Things I learned in 2020 - Alex Clarizio's Homepage

Alex Clarizio's Homepage

Writings for the curious minds.


Things I learned in 2020

Sep 20, 2020 | Reading time: 3 minutes | 471 words
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Here’s a collection of interesting things I learned in 2020:

Compensation

The determining factor in labor compensation is substitutability. An example would be a neurosurgeon.

Innovation

I realized that some of the biggest innovations in human history were made by trying to mimic human processes.

Efficiency vs Productivity

Those two words are often interchanged in the context of output. Here’s a proper definition:
Efficiency produces the same output with less input.
Productivity produces more output with the same input.
To make a process more efficient, you figure out how to get some X output while using as little input as possible.
To make a process more productive, you figure out how given some Y input, you can maximize your output.

On Businesses

Business is 4 equal parts; product, makreting, collecting money and timing/luck. They are all critical and very often, not in your ocntrol.

This Paul Graham’s quote for his children

The apparently random collection of things you learn when you’re young makes you into a sort of key. Then you have to find the lock it matches. But that’s not as hard as it sounds, because the matching lock is usually nearby.

Types of writings

From Devon Zuegel: Writing falls into three buckets: (1) trivial things that everybody knows, (2) things that everybody knows, but nobody around you knows, and you have a unique perspective on, and (3) stuff that nobody knows so you have to do tons of research.

The Genius of Unrecognized Simplicities

Most geniuses - especially those who lead others - prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities, but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities - Andy Benoit

On Optimization

Optimizing your solution ensures someone else can’t come into your industry, get the same suppliers and contract terms, and beat you.