Swart Donkey

I’ve always been a “try hard.” At school that meant signing up for everything: sport, debating, drama, chasing every chance to prove myself ...

The easiest problems to tackle are the ones that focus on things that you can count. If you can count something, it is easier to control. ST...

We do not all have the same skills and knowledge. We do not all have the same barriers to entry. We have different opportunities. We have di...

The world is getting progressively (but bumpily) less racist, sexist, homophobic , and classist. We are breaking down barriers, but we still...

There is a conflict between the idea of “leave your ego at the door” and meritocracy. If we believe in a world where the quality of life you...

I started my career in Finance in South Africa and the United Kingdom during two watershed moments. Just after the bursting of the Internet ...

Before Amazon, Netflix, Google, and other big disruptors entered the world lived Sam Walton. The founder of Walmart realised that you aren’t...

Money is a smarter form of barter. It partially solves a coordination problem, but it is not the best we can do. If you have wheat and you w...

What I enjoyed most about my introduction to Yoga in 2009 was the simplicity of the base. Swami Vishnudevananda talked about 5 key points....

Homo Economicus is the imaginary human with an infinite ability to make rational decisions. This character doesn’t exist, but is useful in ...

Actions have consequences. Some are intended. Intention and incentives matter, but the world is so complicated (and getting more so) that ...

You can’t “think like an owner”. You either are an owner, or you have different incentives. The Agency Problem is the conflict of interest...

How do we wean ourselves off structural income dependence? Even most of the wealthy live hand-to-mouth in a fragile way. We don’t look at ...

We don’t have to live hand-to-mouth. Capital can earn money that can finance our needs, and in good times wants. It can provide a buffer f...

Wealth Building and Institution Building are closely connected. The biggest determinant of the “Bang for Buck” of your Merit is the countr...

One objection to Capital is that the owners aren’t doing the work. There is a moral feeling that the people involved should be the people ...

To gain balance, you need to fix your eye on something that is stable. Something permanent. Then to internalise that stability so you can ...

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit” (Harry Truman). Much of the creation of a business is in the...

In Europe, in the mid-18 th Century, parents lost between 3 and 4 of their children before the age of 5 (See, OurWorldinData.org/child-mo...

An early Mentor of mine lamented that staff showed little interest in the broader business. The company I got my first job at was huge. It...