What I’m Learning – Sustainability and Values

If you enjoy these posts, please share them! I was always trying to find the right mix of content that was real, no fluff,  interesting, and would help me grow, and truthfully I haven’t really found the perfect source. So, I decided to make my own. I hope you enjoy some insight into what I’m trying to learn more about this week.


There are many opportunities for different industries to benefit from each other, but very few that focus on that crossover. This newsletter is meant to embrace the crossover.


Here is the link: https://drewalbertmd.com/what-im-learning-newsletter/

Quotes

“It is important for you to know what mix of qualities is important to fit each role and, more broadly, what values and abilities are required in people with whom you can have successful relationships. In picking people for long-term relationships, values are most important, abilities come next, and skills are the least important. Yet most people make the mistake of choosing skills and abilities first and overlooking values. We value people most who have what I call the three C’s: character, common sense, and creativity.


If your people are bound by a sense of community and mission and they are capable, you will have an extraordinary organization. Some people will value the mission and community and others won’t. Since, at Bridgewater, the key shared values that maintain our culture are meaningful work and meaningful relationships, radical truth and radical transparency, an open-minded willingness to explore harsh realities including one’s own weaknesses, a sense of ownership, a drive for excellence, and the willingness to do the good but difficult things, we look for highly capable people who deeply want all of those things.” 


-Ray Dalio, Principles: Life and Work



“In time, I realized that the satisfaction of success doesn’t come from achieving your goals, but from struggling well.” 


-Ray Dalio, Principles: Life and Work

Thought of the Week

Don’t accept things as normal or just the way things have always been. Seek truth, ways to improve, and challenge what is normal in pursuit of continuous improvement. 

What I’m Listening To

(Link) Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of Reluctant Businessman. 


“Memoir, Yvon Chouinard – legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc. – shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth.” 


This book is very interesting, it is challenging the modern concepts of growth at no matter what the cost. Instead it focuses on how quality, sustainability, and organic growth can be the most rewarding and yet effective focus a business can make. 

What I’m Reading

(Link) How Turner Novak, a Michigander from Ann Arbor broke into venture capital and his thoughts on how beneficial it can be to start a Substack (a platform for self-publishing). Good lessons in marketing yourself.


(Link) Economics of how information technology like the mobile phone can decrease price variations within a market (which makes sense when information sharing is more readily available). Interesting discussion on Pareto Efficiency and the “Law of One Price”. 


Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is an economic state where resources cannot be reallocated to make one individual better off without making at least one individual worse off. Pareto efficiency implies that resources are allocated in the most economically efficient manner, but does not imply equality or fairness.

“Law of One Price” The law of one price is an economic concept that states that the price of an identical asset or commodity will have the same price globally, regardless of location, when certain factors are considered.


(Link) Andrew Wilkinson interview on the 20VC podcast. This interview was really eye opening. Andrew is building Tiny, the Berkshire and Hathaway of the Internet. Tiny is buying, investing in, and changing the game when it comes to helping founders build businesses and pursuing innovation. 


(Link) Jude Gomila’s business Golden (New more intelligent Wikipedia) was featured in last week’s post. Jude is someone who is always seeking more knowledge. Truthfully, healthcare badly needs more people like Jude. Check out what he is working on and it will blow your mind.


(Link) HackerNoon is an interesting tech based news platform. Just started exploring this resource.


(Link) Startup jargon explained. List of awesome resources by Dan Romero.

Interesting People You Should Follow and Learn From

(Link) David Perell 


(Link) Jude Gomila


(Link) Andrew Wilkinson

Interesting Companies

(Link) David Perell has some really interesting thoughts. He listed the figma article below as an example of the tweet shown above about applying Silicon Valley’s business frameworks to other industries. I believe healthcare should be one of those industries. 


(Link) Figma, a collaborative design platform. Check out this article about, “Why Figma Wins”.

“Figma allows closer collaboration between designers and non-designers, but the second order impact of this on the social norms of teams is far more impactful. Historically, there has been so much friction in the design process that design is brought in after most decisions have been made. And conversely, there is a limited set of changes non-designers can push for once the design is set.

Tightening the feedback loop of collaboration allows for non-linear returns on the process. Design can be drafted simultaneously with the product, allowing feedback to flow in both directions throughout the process. Aligning the assets used by design and engineering allow more seamless handoffs, and allows for more lossless and iterative exchange.”


(Link) Upwork is a way to find contractors and virtual assistants online. I’ve actually experimented with using Upwork and it is very easy to use! I would highly recommend you check it out.


(Link) Starlink is one of the most amazing companies that is being built today. It will likely revolutionize the delivery of the internet and bring access to so many people who don’t have good internet access currently.


If you enjoyed reading this, please share it with someone you think would be interested! 


Here is the link: https://drewalbertmd.com/what-im-learning-newsletter/


What I’m Learning – Arthritis and Income Diversification

I keep running into great resources and couldn’t wait to share them this week. Hope you enjoy. 

Please share! Here is the link: https://drewalbertmd.com/what-im-learning-newsletter/

Orthopedic Surgery

Quotes

Quote a Physician reflecting on lessons learned throughout his life and experiences. (Sorry, I can’t remember the name of the author!) 

1. Never stop learning.

2. Never be complacent.

3. Trust others, but verify.

4. Don’t go “all in”

5. Do what you love.

6. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

7. Be aware of the ROI for your effort.

8. Believe in yourself.

9. Provide Value to others.

10. Save and plan for the future, live for today.

11. Network like your livelihood depends on it. (it does…)

12. Learn from your mistakes and your successes.

13. Celebrate your successes.

14. Don’t define your future by your past, good or bad.

15. Family and friends are essential.

16. Money provides you with options.

17. Money is a tool, not a goal.

What I’m Listening To

  • NancyMD and the 6%, a podcast to hear inspiring stories of women who are thriving in male-dominated fields, and how they were able to realize their goals and overcome the challenges that they’ve faced. NancyMD is an orthopedic surgeon, and part of the 6%.

     

  • Teamistry: This is a podcast on the chemistry of unsung teams who achieve the impossible. I just discovered this and haven’t listened to much yet, but when I saw they have an episode of one of my favorite explorers, Ernest Shackleton, I was sold. 

What I’m Reading

  • Studying Stem Cells in Space: One of the research projects is observing how microgravity alters multipotent stem cell secretion of cytokines and growth factors, and that they appeared to be more immunosuppressive than controls. They also found that it is both feasible and potentially safe to grow MSCs in microgravity for future clinical applications. Stems cells do not grow well in standard two-dimensional cell cultures; the microgravity of space more closely replicates the human body and may provide an improved environment for growth of multipotent stem cells.

     

  • Thread on economics, from the long debt cycle to historical perspectives of real estate, gold and bitcoin.

     

Great Resources

  • https://newsletterstack.com/about: a compilation of many newsletters so you can easily find topics you want to learn more about and have that education sent right to your inbox. A great way to learn in my opinion!

     

  • Buy for Life: Here’s a website that lists businesses that focus on quality products with life long warranties. Buy once, cry once.

     

Business and Product Highlights

  • Golden.com: From creator Jude Gomila, from what I can tell this platform is going to become the next wikipedia and an amazing learning resource. Golden’s goal is to record human knowledge, a platform built by AI and brilliant minds. 

     

  • Dwellito’s Story: By Caleb Barclay, this platform is for prefab, affordable, high grade homes. This is like the Ikea for homes.

     

  • https://www.atlassian.com: Creator of Trello and other software for teams. Also creator of a podcast on amazing teams, listed above. Definitely looking forward to this one.

It’s interesting that Atlassian’s founders didn’t have their ownership diluted compared to other major companies when they went public. Preserving their ownership likely means they were very capital efficient, interesting data here. 

 

If you enjoyed reading this, please share it with someone you think would be interested! 

Here is the link: https://drewalbertmd.com/what-im-learning-newsletter/

 

What I’m Learning – The Changing World

Thanks for reading this week of What I’m Learning where I essentially just funnel the things I’m learning into a newsletter. It not only helps solidify the topics in my mind, but it turns out that it is great to connect with awesome people!

If you enjoy reading this, please share it with someone you think would be interested! 


Here is the link: https://drewalbertmd.com/what-im-learning-newsletter/

What I’ve Been Reading

I believe that economics can really help with decision making. My interest in economics has been rekindled since listening to Ray Dalio’s book, Principles. He discusses how he has studied how all levels of the economy works across the world and through history. Seeking lessons from history is something that is highly undervalued in our educational system and is also something I have been trying to learn more about. Dalio is on a mission to figure out how the world works and to gain timeless and universal principles for dealing with it well. In my opinion we should all be doing this and at the very least trying to learn from people who are!


Here is the one of the essays Ray Dalio published on the changing world order and how macroeconomics are shaping the world we live in. Here are some highlights. 

The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio

  • Human productivity is the most important force in causing the world’s total wealth, power, and living standards to rise over time.

  • Productivity or output per person is driven by learning, building and inventiveness.

  • There are forces that affect society’s productivity and learning that often happen in cycles.

  • Of these cycles, the debt cycle, money and credit cycle, the wealth gap cycle, and the global geopolitical cycle are the most important to understand to put things into perspective.

  • The formula for success has been a system in which educated people come up with innovations, receive funding through capital markets, and own the means by which their innovations are turned into production and are rewarded through profits.

  • Most turbulent times throughout this increase in productivity seen in RGDP per Capita, is from money and credit collapses, big wealth gaps, fighting over wealth and power, and severe acts of nature.

  • Societies that have large savings, low debts and a strong reserve currency can withstand economic and credit collapse better than those who don’t.

  • Those that are more inventive will adapt better than those who are less inventive.

  • Credit and spending collapse is from over-borrowing to bet heavily on things going up and being hurt when they go down.

  • Past economic and market declines each lasted about 3 years until they were reversed by big restructuring processes of debt, taxation, spending, politics and the monetary system. There are shifts in wealth and power that occur.

  • Measures of wealth and power include: Education, competitiveness, technology, economic output, share of world trace, military strength, and financial center strength, and reserve currency. Below is the rise and fall of these factors relative to an empires peak and decline.

  • Decline happens when debts become very large and central banks lose their ability to stimulate economic growth which leads to more money printing and currency devaluation.

  • Wealth gaps increase and probability of conflict between rich and poor increase, which also leads to political extremism.

  • The rich fear their money will be taken so they move their money to assets they feel are safer. This reduces tax and spending revenue which worsens conditions. Governments eventually limit the movement of money causing a cycle of conflict that leads to fighting and decreased productivity shrinking the economy. Democracy becomes threatened by autocracy.

  • When this happens countries with enough power challenge the existing dominant power.

  • Shifts in power when costs outweigh what it takes to maintain power and a strong economy. Acts of nature (droughts, floods…etc) can contribute to the self-reinforcing downward spiral.

  • Upward productivity is from prosperous periods of building, through relatively low levels of debt, small wealth, values and political gaps, people working together to produce prosperity, good education and infrastructure, strong and capable leadership. When growth is taken to excess it leads to periods of destruction and restructuring. 

  • Dalio made this chart to show the factors that make cycles of rising and declining empires occur.

I would highly encourage reading the rest of the The Changing World Order article, to see where the United States ranks and where we are at in regards to the economic cycle. It is helpful to understand Dalios view on debt cycles discussed in his video, How the economic machine works, in case you haven’t seen it yet.

What I’m listening to:

The Accidental Super Power by Peter Zeihan.

Peter Zeihan is a geopolitical analyst and this book has some unique insights into what factors lead to the wealth of different nations. He discusses how geography, geopolitical climates, deep water navigation, and the industrial age shaped the modern era. I’m about ~4-5 hours in so far with 8 hours to go, so I will be sure to write more about this in the future. 


I originally heard about this book from thetwentyminuteVC podcast. I believe it was the episode where Harry interviewed Rahul Vohra, the Founder and CEO of SuperHuman. If you’re looking for book recommendations, each podcast guest is asked what their favorite book is.  

Orthopedic Surgery

Great journal article on amino acid supplementation and early recovery following total knee arthroplasty. Check it out!

 

If you enjoyed reading this, please share it with someone you think would be interested! 

 

Here is the link: https://drewalbertmd.com/what-im-learning-newsletter/

What I’m Learning – The Economic Machine


I’ve been listening my way through the book, Principles by Ray Dalio.

  • You should watch this video on “How the economic machine works”

  • He discusses the story about his founding of Bridgewater and some of the things he learned along the way. He has some real in depth tactics on communication and relationships that are often ignored, yet these concepts are foundational in all business and works of life.

  • In the future I will write about some of the Ray Dalio Principles that stood out

  • I would highly recommend that you start developing your own set of principles 


All this economic unrest has me thinking more about risk and risk tolerance. Just because the United States’ stock market has gone up on average 10% per year according to historical averages does not mean that you are 100% promised that return in the future. Maintaining that growth requires that your time in the market is flexible, as an economic downturn could last longer than the 1-2 year historical average of bear markets. Here’s an interesting article about Ray Dalio’s, “All weather portfolio”.


Here’s an interesting study looking at overlapping surgical cases. This is when surgeons book surgical cases so that they can have an assistant finish closing the incision of one case while they go and start the next case. This is a really efficient process and in my opinion it is great that there is some evidence that points towards the process still being associated without major differences from non-overlapping cases.



A product that I’ve really enjoyed learning and using is called Superhuman. At first glance you wouldn’t think that email could be made more enjoyable, but it can. The team at Superhuman has used game design theories to make an email platform that helps you be more efficient as well as more entertained. I would highly recommend you take a look. 



The Hidden Knowledge Around You

Hidden Knowledge

It is strange that so many people don’t really know how much they know. They don’t realize how much their knowledge benefits the people around them, their children, peers, co-workers… People hide so much knowledge from the world around them in their day to day lives. It always makes me wonder what could be if there was a way for more people to learn from others outside of their own network. We become a combination of the people that are around us the most. Which means we should be actively seeking to break down barriers and find excellent mentors.

Find People Smarter Than You

This often goes against the grain. It seems straightforward, but it almost goes against our nature to find and work with people who outwork, outsmart, and are brilliant than yourself. You should embrace it. We should all be seeking those people out. The most ideal scenario would be for you to be the one who knows the least in the room. It is uncomfortable. Actively seek out people who inspire you to be better.

Find People Different Than You

Often, working with individuals with backgrounds different than your own equates to working with people smarter than you. When people have  different experiences than you, it can immediately take you out of your comfort zone and reveal how little you know about the subject matter. Embrace it. This is something that I think is the most underutilized approach. People so often look to find groups of people that are similar to themselves or they are slow to welcome others different from their current group. 

You Are Capable of Learning Anything

When things become difficult to understand outside your area of expertise it is easy to tune it out and stop listening. It is important that we fight that urge to shut down. We should be constantly pushing ourselves to learn and understand different topics and points of view.

Finding Real Mentors

Why aren’t there more mentorship opportunities available? Why is it so difficult to find excellent mentors when you don’t already have connections through friends or family? I don’t think there is a great answer to this, but it is often difficult to trust others. So many people don’t follow through on the things they say. Mentors also have to be careful with who they let in their circles of trust. Breaking down those barriers requires being genuine, kind, trustworthy, reliable, dedicated, and being excellent. Working for free, following through, and over delivering is what it takes to show others that you are serious about the relationship.

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