FS | BRAIN FOOD

May 18th, 2025 - #629 - read online - Free Version

Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter offering timeless wisdom in an accelerating world.

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Tiny Thoughts

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True generosity whispers in private, far from applauding crowds.

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Being wrong isn't something to fear but rather something to expect.

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Strength isn't measured by victories, but by the caliber of challenges you're willing to face.

Insights

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Henry David Thoreau on the hard part:

“Simplify, simplify, simplify!”

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Ayn Rand on just doing things:

“The question isn't who's going to let me; it's who's going to stop me.”

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George Santayana on the highest aim:

“A man is morally free when ... he judges the world, and judges other men, with uncompromising sincerity.”

The Knowledge Project

I sat down with entrepreneur, investor, and author Elad Gil—an early backer of Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, and Anduril. Elad shares how he identifies winning tech teams and why organizations still treat AI as an experiment rather than a business imperative. He argues that renting "cognition units" could become as common as cloud computing.

“I think AI is dramatically under-hyped because most enterprises have not done anything in it—and that’s where all the money is, all the changes, all the impact, all the jobs, everything.”

For insights on building companies, investing, and AI's business impact, listen now.

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The Repository

Stephen Schwarzman on the inflection points no one sees:

“Every entrepreneur knows the feeling: that moment of despair when the only thing you are aware of is the giant gap between where you find yourself and the life and business you imagine. Once you succeed, people see only the success. If you fail, they see only the failure. Rarely do they see the turning points that could have taken you in a completely different direction. But it’s at these inflection points that the most important lessons in business and life are learned.”

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Thanks for reading,

— Shane Parrish

P.S. Honeybees is ultra slow motion.

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