There was a tiny black room I walked into, years ago. I felt the walls not far from where I comfortably sat. I imagined the door was painted gold. I began a meditation session that lasted roughly four hours. I heard a bell. I got up and walked to my…

In 1995, tradition was passe. The Bill Gates of Japan re-entered Silicon Valley; cue Masayoshi Son. Son was an extreme example of a self-made man. His family was part of Japan’s marginalized Korean minority, and his childhood home was a squatter’s shack near a railroad that he shared with six…

In the summer of 1974, soon after he had raised his $5 million, Don Valentine showed up at the old roller-skating rink that was now Atari’s makeshift factory. He was fit and in his early forties, but as he made his way around the factory, he appeared to be struggling…

Thought 1: The solace of the skyline (all the more lovely if you live on an island) Thought 2: I haven’t been here in 6 years so where does this nostalgia (for men and metal) root? That’s New York. You don’t reach the sojourn without telling yourself first that it’s…

In 1961, Davis & Rock filed their certificate for a limited partnership. The market, vexed with corporations ousting founders & legacy capital providers competing to be ‘the richest corpse in the cemetery’ needed novelty in financing the technology revolution. The rules were original: create a 100% equity structure, find unconventional…

My read list held an unprecedented author’s name for over two years, Anthony Bourdain. His essay Don’t Eat Before Reading This displays how excellently he can combine wit and vulnerability. His writing is power-packed, a justified metaphor for his obsession with big knives not being sharp enough. …

Kondratiev waves The Kondratiev theory held that capitalist economies move in long cycles, typically 50–60 years. The upswings occur during periods of technological innovation and abundant investments followed by downswings as new investments dry up and old ones lose value. The brainchild of Nikolai Kondratiev, this theory is pooh-poohed by…

Part 1 Adam Grant and fruitful debates with a city’s top doctor (also a dear friend) have inspired this writing. ‘Who you are should be a question of what you value, not what you believe. Values are your core principles in life — they might be excellence and generosity, freedom…

The first hedge-fund manager, Alfred Winslow Jones, took a job on a tramp steamer, studied at the Marxist Workers School in Berlin, and ran secret missions for a clandestine anti-Nazi group called the Leninist Organization. It was only at the advanced age of forty-eight that Jones raked together $100,000 to…