Alex, also known as “The Science of Hitting Investing” on Gurufocus and @TSOH_Investing on Twitter, is an investor at an RIA and a prolific investing writer. I’ve really enjoyed his articles, so I was really excited to talk to him. And the conversation didn’t disappoint. During the interview, we talk about structuring a process to maximize your chance of finding good investment candidates, trying to reconstruct management dashboards as a way to understand investments, and the different parts of the value investing spectrum.

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This episode is an amazing case study on founder-market fit. As Mr. T says, “I pity the fool” who competes with Max and Patrick at relationship building—they clearly live and breathe the opportunity to form genuine connections with people.

Beyond founder-market fit, Max and Patrick also make a connection to the 8th wonder of the world, which value investing disciples know is compounding. They don’t do any paid marketing, but they can almost predict the amount of inbound referrals they’ll get on any given month, and it’s all because of their focus on white-glove customer service for everyone they meet.

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Compounding is like the Marine Corps: no better friend; no worse enemy. Here’s how Bill Ackman, Coach K, and Jocko Willink use the “tactical reset” to get compounding back on their side.

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This series is all about making things easier for ourselves. I’m going to make the non-controversial case that collaborating with others is a great way to do this. Then I’ll talk about some tactics that can help us perform better.

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Einstein famously described compounding as the 8th wonder of the world. It’s the secret superpower that drives network effects, population growth, and the spread of viruses—clearly it’s a force to be reckoned with.

In a recent conversation, Max De Melo and Patrick Niederdrenk of America One Luxury Real Estate illustrated another hidden example of compounding: reputation.

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Howard Marks likes to say that “experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” Another phrase I like is “he who suffers remembers.”

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There are cheap, untapped resources all around us that can help us recover so that we can operate at the highest levels. I’m talking about simple joys, the natural ways that we can soothe and rejuvenate ourselves—recharging for our next push forward. The problem is that many physical pleasures can be traps—pathways to pile on physical debt by trading misery tomorrow for euphoria today.

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Today, I had the pleasure of talking to Nicky Hinrichsen and Chris Coleman, who went to Stanford Business School and started a venture-backed company called Carlypso in 2013. Working on building the “Amazon for used cars,” the two founders went through Y Combinator in 2014, raised $10 million in venture capital by 2015, and successfully sold the business to Carvana in 2017.

Like true entrepreneurs, Chris and Nicky are now working on their next venture called WithClutch www.withclutch.com. The co-founders discovered that auto loan rates are all over the map, and they built a refinance calculator that allows car owners to reduce their monthly payments and save thousands in just minutes.

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We see the world through a flawed lens. There are a million terms for this idea: “target fixation,” “missing the forest for the trees,” “anchoring,” “framing.” The list goes on. The point is—we get so used to “the rules of the game” that we miss it when the game changes.

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Brian DeChesare is the founder of Breaking Into Wall Street and Mergers and Inquisitions. Although Brian has been a successful entrepreneur—earning a case study mention in the 4-Hour Workweek, as an example—I’m more impressed by Brian’s ability to “step off the line,” as Jocko Willink would say, to strategically re-orient himself. During our conversation, we discuss two points where Brian strategically pivots in order to achieve his true long-term objectives. We also cover Brian’s experience with angel investing, his biggest business inflection points, and how he structures his life to accentuate his strong suits.

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Here’s an unreasonable question: what if we didn’t have to worry anymore?

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Jacob Wolinsky worked in investing and financial journalism before founding ValueWalk, a site that curates information about investing, hedge funds, asset management, and the broader world of finance. We explore Jacob’s journey as an investor and an entrepreneur.

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David Kilcullen is a soldier, strategist, diplomat, and author. He’s a scholar of guerrilla warfare, terrorism, urbanization, and the future of conflict. His newest book explores how the Western world's adversaries are adapting.

This was a fascinating conversation covering topics like second-order effects, evolution and adaptation in competitive environments, and yield. We discuss world politics and the strategies and tactics of Russia, China, and North Korea.

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Today we’re going to focus on the concept of yield—both high-yielding activities and their opposite, wheel spinning. The world’s top performers always focus on getting the most bang for their buck. From business to combat and everything in-between, this is a pretty steady rule.

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Today’s guest is Mike Malinconico, FloWrestling’s technique wizard. We had a really broad conversation covering topics like: the challenges of the learning process, the role of money in wrestling, how to grow the sport, and how to break wrestling into branches from a home base.

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Jocko Willink, Marcelo Garcia, Kurt Osiander, Joel Greenblatt, Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, and Sun Tzu are all using the same strategic approach to drive their tactical decision-making. It’s a mental model called “catalysts and derivative decisions.” Let’s get into it.

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I’m excited to announce a mini-series double header. They will be called “The Easy Series” and “The Hard Series.” These will be punchy episodes focused on giving you themes to ponder, threads to pull, and stories to remember.

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This is a good conversation for entrepreneurs, investors, and designers alike because it focuses on the missing link between the vague idea for a company and the ultimate cash flows it produces—namely, the execution of a design that makes customers want to pay.

You might be surprised at some of their ideas about branding tactics. Have you ever considered the impact of typeface design in a company’s messaging? Today’s guests make a compelling case for re-thinking the media we use to reach our customers and prospects.

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