YouSaid · the spoken record

Adam Robinson

lines on the record: 167
first: 2018-12-11
most recent: 2018-12-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Right, so Ray Dahlio views the market and the economy as a machine. And I think he's brilliant, but it's a machine created by the mind of individuals. So whatever else you may think about the world, the world is the product of our thinking. So is the economy, so are investments. If you think about it, an investment is nothing more than the expression of a view of the future. So when you shane by Facebook or you short the dollar yen or you buy gold or short US treasuries, you are expressing a view of the future. Your view of the future can be right or wrong and your means of expression can be right or wrong. But that's what you're attempting to do, right? So for example, you may believe the U.S. economy is improving. So I think that people will start eating in restaurants more frequently. So therefore, restaurants stocks are probably undervalued, to use the fundamental.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To figure out which group is right, I look for differences of opinion, strongly expressed, and decide which one is right. Right now, you and I are in New York City and it's sunny outside. Suppose you said to me, Adam, when is it going to rain? I might say I don't know, however, I do know that if the barometric pressure falls by more than three millibars or whatever, in a fifteen minute time frame, it's going to rain within fifteen minutes. So let's just wait for that. Until then, it's sunny.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipation of others. And that's fascinating, right? John Maynard Keynes, who was not just one of the great economists of all time, and by the way, the one economist Warren Buffett ever cites. He was also a great investor, so during the Depression, John Maynard Keynes ran one of the Cambridge College portfolios, and it was up three or fourfold during the Depression and World War II. He was a great investor, and so how do we anticipate the anticipation of others? That's very clever as a formulation, but how do we do that? And we can do that using game theory. So my approach to markets is simply this, to wait for different groups of investors to express different views of the future.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, their attempts to quantify trends, but there's no statistical proof that any of them work. So, for example, you will hear someone say The price of General Motors just crossed its 200-day moving average. Well, okay, what does that mean? Like, okay, does that mean it's going to go up? Does that mean it's going to go down? Over what time frame? Statistically speaking, when a stock reaches its 200-day moving average approaching it from the upside going down, when it penetrates to the downside, it's 200-day moving average. Statistically, what can we expect going forward? And you never find those statistics ever. And so the problem for the technical analyst is one of confirmation bias, since there are literally limitless parameter settings to hundreds of technical indicators, you can find an indicator and a parameter setting that will argue for pretty much any position you want to argue, right? There's something out there, right? So there's a third way. And John Maynard Keynes said,”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There are other ways to look at the market, right? Technical analysis. So the technical analyst says, I agree with everything Adam just said. There's no way you can figure out the true value. It doesn't really exist. And after all, there are millions of people out there in the world. What makes me think I can do it any better than they can, right? So the technical analyst says, just show me the price charts and buy the patterns of those price charts, I will be able to project where the price will be tomorrow or X weeks or months from now, right? The problem with technical analysis is one of confirmation bias. The technical analyst has literally hundreds of technical indicators, and each indicator has literally limitless parameter settings.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, that's right. The fundamental view of investing is that you can figure out something about the world that no one else has figured out. It's a bit like prospecting, right? Gold prospecting. You can go out with your pan and find something that no one else has found. Well, you know, the difference between investing and gold prospecting is that gold prospecting, you actually find gold that you can actually go sell, right? If you find a value that no one else has found, what makes you think if people are irrational enough to believe that the price of gold is different from what you think it is or should be, what makes you think they're going to become rational tomorrow, right? There's that great quote by John Maynard Keynes, markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. Good luck with that.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, if you connect for sure, but if you connect it differently and you get a price that's, I don't know, twice, let's say you work out, what's gold trading for now? $1,221. Let's say you do your fundamental analysis and decide, you know what, the price of gold should be $2,000. Well, good luck with that. Everyone else thinks it's worth $1,221, right? So if you buy gold expecting it to go up, you are in fact it's an article of faith. You believe that other people are going to wake up and sooner or later going to realize what you now think that gold should be worth $2,000 an ounce.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And information that every other MBA, former MBA student has acquired reading security analysis is going to discover something no one else has discovered.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Buffet and Charlie Munger are pretty unique, right? In their investment results. I mean, there may be a handful of other investors in the world who've beaten the market to that degree by that length of time. So if fundamental analysis works, the question is, why is Buffett the only person who can do it? Clearly he's doing something else. I don't know what the something else is. Here's the other problem with fundamental analysis. It's one of Urs. Every fundamental analyst believes he or she using exactly the same tools that every other”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Certainly you understand it. Certainly. Well, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I know that Buffett, Benjamin Graham, not to take anything away. Benjamin Graham was brilliant. However, as an investing approach, notice that what Buffett does is he buys a company and intends to hold it forever, which is different from what most the way most people invest is they buy a stock and at a certain point they intend to sell that stock. That's not what Buffett has done. Buffett has acquired companies, right? He will acquire good companies at good prices and hold on to them forever. That's his investment approach. I don't believe that fundamental analysts who are looking at quarter to quarter earnings and trying to predict what the PE is going to be X months from now are doing what Buffett does, right? I mean, it's interesting that you should sight Buffett because Buffett is by Buffett.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, Warren Buffett is a genius, right? Warren and Charlie Munger, right? Two of the smartest guys on the planet, they could do anything and be successful.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because nobody in the world thinks it's $122.47. The world thinks it's worth, I don't know what the price of Amazon stock is now, like $1,000 or something. It's pretty darn high. So the fundamental premise of fundamental analysis is this. There's a true value that human beings, because they suffer various behavioral biases, drive the price of away from that again, I'm using air quotes, the true value. And I believe, as the fundamental analyst, A, that I can determine that true value, B, that I will have good reason to know that I've determined that true value and it's not a guess. C, that everyone else is one day going to wake up and realize that what the true value is in a reasonable timeframe.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay. Well, how justified? By which facts? There are many numbers in the book, right? Receivables and various metrics by which one might determine, I'm using air quotes now, the intrinsic value, but there's not one formula. There's no intrinsic value equals x plus y raised to the nth root nth power rather plus this factor times 27. So Benjamin Graham, with respect, offers not a single definition of the phrase he coins, nor any formula for determining it. And the reason he can't define it is there's no such thing as true value. And notice the implicit premises of fundamental analysis that there's some, I'm using air quotes now, a true value that exists out there. Let's say you and I decide the true value for Amazon stock is $122.47. Even if God were the true value of Amazon is $122.47. I can't use that information.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Would say, hey, wait a second, what's the true value of Facebook stock or the true value of gold? How do you, would you even determine that? So he creates a phrase called intrinsic value. Nowhere in the book, sorry, 600 or 700 pages long does he define it? Not once. That's not true. I think on page 29, he defines intrinsic value as that value justified by the facts. Well, that's not a definition. That's like saying gravity is when things go down.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, sure. So, well, I'll give my view of the investing process and I'll contrast that with fundamental analysis. So the most common form of investment approach is called fundamental analysis. And fundamental analysis was invented by Benjamin Graham and his co-author, Dodd, back in 1934. He wrote a book called Security Analysis, and it's now in the seventh edition. And it's a book many hundreds of pages long, six or seven hundred pages long. And in it, he coins a phrase intrinsic value. And I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but intrinsic value is a fraud, and I can demonstrate that. It's a fraud for several reasons. First, I'm using air quotes. What he really meant by intrinsic value is true value. But he knows if he used the phrase true value of something that people would”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's going to go lower. Yeah, for sure. And the more people that say that, and they'll say things like this. They'll say, or they'll say permutations of that. They'll say, after all, how much lower can go? Are all permutations of the same thing, a person in denial, instead of seeing what's actually going on in front of them?”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Instead of diving in, going, yeah, let's find out why that's true. I mean, you could almost lay it out as an algorithm, I'm not offering investment advice, that when somebody says it doesn't make any sense that X keeps going lower, get in the trade. It's got a lot lower to go.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's true not just in the investing sphere, it's true in the political sphere, it's true in any sphere. If you want to find gold, it's where things don't make sense. I spoke at length with Tim about that. Things that don't make sense. But that's an algorithm for finding opportunities. The question is, where do we get our good ideas? And one way to get good ideas is to look where no one looks. And I'll tell you one place that no one looks where things that don't make sense because they dismiss them. They go, well, that doesn't make any sense. And they shake their head and they move on.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What they think should happen. And really, when someone says it makes no sense that really what they're saying is this I've a dozen logical reasons why gold should be going higher, but it keeps going lower. Therefore that makes no sense. But really what makes no sense is their model of the world, right? So I know when that happens that there's some other very powerful reason why gold keeps going lower that trumps all the logical reasons, I'm using air quotes, the logical reasons, the case as it were, their argument for why it should be going higher. So I know once I hear that, whether it's from an individual or some talking head on Bloomberg or CNBC, that there are a lot of traders out there, investors, who are still on the wrong side of the trade, staring in disbelief about what is going on right in front of their eyes.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“U.S. 10-year yields remain below 3% after all the Fed's talking about how well the economy is doing, and by historical standards three percent is pretty darn low. So I don't understand it makes no sense why tenure yields aren't going higher. And when someone says that, I know that tenure yields are going to stay below 3% for quite a while because that person's model of the world is in conflict with what that person is seeing. That person is in denial. So when someone says it makes no sense why gold keeps going higher or Tesla stock doesn't sell off or by the way, I'm not offering investment advice. But when people say those things, I know that they're experiencing confirmation bias, that the world is conflicting with”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, well, it's, you know, Sherlock Holmes once said it's a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the facts. And I think it's that's silly advice with respect, Sherlock. We can't help but theorize beforehand before we have all the facts. It's not clear what all the facts I'm using air quotes constitutes. But it's more important to have expectations about the world and then look for anomalies. Surprise is always what surprise is telling you, Shane, is this. Your model of the world is incorrect, which is fantastic. It's a learning opportunity. That's what surprises. And so I know when people talk about surprise, that surprises an investing algorithm for me. When things don't make sense, when people say things don't make sense, all that tells me is they're not thinking about the world correctly. So when someone says, for example, it makes no sense why tenure year.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“An easy rule for how would I teach someone to get in touch with his unconscious? I think it would start with just allowing themselves some time. Here's a clue that you've tapped into truth with a capital T and that your unconscious is speaking is that the answer will surprise you. You'll be startled by it. In the same way that I was startled by what I said up on stage. That was something I had never thought about. I had been an introvert my entire life. And so here I was up on stage talking about the delights of extroversion and as I was saying it surprised me. I had no idea where that came from. So yeah.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gee, you know, it's a bit like asking Bob Bowman, who is Michael Phelps coach, how do you get Michael to, you know, extend his arm reach, you know, and he's going to go, well, I don't know. It's just the inspiration of the moment. So I'm not sure that I can offer”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Those homebrew kits, right Right, that you could just make on your own. And so notice that Steven Jobs didn't, I don't even think whenever he first saw that kid, he was asking himself, how can I change the world? He saw it, and then he realized, oh my gosh, this is just going to change everything. And I think the great insights happen like that. They come not from logical thought. Now, of course, you're going to have to apply logic at a certain point. But I think one thing that should be taught is certainly in schools to the extent that it can be is allowing students to get in touch with their unconscious and to listen to that voice.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Atari mini computers or something. I think they were, it wasn't Atari, but it was something like that, right? You look packard little things and they said, oh my gosh, this is going to change the world, right? They were all rude.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think about it, we've had many billions of people on this planet who've devoted a lot of their lives to thinking about the world using logic and I'm using air quotes now common sense. And yet they haven't answered all the questions. So if logic could get us to the answers we seek as beings, as human beings, to the real questions, the real insights, the great truths with a capital T, then logic would have given them to us centuries ago. We'd have all been a little book, in fact, a booklet here. Here are all the answers. But no, and the great insights come from our unconscious somehow, unbidden. They just out of the blue. And so, yeah, I don't think any of the great, I don't think, for example, Stephen Jobs was walking around, what, 40 years? Ago, thinking, how can I change the world? Right, he and Wozniak had little”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Deductions and therefore this is the answer. The answer pops into my head and then I work backwards to what steps should have gotten me there. But I never know beforehand, really. So thinking, I think part of it is listening to your unconscious. Modern thought, logic, is the creation of the ancient Greeks, perhaps a civilization or two earlier than that, but relatively recent, a few millennia, a modern history. And logic only takes us so far. The essay is GK Chesterton once said, you can discover truth by logic only if you've discovered it first without it. And I think that's true. The great truths can't be reached by logic. I can prove that logically.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, that reminds me of a great quote by the physicist Niels Bohr, who chastised one of his colleagues. And he said, no, no, you're not thinking. You're just being logical. And there are limits to logic. And I think that the thing about thinking is it's a relentless asking of questions that one question will suggest will offer an answer, which will suggest another question. And so part of thinking, at least logical thinking is the relentless asking of questions. My greatest insights, such as they are, the meager insights I've had in the world, always come to me spontaneously out of the blue. And I know you wanted to ask me about the Princeton Review and other things and my work in investing and my insights. And they all came out of the blue. They weren't a logical chain of...”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's what technology and civilization enables us to do. Stupid things faster with more energy. And we need to, as a civilization, certainly as a country, ask ourselves, what positive things are we trying to build? And let's move towards that. There's a lot of ante, anti this, anti that. And I understand the anger. I really do. But it's not helpful. So yeah.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From pain, the pain of human existence, and yet there's I don't believe it can be escaped. I think it can be embraced and there's freedom in embracing it and accepting it. And so, yeah, I think that's what modern life has come down to, is we've realized that civilization such as we see it isn't answering that fundamental question. Gandhi once said, There's mortal life than making it faster. And that's what we've done. We've sped things up. I'm reminded of a funny plaque I have in my apartment. As a woman drinking a cup of coffee with a cheery expression on her face, and she says, hmm, coffee, do stupid things faster with more energy.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I would argue that civilization, as we see it now, is an answer to a primal question, which is going to take us a little deep now, but the pain of human existence. I think that's what civilization is in all its forms, is an effort to address the pain of human existence. We are born, and at some point soon after birth, we realize, or at least we perceive ourselves to be separate, which means we're alone. We acquire a sense of mortality, which creates fear and isolation, and I would argue anger, and so modern civilization is an attempt to deal with that. And, you know, the founding of America, you know, it's all about the pursuit of happiness. I'm using air quotes now. But I think happiness has to do with the escape.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“from others without compensating them. Now it sounds like it's a horrific question, but actually it's the only answer that's horrific. After all, there are more inspired solutions for extracting economic value without compensating people. For example, Wikipedia, right? Wikipedia extracts economic value from people without compensating them. It offers them the opportunity to extract intrinsic value, intrinsic worth from the activity. Even something is as horrific as the institution of slavery, it's not the question that people have asked, it's the answer people have come up with. And so what's needed in the world right now is more imagination to come up with more inspired answers to the questions people are already asking. And either that or you offer them new questions. It's usually easier to offer more”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Which is the result of our thinking, we have to change the thinking behind the world, which is great, Albert. Thanks so much, but he didn't offer any guidance for doing that. So the world, and I have an algorithm for changing the world. And there are really only two ways you can change someone's thinking. You can either change the questions that person asks, or you can provide them with more inspired answers. Those are your really only two levers. Change the questions the person asks, or offer more inspired answers for that question. And all human institutions, all human creations, are answers to questions. Democracy is the answer to a question, right? How can everyone have a say in his or her political, economic, social affairs? Slavery is the answer to a question. Slavery is an answer to the question. How can I extract economic value?”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that could be a subset of people. It could be for young children or for adults or women or whatever it is for America. And then how can I enroll others in that vision? Einstein said that to change the world.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, by planning at that point, for example, I have a book coming out, right? And I need to do a lot of things to promote that book. So I need to create a website. I need to have a higher public profile. I need to engage friends and other influencers to start talking about my book, to start a conversation around it. And so I know these are practical things that I need to do over the following X months to get a message out, right? So again, it comes back to, you know what it comes down to, actually, I think these are core questions, is what vision do I have for the world, for myself, or for this person, if it's a relationship, a friend or something romantic? What vision do I have for people in the world?”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who do I need to be in any situation? Who am I? Who am I in the world? Who am I in this relationship? Who am I in this job as opposed to what do I need to do? And I'm going to start going off on tangents here in a second if I begin to answer that question. But I think that comes back to life mission. What are you here to do, which will move us down a whole nother track, which I know we'll get to before the end of today, but let's circle back for that.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, for example, say someone goes on a job interview, right? They're probably thinking, oh, how can I, I'm using air quotes now, impress this person or make this person want to hire me. And instead, if your question is simply, how can I create fun and delight for this person? Then it's not an interview anymore, then it's a game. And if you truly create fun and delight for the other person, that person's going to want to be around you. And assuming you have the qualifications, you've just immeasurably improved the odds that you're going to get a job offer. I think often a question that I ask myself is who do I need to be in any situation as opposed to what do I need to do? There's a lot of doing and not enough being, right?”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure. Well, one question is how can I create fun and delight for this person right now? And engage the person in play. I think much of life would be improved if we reversed the seriousness that we apply to work. We should be applying to games. And by games, I include sports, all kinds of games. And to be more playful about the serious things in life. And so that's a question I ask myself. How can I create more play in this situation? And again, for others, which is exciting and playful and fun for me. And why do I do it? Because it's fun. Because it feels good. And I don't know of any higher pleasure than that. So that's one question I ask. I think the questions you ask will vary from situation to situation.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And in fact, when you look at the world differently, you look at yourself differently. And so that's another reason I wrote the book, to change the way people view themselves.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“to unfold throughout this interview throughout our interaction right there's magic happening here and so the task at hand is the focus on what do I need to do to accomplish my goals one of my problems with self-help books is they're so thick and most how-to books and self-help they're they're not really how-to books they're what to books they tell you what to do but they don't actually show you how to do it and so the rules that I came up with connect with others create fun in the light lean into each moment expecting magic or miracles are things that you can actually put into everyday practice and I can't tell you the only people who've got my book so far are friends and a few close relations to get their feedback And everyone says the same thing. I look at the world differently right now.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. So I think it's, well, that's a layered question. So I think it's best viewed in terms of biological rhythms of inhaling and exhaling. So when I'm alone, I am inhaling and I am focused only in my world of ideas. And once I leave my home and I go out into the world, my attention is solely focused on others. Think of how a young child feels when he or she's birthday morning and they wake up and they're so excited because they know they're going to be lots of presents and the lights and surprises. I wake up every day like that. I can't wait to get outside like I couldn't wait to meet you for the magic that would occur here and now and will continue.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, no, it's not, and it's so funny that you should ask that question, Shane. It's not funny because, of course, I knew you would ask all the. This is what is. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that was truth, truth for me. Mind you, I'm not trying to convince anyone of those truths. I just offer them.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Any negative emotion you feel, whether it's doubt or fear or frustration, or loneliness, it's a sign to redirect your attention. And for me, one of the problems with self-help books is they rivet your attention on exactly the one thing it ought not to be focused on yourself. So you look at any of the great religious traditions and the great philosophers and the great poets, they all have the same message of focusing on others and being of service to others. And that sounds like one is abdicating oneself in that. But in fact, that's the way to find yourself is through others. And I think the people who are going on search, I'm using air quotes now to find themselves will never find them. You find yourself only in the midst of others. And again, that was my great revelation of 2016.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, yes. And so think about the life lessons learned there in that cauldron, in that hell. And yet his message was optimistic and life-affirming as we would expect from someone who was able to survive those horrors. And so I believe the secret to happiness is to be fully engaged in your life. Happiness is something that catches us by surprise. It's a byproduct, right? If someone were to ask me right now, if you were to ask me right now, Adam, are you happy? I would say, I don't know. I'm so engaged in this interview that I have no idea actually how I'm feeling. I mentioned before the importance of directing your attention. There are only two places your attention should be, either on the task at hand or on others. So if you're feeling”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well I'll tell you one key to happiness is not to look for it. The paradox of the most important things in life happiness, love, success is that you can't look for it. If you're looking for happiness, you're not doing what you need to do to be happy. If you're looking for a love, you're not being lovable, right? If you're looking for success, you're not doing whatever it is you need to do to be successful. So one lesson with happiness is not to look for it, right? Victor Frankl wrote about that in his book, Man Search for Meaning.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People should be happier, and yet they're not. It's the exact opposite, right? You would think the irony is that we have material wealth undreamt of. The average person today lives better than the average king a couple of centuries ago. And yet”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But how can I learn to love myself is startling? It's really mind blowing. It means that it's an immense problem that no one has anywhere to turn to. And ironically, we have this loneliness epidemic going on. And by the way, this is manifested. You mentioned statistics before, Shane. There is a suicide epidemic among teenagers in the United States, which is very serious. I know you have children, right? So there is a serious suicide epidemic in the United States and it may surprise you the epicenter of that suicide epidemic of all the cities in the United States, the one with the highest teenage suicide rate is Palo Alto, which is tax central, right? And so the statistics you cited, you know, GDP, average, you know, wages earned. Life expectancy. The question is the quality of that life, right? By quantitative measures.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, exactly, and everyone had exactly the same results. Everyone had English first, then Spanish, then three, four, five was to sing, to code, and learn to love myself. Just it would interchangeably depending on the friend, like little tweaks. I'm sure if you were a teenage girl, probably, how can I learn to sing? If you were into science and technology, maybe code was up there.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. Now, I was so stunned by that. Mind you, what that means is lots and lots of people in the United States are looking up the question, how can I learn to love myself? Notice the shame involved in the question. It's not something you can ask your best friend. You couldn't ask your parents how can I learn to love myself. It's a very private question. It's so private, it would be hard to ask your best friend. And I'll come back to best friends in a second. I was so stunned by this that I immediately texted several friends. I said, can you type in how can I learn into Google and let it autofill? Because I thought maybe this is just Adam Robinson's.”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How can I learn English? How can I learn Spanish? How can I learn to sing? Number four was how can I learn to code? Again, makes perfect sense. But number five was the mind blower. It was how can I learn to love myself?”
2018-12-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #47 Adam Robinson: Winning at the Great Game (Part 1) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT