cool people doing cool stuff
Just a quick roundup today.
I’m always on the look out for people doing interesting things. I find a lot of these people on Twitter where, despite what people think about the platform, you can find some of the world’s smartest people talking about what they’re up to in real time.
Anyone who thinks it’s a platform for idiocy and hate speech isn’t wrong - they’re just paying attention to and following the wrong people. I rarely see anything of that nature on my feed. I curate it in order to avoid that sort of nonsense.
I am an Arsenal fan though so every now and again, I do see something along those lines 🤦♂️
Naval Ravikant says that the most successful people have risky personal brands, often recognisable by just their name. Kanye (my fave), Elon, Trump, Obama, Oprah, Elton, Zuckerberg etc. In his eyes,
To build a great personal brand, you must take on the risk of being publicly wrong
Sharing your work under your own name is a marker of bravery and of belief. You take on the risk of being publicly wrong but, if you’re right, you will create enormous leverage for yourself.
Nassim Taleb was seen as a crank when he published Black Swan in 2007. A year later, once the financial world collapsed, he was hailed as a savant and his book sold wildly. It didn’t really matter to him financially as he’d actually put his money where his mouth was and profited enormously from those events. Personal, public risk taking. And talking about it afterwards.
Here are some people worth looking out for who are sharing their work in public. I hope that their work will only become more visible as time goes by:
Anne-Laure Le Cunff - neuroscientist, startup founder, writer and much more. She’s active on Twitter and writes every day at https://nesslabs.com. Smart, honest and interesting - try this recent article on Range (something I’ve just been writing about) and this one on learning.
David Perell - I’m still not entirely sure how he makes money apart from his recent online course… but his articles are excellent and his writing advice is generous and actionable. Start with his Naked Brands article to understand personal branding and use his guide if you want to start writing online.
Ben Keene - a man with an incredibly varied work day! He runs Rebel Book Club (I love books) and works with Escape the City amongst other things. He writes about the future of work, the environment and startups on his blog.
Tell me if there’s anyone you follow that I should look at. I love finding new people to learn from.