Liberty's Highlights

Here’s something a little different. A fun — but dark! — one.I’m a big fan of Denis Villeneuve, and I was due for a re-watch of ‘Sicario’ (2015, written by Taylor Sheridan).It was the perfect opportunity to nerd out about the film, so I recruited my OSV colleagues Ed William (🇬🇧) and Dylan O’Sullivan (🇮🇪) for that task. (You should follow them on Twitter, and while you’re at it, sign up for the OSV Substack so you don’t miss the cool stuff we’ve got coming.)The things you love are always better when you can share them with others and this is exactly what we do here. We go over every aspect of the film, from the writing, the acting, the cinematography, the music, the metaphors, and scene-by-scene analysis.But mostly, we have fun and I hope that you do too!If you’ve never seen the film, watch it before listening, as the podcast is one giant 🚨SPOILER🚨 — and if you’ve seen it but haven’t rewatched it, I hope we can convince you to do so and that you’ll notice a bunch of new cool details this time around.🎧 Listen on SpotifyIf you prefer to listen on Spotify, here’s the feed:* Liberty’s Highlights podcast feed on Spotify🎧 Listen on Apple PodcastsHere’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts:* Liberty’s Highlights podcast on Apple📺 More Film & TV Podcasts 🎥* 🎧 The Last of Us: Going Deep on HBO's Amazing Show with Matt Reustle and Tinkered Thinking 🍄* 🎧 'Severance' Season 1: Going Deep with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)* 🎧 David Senra on Deadwood (also: founders, entrepreneurs, civilization, Henry Singleton, Walt Disney, David Ogilvy, etc)💚 🥃 Enjoyed this? Want more? 👇You can become a paid supporter to get 1-2x additional editions/week + access to the private Discord + support the recording of more podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

On his sixth appearance on the pod, MBI joins me to discuss the most polarizing of the Big Tech companies: Meta Platforms (the artist formerly known as Facebook).Of course, it’s impossible to talk about it without talking about Mark Zuckerberg, so we try to better understand how he thinks about the company that he founded when he was 19, and how he compares to other founders.There was a lot to cover, and I think we touched on most of the big things: Facebook, Messenger, Whatsapp, Instagram, Reality Labs (AR/VR), AI, Threads, regulators, competitors, high-variance founders, and even cage matches (😬)…It was a fun conversation for me, I hope you have as much fun listening to it (and learn a few things about Meta too)! 💚 🥃For more on Meta, check out MBI’s excellent coverage at MBI Deep Dives. He has 10 posts on the company, but I’m going to highlight 5 of them:📄 MBI Deep Dives — META Coverage 🔐* Meta's Moat* Meta's Achilles Heel(s)* Meta 2Q'23 Earnings Update* Meta Needs A Decade Of Efficiency* What’s embedded in Meta’s stock price? (2022)🗄 More podcasts with MBI 🕵️‍♂️* 🎧 Microsoft: Going Deep with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI) 🕵️‍♂️🩻* 🎧 Big Tech Compensation: Going Deep with MBI* 🎧 Going Deep on Cloudflare and Datadog with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)* 🎧 Going deep on Payments with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI): Adyen, PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard!* 🎧 'Severance' Season 1: Going Deep with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)* 🎧 Going deep on Constellation Software with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

Over the years, I have gotten to know Jim through one-on-one conversations and by listening to Infinite Loops and other podcasts where he was a guest.My goal with this podcast is to help you get to know Jim better, from his origin story to his early career in finance and quantitative investing, the writing of his influential book, all the way to the seeds of the idea that became O’Shaughnessy Ventures (OSV) where I now work (more on that below) and how we see the past and future of the Media space.I hope that you will enjoy our conversation and learn a few things even if you’ve been following Jim for years. If this is your introduction to him, I hope you’ll come out on the other side feeling like you have a good understanding of who he is, what his North Star is, and what he’s building. 🏗️🛠️For more context about my joining OSV, see this piece that I wrote about it:* Why I took the job of Head of Infinite Media at O'Shaughnessy Ventures! (OSV) 💡Also, make sure to add Infinite Loops to your podcast player and subscribe to the Infinite Loops substack to keep track of what comes next! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

🚨 SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS 🚨 If you haven’t seen the show, bookmark this and come back after you’ve seen it. It’s a show worth seeing without spoilers!I’m very pleased that my friends Matt Reustle (🎧🎙️) and Tinkered Thinking (✍️📚) joined me to discuss what may very well turn out to be my favorite TV shows of the year.Above is one of my fave shots. I’m mad that I forgot to mention it in the podcast!Context: Joel wakes up in a panic because he fell asleep during his night watch. He turns around and Ellie is watching over him with the rifle.🎧 Listen on Spotify 🍄If you prefer to listen on Spotify, here’s the feed:* Liberty’s Highlights podcast feed on Spotify🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts 🍄Here’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts:* Liberty’s Highlights podcast on Apple📺 Watch on Youtube 🍄💚 🥃 For more, please subscribe:🗄 More from the Archives 🍄* 🎧 David Senra and Jimmy Soni: 'The Founders' Book Club on the PayPal Mafia 📖* 🎧 Big Tech Compensation: Going Deep with MBI* 🎧 'Severance' Season 1: Going Deep with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)* 🎧 David Senra on Deadwood (also: founders, entrepreneurs, civilization, Henry Singleton, Walt Disney, David Ogilvy, etc)* 🎧 Interview with David Kim a.k.a. Scuttleblurb (2023 Edition: Exploration as a Service)* 🎧 Going Deep on the Energy Crisis and Nuclear Power with Mark Nelson (Part 1 of 2) 🔌⚡️💡* 🎧 Claude Shannon fan club with Jimmy Soni and David Senra 📖* 🎧 Podcast #6: Jimmy Soni on the PayPal Mafia (Musk, Thiel, Levchin, etc), startups, tech, the research process, and much more* 🎧 David Senra of Founders Podcast (Podcast #11)* 🎧 Cedric Chin: What Operators can Teach Investors, the Study of Expertise, Knowledge Shields, and More (Podcast #10)* 🎧 Going deep on Constellation Software with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)🐕🎠🕹️🌳🦒🦒 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

What could be more exciting than carefully reading through Big Tech proxy statements to look at management incentives, comparing them across companies to see what’s similar and different, what we like and don’t like, and how they rank from best to worst..?If this is not your bag, you’re in luck! MBI did this work for you and shared his findings in a post.But that’s just a starting point: In today’s episode, we go deep into Big Tech compensation, and MBI shares additional thoughts and analysis based on feedback he received after publishing his work. We discuss Apple, Google/Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.For a lot more good stuff from Mostly Borrowed Ideas (💎🐕), sign up for MBI Deep Dives (now is the best time to sign up, because prices are going up on March 1st, 2023).🎧 Listen on SpotifyIf you prefer to listen on Spotify, here’s the feed:* Liberty’s Highlights podcast feed on Spotify🎧 Listen on Apple PodcastsHere’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts:* Liberty’s Highlights podcast on Apple📺 Watch on Youtube📃 Full transcript of the podcast* Transcript: Big Tech Compensation: Going Deep with MBI🎙 More podcasts with MBI:* 🎧 Going Deep on Cloudflare and Datadog with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)* 🎧 'Severance' Season 1: Going Deep with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)* 🎧 Going deep on Payments with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI): Adyen, PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard!* 🎧 Going deep on Constellation Software with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI)🗄 More Podcasts from the Archives* 🎧 Interview with David Kim a.k.a. Scuttleblurb (2023 Edition: Exploration as a Service)* 🎧 Going Deep on the Energy Crisis and Nuclear Power with Mark Nelson (Part 1 of 2) 🔌⚡️💡* 🎧 Claude Shannon fan club with Jimmy Soni and David Senra 📖* 🎧 Podcast #6: Jimmy Soni on the PayPal Mafia (Musk, Thiel, Levchin, etc), startups, tech, the research process, and much more* 🎧 David Senra of Founders Podcast (Podcast #11)* 🎧 Cedric Chin: What Operators can Teach Investors, the Study of Expertise, Knowledge Shields, and More (Podcast #10)💚 🥃 Enjoyed this? Want more? 👇You can become a paid supporter to get 2 additional editions/week + access to the private Discord + support the recording of more podcasts: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

Let’s go deep into season 1 of Severance (2022, Apple TV+), a thriller with science fiction elements created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle. It was nominated for 14 Emmys!🤫 🚨NOTE ON SPOILERS 🚨🤐This podcast has a SPOILER-FREE INTRO.The spoilers only start after the “spoiler horn” about 11 minutes into it (you can’t miss it 📢).So even if you haven’t seen the show, you can listen to the first part — I hope it piques your curiosity and convinces you to check it out!For more of my thoughts on Severance, I also wrote about it in edition #354 (with both a spoiler-free intro and then spoilers).I hope you enjoy it.Covering a TV show is a bit different (David Senra and I discussed Deadwood). But MBI and I still end up talking about Google, Warren Buffett, technological disruption, capital allocation, value creation vs value capture, and workplace productivity. So it’s still us. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯We also run a few thought experiments: Would we ever consider getting severed ourselves? Can we imagine scenarios where that would be convincing? If this were offered, what percentage of the population would do it?What about you?The podcast even has some trivia near the end with a Claude Shannon connection! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

I’m very happy to share with you this conversation I had with my two very good friends, Jimmy Soni (✍️) and David Senra (🎙📚).We got together for a very special occasion. To talk about this man:Claude Shannon was both a genius and a very authentic human being, and I think more people should learn from him — understanding his masterwork, Information Theory, helps to understand the digital world, but I also strongly believe that reading about how he lived his life can help steer us to a deeper, more satisfying life for ourselves.Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman wrote an excellent biography of Shannon, and this book is the starting point for today’s episode.But in our usual fashion, we don’t stop there and make all kinds of connections to all kinds of other things and people (Ed Thorp, Henry Singleton, Warren Buffett, Vannevar Bush, Dee Hock, Benjamin Franklin, John von Neumann, Alan Turing, Albert Einstein, etc).💚 🥃 Enjoyed this? Want more? 👇If you enjoyed this and would like more, you can become a paid supporter to get 2x extra editions/week + access to the private Discord + support the recording of more podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe