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Every two weeks, I share my writing on investing, career transitions, meaningful work, parenting, living intentionally, and other topics that engage me.

I'm still trying to figure stuff out.

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Field Notes Edition #14

In these shorter emails, I’ll share a few things that made me think, smile, or look twice. Maybe they’ll do the same for you.

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Let's go...

• Gavin Baker and David George on Positional Strategy in AI The "Is AI a bubble?" question is appropriately getting a lot of airtime these days. While everyone can have a view, it's also true that not all opinions are equally valuable. In his public comments, Gavin Baker of Atreides Capital has been early and largely correct about the AI investment landscape evolution. He recently spoke with David George of a16z about the topic and others. Here's the transcript. If you prefer video, you can click the image below.

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• Dan Sundheim of D1 Capital on the art of public market investing As a follow-up to the above, here's another conversation with an investor that's worth flagging. Think about it. Thirty years ago you had two options: 1) you were either in the room with great investors, and 2) you read Warren Buffet's annual letters. And for the record, tightly scripted market presentations or appearances on CNBC don't count. Long-form podcasts bring these thoughtful, insightful conversations to anyone in the world, which is simply awesome.

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• Get Lost This essay by Rick Forester on transitions definitely hit home. The process is inherently messy and cannot be rushed. I've tried, and I promise that doesn't work. At some point, you stop resisting the desire to move on, the flakes in the snow globe begin to settle, and only then does stuff begin to make more sense. According to Forester, "Being lost is the point. It’s okay. And it’s necessary. One of the most counterintuitive lessons you’ll ever learn in a transition of any kind — job loss, death, midlife crisis, or just feeling stuck in general — is you have to go through the lostness before being found."
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Small Sparks Sometimes it doesn't take much.

• Gift of Pears A teller at the bank called to tell me a client left some pears for me. How thoughtful, right? But then it gets better. According to the note attached to the bag, the pears were picked from the client's own tree. How kind!
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• On Excellence "Excellence is making the best decisions we can with the information that we have." A friend shared this quote that served her well while managing through extraordinary uncertainty. Thanks, B!
• Double Peak Two weeks ago, southern Maine enjoyed peak foliage, and then it was gone. But then last weekend, my wife and I got a second showing of peak fall colors as we drove south from Maine to eastern Pennsylvania en route to parents weekend.
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• Smaller Box I thought I had a great costume idea for the Saturday Night Live themed Halloween party. I dressed as one of the characters from the classic D*** in a Box skit featuring Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg. As I walked in the door, full of creative swagger, I was greeted by another guest who had a similar idea, but with an important difference. He had the sense to choose a bigger box, which led to a series of unfavorable comparisons throughout the night.

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And a Farewell Photo...

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