The Most Valuable Razors

Welcome to the 542 new members of the curiosity tribe who have joined us since Friday. Join the 70,546 others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week.Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Rows!After spending 7+ years in traditional finance, I had Chronic Excel Fatigue–the result of countless hours spent wrestling with the dated, legacy technology that hasn’t been updated since 2006!Fortunately, I discovered Rows—spreadsheets, reimagined. Rows is a truly magical product experience. It allows you to seamlessly pull data on stocks, crypto and more, and instantly integrate with services like Stripe, Google Analytics, Twitter, Salesforce, Instagram, Facebook and public databases like Crunchbase and LinkedIn.Rows is one of the most insane new product experiences I have had in recent memory. I use Rows for everything from managing my Startup Portfolio, social analytics, fund investing, and LPs to tracking household budgets and personal finance. I may never open Excel again.For your next spreadsheet, give Rows a try. You won’t be disappointed. Join thousands of teams that have stepped up their spreadsheet game with Rows.Today at a Glance:Razors are rules of thumb that help simplify decisions and drive better outcomes.When used appropriately, they can meaningfully improve the quality of your decision-making (and reduce stress along the way).The article below provides 20+ valuable razors, when to use them, and a few additional notes from the author.The Most Valuable RazorsThe Feynman RazorNamed after famed American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman—the Feynman Razor is a simple recognition that complexity and jargon are often used to mask a lack of deep understanding.If you can’t explain it to a 5-year-old, you don’t really understand it.If someone uses a lot of complexity and jargon to explain something to you, they probably don’t understand it.Use It When: You’re faced with a hand-waving, jargon-heavy explanation to a simple question.The Smart Friends RazorIf your smartest friends are all interested in something, it’s worth paying attention to.If that something seems crazy, it's worth paying a lot of attention to.The passions of the smartest people in your circles are a looking glass into the future.Use It When: Your smart friends have mentioned something that sounds crazy 3+ times.Sahil Note: I’ve ignored this signal on two occasions: Bitcoin (2013) and NFTs (BAYC). Both cost me a lot of money. I’ll never make that mistake again, and I suggest you don’t either.The Rooms RazorIf you have a choice between entering two rooms, choose the room where you are more likely to be the dumbest one in the room.Once you are in the room, talk less and listen more.Bad for your ego, great for your growth.Use It When: Deciding what to do on your next free night out.The Man in the Arena RazorIt's easy to throw rocks from the sidelines—it's hard to step into the arena.It's lonely and vulnerable, but it's where growth happens.When faced with two paths, choose the path that puts you in the arena—choose the path with real skin in the game.Use It When: Choosing how to approach a new and scary endeavor.Sahil Note: This is often a very challenging one, but it’s the one I feel most strongly about. It’s so much more comfortable to stay on the sidelines—it’s easy to convince yourself that it’s the safe or appropriate path. Ultimately, it’s very hard to create asymmetric outcomes on the sidelines. You have to be in the arena if you want to reap the outsized rewards.The Serendipity RazorSome of what we call luck is actually the macro result of 1,000s of micro actions.Your daily habits put you in a position where luck is more likely to strike.When choosing between two paths, choose the path that has a larger serendipity surface area.Use It When: Choosing what to do on a free night (when you have some energy).Sahil Note: The topic of “serendipity surface area” is one I plan to write about in greater depth in the future. It’s hard to get lucky watching TV at home. It’s (relatively) easy to get lucky when you’re engaging with people, interacting, and learning—physically or digitally. It’s possible to put yourself in a position to get lucky.The Uphill Decision RazorWhen faced with two options, choose the one that’s more difficult in the short-term.Naval calls this making "uphill decisions”—overriding your biological pain avoidance instinct.It's worth it—short-term pain creates compounding long-term gain.Use It When: Deciding between two near-term development pathways.The Rare Opportunity RazorThere is a rare class of opportunities that the average person will get 0 to 1 chances at in their lifetime.They look scary, but have insanely asymmetric return profiles.If you are fortunate to be faced with one of these opportunities, jump at it.Use It When: Making a decision on that one big opportunity.The Buffett Reputation Razor“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think abo...