Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors

Lawrence Cunningham, author of 'The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America,' previews the book and discusses the unique structure of grouping Buffett's ideas by topic. This book is an opportunity to study the ideas of one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors in history.

Warren Buffet, a successful investor, discusses the difficult decision to shut down Berkshire Hathaway's textile business. Topics include analyzing investments, global competition, declining returns, CPI inflation, and the impact of talented management on profitability in the newspaper industry.

Warren Buffett faced a difficult decision in 1985: whether to shut down Berkshire Hathaway's textile business. He ultimately closed the business due to illusory benefits from investments. This episode explores the challenges of making difficult decisions and provides insights for analyzing them in work and personal lives.

Nicolas Cole, one of the internet’s most-read writers, shares insights on reverse engineering written work, the power of niches for writers, and the importance of category creation. They discuss the content pyramid, the difference between more views and more dollars, and how to create a category. The podcast explores creating a category of one, non-obvious connections, and debunking myths about writing and category creation.

Episode Guide Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/170. YouTube & Substack Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack. Join Outliers Club Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now → Get in Touch Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/ Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No matter what your walk in life, no matter how big or small your enterprise, no matter whether it's for-profit or nonprofit, no matter whether you're CEO or a unit leader, the question stands: How does your flywheel turn? Turning the Flywheel is a monograph that was meant to accompany Jim Collins' famous book Good to Great — which is all about what separate good companies from great ones, and how companies can make the journey to greatness. As Jim Collins writes in Turning the Flywheel: I wrote this monograph to share practical insights about the flywheel principles that became clear in the years after first writing about the flywheel effect in Chapter 8 of Good to Great. I decided to create this monograph because I've witnessed the power of the flywheel, when properly conceived and harnessed, in a wide range of organizations: in public corporations and private companies, in large multinationals and small family businesses, in military organizations and professional sports teams, in school systems and medical centers, in social movements and nonprofits. Since learning about the concept of the Flywheel, I've since explained it and helped many of the portfolio companies I've invested in — both personally and through my venture fund Ligature — to create and implement their own flywheel. It's a fantastic way to force deep strategic thinking as it forces you to identify the disciplines, that sit far above any product or month or quarter, that will help you build and sustain momentum. The best flywheels are both timely and timeless, acting as a source of strength in turbulent times and a fantastic guardrail when making strategic decisions. Flywheels ultimately explain why some companies build momentum and others don't.‍ Episode Guide Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/169. YouTube & Substack Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack. Chapters (0:00) Chapters coming… Join Outliers Club Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now → Get in Touch Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/ Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No matter what your walk in life, no matter how big or small your enterprise, no matter whether it's for-profit or nonprofit, no matter whether you're CEO or a unit leader, the question stands: How does your flywheel turn? Turning the Flywheel is a monograph that was meant to accompany Jim Collins' famous book Good to Great — which is all about what separate good companies from great ones, and how companies can make the journey to greatness. As Jim Collins writes in Turning the Flywheel: I wrote this monograph to share practical insights about the flywheel principles that became clear in the years after first writing about the flywheel effect in Chapter 8 of Good to Great. I decided to create this monograph because I've witnessed the power of the flywheel, when properly conceived and harnessed, in a wide range of organizations: in public corporations and private companies, in large multinationals and small family businesses, in military organizations and professional sports teams, in school systems and medical centers, in social movements and nonprofits. Since learning about the concept of the Flywheel, I've since explained it and helped many of the portfolio companies I've invested in — both personally and through my venture fund Ligature — to create and implement their own flywheel. It's a fantastic way to force deep strategic thinking as it forces you to identify the disciplines, that sit far above any product or month or quarter, that will help you build and sustain momentum. The best flywheels are both timely and timeless, acting as a source of strength in turbulent times and a fantastic guardrail when making strategic decisions. Flywheels ultimately explain why some companies build momentum and others don't.‍ Episode Guide Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/169. YouTube & Substack Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack. Chapters (0:00) Chapters coming… Join Outliers Club Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now → Get in Touch Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/ Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Guide Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/168. Paul Graham's essay on "How To Do Great Work" begins with the following words: If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like? I decided to find out by making it. Partly my goal was to create a guide that could be used by someone working in any field. But I was also curious about the shape of the intersection. And one thing this exercise shows is that it does have a definite shape; it's not just a point labelled "work hard." The following recipe assumes you're very ambitious. As we're all both very ambitious and focused on doing great work, it felt appropriate to cover this essay as a sort of book in miniature. The essay itself comes in at a staggering 11,800 words or nearly 30 pages when printed. "How To Do Great Work" explores curiosity, the source of originality, the relationship between breaking rules and new ideas, and how being naive is a form of independent mindedness. As well as why being self-indulgent helps you find overlooked problems, why big ideas are more often questions than answers, and why the best questions grow while you work to answer them. YouTube & Substack Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack. Chapters (0:00) Chapters coming… Join Outliers Club Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now → Get in Touch Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/ Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Graham's essay on "How To Do Great Work" begins with the following words: If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like? I decided to find out by making it. Partly my goal was to create a guide that could be used by someone working in any field. But I was also curious about the shape of the intersection. And one thing this exercise shows is that it does have a definite shape; it's not just a point labelled "work hard." The following recipe assumes you're very ambitious. As we're all both very ambitious and focused on doing great work, it felt appropriate to cover this essay as a sort of book in miniature. The essay itself comes in at a staggering 11,800 words or nearly 30 pages when printed. "How To Do Great Work" explores curiosity, the source of originality, the relationship between breaking rules and new ideas, and how being naive is a form of independent mindedness. As well as why being self-indulgent helps you find overlooked problems, why big ideas are more often questions than answers, and why the best questions grow while you work to answer them. Episode Guide Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/168. YouTube & Substack Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack. Chapters (0:00) Chapters coming… Join Outliers Club Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now → Get in Touch Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/ Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the latest episode of How They Built It, we decode how Elo Health has created an entirely new Smart Nutrition category. Elo’s Smart Supplements and Smart Protein improve your energy, focus, and more with vitamins and supplements made just for you. Elo finds and fills your nutrient gaps with a mix of blood testing, your wearable activity data, and one-on-one dietitian support. YouTube & Substack Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack. Notes & Transcript Find my full notes and transcript for this episode at outlieracademy.com/156. Join Outliers Club Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now → Chapters (0:00) Chapters coming… Get in Touch Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/ Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices