Words to Start the Week (June 30, 2025)
Nuggets from past notes
”Q: What do you think of those tech unicorns going public and not having any profitability?
A: There are a whole lot of things I don’t think about. And one of them is companies that are losing billions of dollars a year and going public. It is not my scene.”
- David Senra asking Charlie Munger about recent tech IPOs
“Financial bubbles, technological developments, and even the rise of governments and religions demonstrate that social systems are inherently reflexive - that predictions, like self fulfilling prophecies, can affect or create the reality they try to predict”
- Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber on the concept of reflexivity and how it applies to life.
“Their horizons were always remarkably limited. When I'd say, "I'm going to start a luxury shoe brand," they'd say, "Perhaps you might take a job in a shoe store." In other words—don't be grandiose. Think small. One day at a time. My response to that was: "No fucking way.””
“I was without funds, nor was there any source from which to obtain financial assistance… desperation almost overtook me. But I had been through so many of these economic depressions, that pain left me callous”
- Nicholas Pritzker at the height of his struggles.
“There are no mature sectors where everything is already discovered, but rather companies or managers with closed minds who resist innovation.”