Second-Level Billboards

–          Author Neil Strauss told Tim Ferriss he would love to put “learn more, know less” on a billboard for everyone to see.

–          Knowledge is a funny thing. Strauss isn’t talking about specific domain expertise where you can be the best carpenter or accountant. He’s talking about what Howard Marks calls “Second-Level Thinking.”

–          You can learn all there is about hammering a nail or filing a tax return, but what happens when you zoom out? What happens when you think about the family that is buying the house from the builder that’s contracting you to hammer the nail? What happens when you consider the complexity of the tax code is the very reason your job even exists in the first place? How does zooming out influence your NEXT move?

–          Charlie Munger told Howard Marks, “It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.” The more you learn about something, the less you realize you know. It’s supposed to be humbling.

–          What matters is not that you have all the answers, what matters is that you have the will to keep asking more questions.