Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
01:05:26 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Michael Moritz
[01:05:26] S0: Do you miss it? [01:05:27] S2: Yeah, there are aspects of it. But I miss aspects of it, but I know full well that I would not want to return to that way of life. [01:05:36] S0: Is it the flow state of it that you miss? The feeling of total immersion and forgetting yourself? [01:05:41] S2: Maybe, I get that when I'm painting. It's a simpler life. You don't have to make decisions about how you allocate your time, because your calendar is commanded by some other force. The difference between having your calendar dictated by others and being in complete control of your calendar yourself. It's night and day. [01:06:03] S0: What's your hope for the standard? What are the principles that guide it? [01:06:07] S2: Griffin, I didn't set it up as a not for profit. One of the things that we wanted to do was to show that local journalism can be a profitable business, number one. Number two, it's to have a vibrant, interesting, diverting, but reliable source of information for people in San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area, for people who care about that sort of stuff. Number three, I've been very clear from day one that news coverage, there's no proprietorial thumb on the scale when it comes to news coverage. Some of the stories in The Standard I've been mentioned and referred to in ways that I wouldn't necessarily write myself. So that's fair game. But in the ideas and opinions area, it's center of right of center. And that's what this is, and that's a much needed voice in San Francisco.
01:06:07 · Michael Moritz, Patrick O'Shaughnessy
[01:06:07] S2: Griffin, I didn't set it up as a not for profit. One of the things that we wanted to do was to show that local journalism can be a profitable business, number one. Number two, it's to have a vibrant, interesting, diverting, but reliable source of information for people in San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area, for people who care about that sort of stuff. Number three, I've been very clear from day one that news coverage, there's no proprietorial thumb on the scale when it comes to news coverage. Some of the stories in The Standard I've been mentioned and referred to in ways that I wouldn't necessarily write myself. So that's fair game. But in the ideas and opinions area, it's center of right of center. And that's what this is, and that's a much needed voice in San Francisco. [01:07:03] S0: As I think back to the book, and I put it down and wondered about what's gonna last in me having read this. The thing I keep going back to, it's obviously selfish and context dependent, is parenting. I have two young kids. [01:07:16] S2: How old are they? [01:07:17] S0: They're 12 and 10. They're approaching the end of that window where you describe them as being impaired. [01:07:22] S2: You've already done the damage, Patrick. They're impaired for life. [01:07:27] S0: So I wonder if you turn the whole exercise of exploring your own history and your family's history into how to think about the role of parenting. I'm curious what comes to mind. [01:07:39] S2: I think it's to arm the children with confidence. [01:07:41] S0: Simple as that. By doing what?
01:07:41 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Michael Moritz
[01:07:41] S0: Simple as that. By doing what? [01:07:44] S2: I don't know, I have to think hard about the handbook of parenting. But I think it's to instill that feeling of self confidence and freedom and to try as a parent not to be censorious. [01:08:00] S0: Do you think also thinking about the book that an important lesson is that we cannot take progress for granted? Positive progress? [01:08:08] S2: History is littered with examples of terrible things that happened over periods of time for millions of people all around the world. Russia, China, Iran, Africa, India. There've been terrible things that have happened over the last thousand years. I think there's very little that separates the human from the beast. And it's remaining human and not becoming the beast that is everybody's challenge. [01:08:40] S0: How do you think you were most changed by the exercise of studying your family and writing the book? Understanding myself a little better. And in the final analysis, what matters? [01:08:51] S2: I think it's two things. I think it's relationships with the people that you care about, knowing that we're all completely insignificant no matter what the individual has accomplished. Trying to leave things a little better than they were before any of us got engaged with them. [01:09:09] S0: If you had to write a next book, what topic piques your curiosity?
01:09:09 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Michael Moritz
[01:09:09] S0: If you had to write a next book, what topic piques your curiosity? [01:09:15] S2: I've been playing around with this idea, which I don't know if I'll ever actually get around to writing, but I've been reading about it a fair amount. I'm very interested weirdly in Iran, Persia of the 1940s. The collision of individuals from inside and outside Iran that explains so much about the world we live in today. I think what I've been thinking about is not non fiction, but a blend of fiction and non fiction. Now, as I said, I don't know if I'll ever get the narrative and the structure and the composition right, but it's my view of what has happened in Iran. It's this collision of personalities from very different backgrounds in different parts of the world that have failed to understand each other. It's pretty fascinating. [01:10:11] S0: One of the great things about your thinking and writing was how short some of the very famous memos and things were. Your what could go right understanding for a company like Stripe, where I understand the memo was quite short. I'm curious about that notion of compression and the power of compression. But if you were to sort of write something like that about the state of the world and give it to your grandson or something today, you seem so good at identifying the things that matter that will determine where things will go.
01:10:11 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Michael Moritz
[01:10:11] S0: One of the great things about your thinking and writing was how short some of the very famous memos and things were. Your what could go right understanding for a company like Stripe, where I understand the memo was quite short. I'm curious about that notion of compression and the power of compression. But if you were to sort of write something like that about the state of the world and give it to your grandson or something today, you seem so good at identifying the things that matter that will determine where things will go. [01:10:38] S2: Again, you're too kind. For me, part of the training as a journalist, it's part of what I learned at college. Being able to distill things to their essence, keep it very short, has stood me in good stead over the years. [01:10:53] S0: Can that be taught? Seems like more valuable than ever. So much information and bombardment. [01:10:59] S2: I don't know. I think it depends a lot on reading. It's hard when people are fed a diet of a limited vocabulary. I am singling him out, but if you do these studies of the vocabulary of presidency in The United States, Trump's vocabulary is by far the lowest. I think he's got a vocabulary of about 2,400 words. Obama was maybe 4,500 words, common vocabulary. And I think having a huge vocabulary at your fingertips that you can select from allows you to express complicated ideas in a simple manner. [01:11:41] S0: I loved the book. I loved our conversation. I've loved all your writing.
01:11:41 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Michael Moritz
[01:11:41] S0: I loved the book. I loved our conversation. I've loved all your writing. [01:11:45] S2: Oh, you're far too kind and flattering and gracious. The questions have been, as you can tell, thought provoking and wonderful. [01:11:53] S0: I ask one final question every time I interview someone. What is the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you? [01:11:59] S2: Hell yeah. [01:12:00] S0: So beautiful. Simple. What have you learned from your wife? Tall worlds. Common theme. Mike, thanks so much for your time. Thank [01:12:09] S2: you. Really good.