0.1% Ideas: High Agency Immigrants, Sam Altman's Email Test, Writing Advice
Length: • 3 mins
Annotated by Peter
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: George Mack <george@george-mack.com>
Date: 16 July 2023 at 15:51:14 BST
To: peterlawson@outlook.com
Subject: 0.1% Ideas: High Agency Immigrants, Sam Altman's Email Test, Writing Advice
The 0.1% Of Ideas This Week
High Agency Immigrants, Sam Altman's Email Test, Writing Advice
Hello!
Let's get stuck into the rabbit holes -- without the distractions.
1. Immigrant Mentality
44% of US Unicorn founders were not born in the US
Israel, with a population of just 9.3 million, is the pound-for-pound outlier in 2nd place.
43% of the Fortune 500 in 2017 were co-founded by an immigrant or a child of an immigrant.
Why do immigrants dominate?
My theory: Immigration is a mechanism for self-selecting or creating high-agency people.
1. If an adult immigrates, it self selects for high agency. They had to admit they were in the wrong place, operationalize a move and start from zero.
2. If their parents moved, they were brought up by high-agency people who remind them every day how lucky they are.
2. Global Inflation Levels
The UK is at 8.7%
The US is doing much better at 3-4%
China is near deflation
What is fascinating is when you contrast this with Truflation which measures real-time data:
US = 2.15% (lower than the reported 3%)
UK = 11.47% (much higher than the reported 8.7%)
The Truflation data might also have flaws -- but where is the public conversation?
We need better tech to measure inflation.
During lockdowns, the in-person inflation calculators couldn't visit the stores due to... social distancing.
Some of the measurements were done via cold calls and emails. (see below)
The whole economy relies on this measuring stick.
3. Rockefeller's Empire Re-Bundling
In 1870, John Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly was broken up.
With time, it gradually begins to bundle up again.
4. Memory Dividends
It's important to stack fun experiences when you're young vs wait until you're old.
Why? The memory pays dividends for the rest of your life.
Memory Dividend is a great counterbalance measurement to have alongside work ethic.
Via Bill Perkins,
5. The Altman Email Test
When Sam Altman was at Y Combinator, he built a script that monitored how quickly the best founders and worst founders replied to their emails.
"It was a difference of minutes versus days on average response time" - Altman
6. Is This The Best Advert Ever?
"Every ASMR ad on TikTok right now is the grandchild of this advert" - The Ad Professor
Link here.
7. The Best Writing Advice I've Found
If I had to give a class on writing -- I'd kick it off with this quote from Steven Pressfield.
It's the best piece of writing advice I've found.
(Can be applied to video and podcasts too)
"When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, your mind becomes powerfully concentrated.
You begin to understand that writing/reading is, above all, a transaction.
The reader donates his time and attention, which are supremely valuable commodities.
In return, you the writer must give him something worthy of his gift to you.”
My best ideas this week:
1. The most useful razors and rules I've found - "High Agency Razor - If unsure who to work with, pick the person that has the best chances of breaking you out of a 3rd world prison."
2. What is ignored or neglected by the media -- but will be studied by historians? - This piece broke my notifications. I measure the success of the piece by the quality of people sharing it -- rather than the number of views. This was shared by lots of people I admire including Paul Graham, so that's worth more than a billion views.
3. If I was working at Twitter, here's what I'd do - A large amount of my worldview is inspired by Rory Sutherlands' psychological innovation. Twitter could make one small tweak and change the way everyone views their platform.
If you enjoyed this email, forward it to a friend.
Or share it on Twitter here.
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