Cultish Creative Weekly Recap (9/21/2024)

Mike Green’s legend proceeded him.

When people like David Einhorn say he helped change his mind for the better, or Peter Thiel hires him to help manage money and exploit structural market problems, you know you’re not getting into a lightweight discussion.

But, I’d never really heard Mike talk much about the other stuff. The “rest of life” stuff. At least, not in any great detail. All the talks with him are always so newsy and current-eventy and “what’s the trade/what’s the philosophy” filled, you just get comments left to die in life’s margins. And beyond the big wins and fantastic stories… nobody just ends up this way.

I came with the curiosity for this one, and Mike Green did not disappoint for a minute. We go from growing up on Californian farms, to wearing 49’ers hand-me-down cleats, to wanting to be a scientist, to accidentally booking a flight to get from NYC to Philly (“no cities are that close in Cali?!”), and so much more.

Watch/Listen to my interview with Mike Green on The Intentional Investor, via Epsilon Theory:

OH, LOOK: Special shout-out to Lindsey Bell over at The Shift for writing up my Just Press Record conversation with Hal Hershfield and Julia Carreon. Lindsey writes about the modern “shift” in employment at the personal meets economics level, so I’m not surprised Julia’s bit about “the big quit, the big commit, and the big pivot” resonated with her. Read her post (and subscribe to her free newsletter). Then, you should also watch Lindsey Bell and Guy Penn talk about a variation of the same topic on Just Press Record too.

Posts from this week:

I wrote a little note about the Glitterer/Snail Mail benefit show. You want to check this out for the third video, where two generations of a family are on stage together (go Russin family go).

Jack Forehand and I nerded out over “quality” and “minimum volatility” as statistical factors for investors.

Digable Planets forever. A little riff on the world being a museum. Blow it out, blow it out.

Norm Macdonald is a philosopher king, and this note on the joy that life attacks him with, it’s beautiful, and reminds me even more of my poppop.

Jon Solomon told a wonderful Steve Albini story on his radio show. It made me think about this idea of “it takes a village.” It also made me wish I was old enough to have sent Steve Albini a fax and play in my parent’s living room too…

“Life is pain, only potato” is my new mantra, thanks to Venkatesh Rao. Plus, this concept of (especially online) performing-at vs. performing-with, it’s (Yukon) gold.

OH YEAH, I also am re-releasing this clip from Breaking News (which is on a bit of hiatus right now, stay tuned), about Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” and what it can teach us about inspiration and influence (watch the video and read the post about it here):