich” tweetstorm you listed things you suggest people study, like programming, sales, reading, writing and arithmetic. One of the items that ended up on the cutting-room floor was ethics, which you also suggest people study. I was going to put that out as a concession to people who believe making money is evil and that the only way to make it is to be evil. More

We Should All Be Working for Ourselves

But we will have to make sacrifices and take on more risk
Who is this advice targeted to? Is it for my Lyft driver? Is it for an Internet entrepreneur? Is it for somebody who wants to start a YouTube channel? Because it comes from someone who’s steeped in Silicon Valley and tech companies, it’s always going to have a bias towards that. More

Accountability Means Letting People Criticize You

You have to stick your neck out and be willing to fail publicly
We finished discussing the tweetstorm. We’re going to spend some time on Q&A and discussing tweets that didn’t make it into the “How to Get Rich” tweetstorm. My first question: What are some common failures or things people typically do wrong when they try to apply this advice? A lot of people don’t understand what specific knowledge is or how to “obtain” More

A Calm Mind, a Fit Body, a House Full of Love

When you're finally wealthy, you'll realize it wasn't what you were seeking in the first place
The last tweet on the topic of working for the long-term is: “When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place. But that’s for another day.” That’s a multi-hour topic in and of itself. First of all, I thought it was a really clever way to end the whole thing. More

Reject Most Advice

Most advice is people giving you their winning lottery ticket numbers
One of the tweets from the cutting-room floor was: “Avoid people who got rich quickly. They’re just giving you their winning lottery ticket numbers.” This is generally true of most advice. It goes back to Scott Adams—systems not goals. If you ask a successful person what worked for them, they often read out the exact set of things that worked for them, which might not apply to you. More