Daniel Everett's "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes" offers a captivating account of the author's experiences living among the Pirahã people of the Amazon. Everett, initially a missionary, details his linguistic research and cultural immersion, challenging conventional anthropological views. The book explores the Pirahã language's unique structure and the tribe's distinct worldview, emphasizing their emphasis on immediate experience and their lack of abstract thought. Everett's personal journey from missionary to cultural anthropologist is central to the narrative, highlighting the complexities of cross-cultural understanding. The book sparks debate about the universality of human cognition and the nature of language itself.
The Prize chronicles the struggle for wealth and power that has surrounded oil for over a century. The book spans from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm, and the Iraq War, to current climate change. It is a definitive work on the subject of oil, addressing its role in shaping major world events, global power dynamics, and the ongoing energy crisis. Yergin's narrative includes the rise of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the discovery of oil in various regions, and the geopolitical clashes over oil resources, making it crucial for understanding world politics and the global economy[2][3][5].
John Gall's "The Systems Bible" is a humorous yet insightful look at the complexities and often ironic failures of systems. Gall uses witty anecdotes and real-world examples to illustrate common pitfalls in system design and management. The book is filled with amusing stories of projects gone wrong, highlighting the unexpected consequences of seemingly simple decisions. It's a valuable read for anyone working with complex systems, offering a lighthearted yet effective way to learn from past mistakes. The book's unique approach makes it both entertaining and educational, providing valuable lessons in a memorable way.
The Arc of Boxing explores the evolution of boxing, discussing socioeconomic and demographic changes that have impacted the sport's quality and popularity. It compares modern boxers with legendary figures like Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. The book also delves into issues like the decline in fights and the psychological readiness of championship boxers.
My guest this week is Carl Kawaja. It’s the second time I’ve had Carl on the show and my first conversation with him is one I go back to often. Carl is a portfolio manager at Capital Group, where he’s quietly overseen a huge portfolio for decades. He is one of the top investors operating today as well as one of my favorite people. The investing world has changed quite a bit since Carl and I first spoke in mid-2021 so this was a great chance to use Carl’s curious mind and wide range of experiences to discuss the regime change taking place across capital markets. In true Kawaja fashion, we go all over the map and discuss Apple, the Amazonian rainforest, baseball, the oil & gas industry, Muhammad Ali, and more. Please enjoy my great discussion with Carl Kawaja.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it's quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.
-----
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:02:44] - [First question] - What the market feels like to him today
[00:06:00] - The pros and cons of the cost of capital and experimentation
[00:09:09] - Things we can learn from Oil & Gas stocks and resource commodities in general
[00:14:38] - Pulling apart the key lessons from Berkshire’s purchases of IBM and Apple
[00:20:37] - The practical implications of wanting to land more soft-wins in investing that aren’t apparent out of the gate
[00:25:52] - How he approaches and considers products and product cycles writ large
[00:31:10] - The Systems Bible
[00:33:15] - Thoughts about making money from value based strategies
[00:38:31] - His methodology to go about finding the next diamond in the rough
[00:42:48] - A New Innings
[00:45:13] - The Arc of Boxing; Lessons from Muhammad Ali fighting Cleveland Williams
[00:48:54] - Someone he thinks is an exemplar in both business and the world
[00:54:37] - Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes
[00:59:41] - The role fossil fuels play in the energy transition and the current regime change
[01:07:35] - What we can learn from uncontroversial transitions in the past
Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy 
