Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
· Kevin Kelly, Patrick O'Shaughnessy
You want to go in a direction that's the only and asking yourself, if you have competitors, they can be good establishing a field and bringing credentials and believability to -- in a market. But the advantage that we had at WIRED was that we didn't have any other. We were so only at the time, there was nothing else like it. And it was hard because trying to sell advertising was impossible in the beginning. And there was no category. WIRED didn't fit into any category. It was like an incredibly difficult sell. Newsstands wouldn't carry it because there was no category. Where do we put this magazine, computer? No, no, it's not a computer magazine. It's technology lifestyle. Like what's that? There's no category for there. So it's hard. It's really hard to be the only in that sense. But if you can, the rewards are very, very high. And I think that's where you want to aim your life, your family, your company, the country. [00:00:00] S0: I think it's amazing that the advice in the book is somehow both counterintuitive and obvious. And just like to sum up, what I'd take from this is the smartest strategy even if you're trying to be selfish is to be generous and unique. And almost everyone does the opposite of those two things, which is totally bizarre. It's also a wonderful excuse to ask you the same question now I've asked, I guess, approaching 500 times now, I've asked every single guest I've ever talked to. What is the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you?
· Kevin Kelly
[00:00:00] S1: When I think of kindness, I think of a moment many, many, many years ago when I was traveling in the Philippines, when the Philippines was an incredibly poor developing country. There was not even a good map to the country. There was no guidebook, literally nothing. And I was traveling, exploring there, and I arrived somewhere -- and like no idea where I was going here. I don't even remember why I arrived there. But what happened was some family living in a grass hut waved me in. And I remember that they won't give me dinner, and they sent a kid out, which I saw, to buy some canned food somewhere because they didn't have food themselves, and they took some very, very precious cash, I can just see, to buy food for me. It was for me unbelievably kind. It was like, I don't know, like some random person walks by your house, and you're going to empty your life savings to give to them. So obviously, I had far more than they had, and I could have bought my own food though there wasn't really much for sale. There was like a little tiny canned fish, but it was incredibly precious. And this is what they're giving me, is they're giving me like canned tuna fish, the fork. They're feeding me, unbelievably kind. I just still remember that because they were giving not out of their surplus but out of their basic needs. So it was not a luxury. It was really, really powerful. And they had no reason to do it. It was just hospitality. It was really incredibly kind.
· Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Kevin Kelly
[00:00:00] S0: Well, I'm so thankful for the conversation today. I'm so thankful for all that you've written and put into the world. Please know it affects people like me all over the place and makes us think for the better and hopefully act for the better, too. So Kevin, wonderful to meet you, and thank you so much for your time. [00:00:00] S1: It's been a pleasure. I really enjoyed this. You asked great questions. I love your spirit. Thank you for having me.