Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• A lot was going on this week, so I didn’t read as much each day as I should have.

What I learned:

• No material learnings this week.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

I set a goal to read a book a week, and I’ve hit that target for 71 consecutive weeks since March 2024. But this week, there’s a decent chance that I won’t. It’s been a busy week. I’ve read every day, but fewer pages each day. I’ve spent some of my morning time designated for reading instead thinking about another project.

The streak of 71 weeks is something I’m proud of, and it motivates me. I don’t want to break it. I’ve told myself I’m going to do everything I can this weekend to keep it going. I’ll wake up extra early and cut out some other stuff I had planned so I’ll have more reading time.

Hopefully, this will do the trick and I’ll finish the book. Wish me luck!

Every once in a while, I have a crazy day that makes it hard to focus and think clearly. When this happens, the rest of my day is unproductive. It feels like I wasted a day.

This week, something hit my radar in the morning that threw me off mentally. I tried, but I couldn’t get back in the zone to finish working. I needed to think clearly because I had important decisions to make later that day, so I tried something different. I went to the gym. I do this regularly, but not in the middle of a work morning. But I figured I had nothing to lose since I couldn’t focus. I did a heavy-weight workout for about an hour, ate a snack, and then returned to my computer.

When I began working, my head was clear. I was extremely productive. The rest of the day was smooth, and I felt great about the decisions I made that afternoon.

I can’t explain why the workout helped so much (I plan to research the science behind this), but it felt like a 180 that put me back where I needed to be mentally.

I haven’t tried this before, and I’m glad I gave it a shot this week. It’s a new hack in my toolbox. If something throws me off to the point where I can’t focus, I’ll close my computer, go to the gym, and hit the weights.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 71
• Total blog posts published: 462

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read Creative Capital, a biography about Georges Doriot, who in 1946 founded American Research and Development Corporation—one of the first venture capital firms, and the only publicly traded one
• Added four more books that I read in 2023, these from Jack D. Schwager, Mortimer J. Adler, Edward Chancellor, and Benjamin Graham, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here
• Create a digest of one biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred seventy-six was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles last week

What I learned:

• AI is changing so fast that larger companies are resorting to buying pick-and-shovel AI companies so they won’t be left behind. For example, Meta bought voice AI start‑up PlayAI (see here). A pick-and-shovel AI solution that others can build on could unlock tremendous value for others.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 70
• Total blog posts published: 455

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read The Bernie Cornfeld Story, a biography about entrepreneur Bernie Cornfeld, who built Investors Overseas Services into a multibillion-dollar offshore fund-of-funds empire in the 1960s
• Added two more books that I read in 2023, these from Thomas Phelps and Chris Mayer, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add four more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred seventy-five was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles last week

What I learned:

• I conducted demos to show the proof of concept (POC) that my engineer friend helped me build for potential engineering candidates. These meetings helped take the evaluation process to another level because the candidates could ask deep technical questions that showcased their thinking. Having my engineer friend on these calls was key so he could answer those questions and evaluate their thinking.
• Taking the POC to MVP will likely be a multistep process: (1) retrieval; i.e., reliably getting the information and chunks into the LLM; (2) model selection and parameter tuning; and (3) prompt engineering to achieve the desired minimum output quality threshold.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 69
• Total blog posts published: 448

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read The Lifetime Learner’s Guide to Reading and Learning, a framework by entrepreneur Gary Hoover, who founded Hoovers, Bookstop, and American Business History Center.
• Added two more books that I read in 2023, these from Terry Smith and Adam Seessel, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here
• Create a digest of one biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• Seeking technical lead or cofounder – I’m looking for a senior full-stack developer skilled in AI retrieval. If you know one who’d have an interest in working on the software project related to books, please introduce us!

Week two hundred seventy-four was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• Figuring out what my technical team needs to look like has been a challenge. Evaluating technical talent as a nontechnical person in a landscape that’s rapidly changing because of AI hasn’t been easy. I’ve leaned into a balance of leveraging technical people in my network to evaluate technical skill sets and trusting my gut based on past team-building experiences. Making progress, but slower than I want.

What I learned:

• Finding the right engineer has been a process, but I’ve learned there are a couple of paths I could take: a two-engineer team with a full-stack engineer leading an ML/AI engineer, or a single engineer who’s a full-stack engineer experienced in AI retrieval.
• I’m learning a ton about building a community of people around a particular topic. These tend to be niche, and the members need to add value so churn is minimized. Filtering people on the front end is a mechanism that paid communities use with strict criteria.
• Podcasts and sharing results from member surveys are great marketing strategies to generate leads for communities.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 68
• Total blog posts published: 441

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read The Match King, a biography of entrepreneur and banker to governments Ivar Kreuger, whose international empire crumbled and was considered by many a fraud  
• Added two more books that I read in 2023, these from Phil Fisher and Edward Chancellor, to the library on this site—see more here

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add two more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• If you know any senior full-stack developers interested in working on the software for my current project, please introduce us!

Week two hundred seventy-three was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!