Compresssd Ideas

[First Published on Cent]

My day usually begins with me penning a Tweet to blast out from Cent Twitter. I do this as I'm riding the company shuttle into my day job.

Before I start writing anything I always have an idea of what the Tweet should say or be about.

But the thing is, there are so many ways to say the same thing.

I've found the best way to say something though, is usually the simplest.

Simple writing speaks volumes.

I'd like to believe that Twitter has honed my ability to write simply. Or, at the very least, it's made me more aware of what I'm writing as I'm writing.

Podcasts are helpful in a similar way too, but with speaking.

Every podcast is like an experiment in expressing ideas differently.

The best podcasts, in my personal opinion, contain at least one instance where someone expresses an idea in a super simple way that I haven't heard before.

Often I find myself repeating, nearly verbatim, thoughts and concepts I hear expressed on podcasts. That's utility. That's real value.

The latest example of this was on the latest North Star Podcast episode with guest Samo Burja.

Samo likes to analyze companies and people like Peter Thiel for instance.

Aa Samo was talking about Peter and his contrarian approach, he brought up the fact that much of Peter's approach and life view have been informed largely by René Girard's 'Things Hidden Since the Foundation of The World'.

I just read this mind expanding book in August, but for those of you who are unfamiliar, René essentially combines Mimetic Desire and Scapegoat Theory to explain everything - literally everything - about mankind's history since our essential break from the rest of the animal kingdom along with a very interesting proposal for humanity.

Anyways, there is a ton to digest and think through in that book.

Sumo summarizes the work, and a major takeaway as follows:

"Most people act the same and follow what other people do. But every once in a while someone stands out and does something different, like Bill Gates when he revolutionized personal computing.

"When times are good, the mass of society treat people like Bill Gates like kings or gods. But when times get tough, and social unrest increases, those masses start laying blame on criticism on people like Bill Gates, essentially calling for his head as a way to relieve psychic distress caused by increased instability in the external environment."

This pattern happens over and over. Just think about Zuckerberg and Facebook.

That anecdote is a super simple way to convey a significant part of René's thinking and is a perfect example of how ideas can be compressed and made more sharable.