Monthly Rewind: December 2023
Hmmm, that's interesting!
Monthly Rewind is a recap of the previous month's highlights at Infinite Loops HQ
2024 O’Shaughnessy Fellowship Applications are OPEN! 🚀
One year and $100,000 to kickstart your life's work.
With grants of up to $100k, we're turbocharging art, science, business & technology projects for brilliant individuals around the globe.
Our 2023 awardees are writing books, filming documentaries, fighting period poverty, researching quantum computing and much more.
YOU could be one of the exceptional talents we're looking for.
Apply here.
(P.S. Excited about the Fellowships but not applying this year? You can still make a big impact…
Know someone who would be a great fit for the program? Nominate them right here.
Share the wording in bold above with your network to help spread the word!)
Thoughts 💭
“If you are resisting something, you are feeding it. Any energy you fight, you are feeding. If you are pushing something away, you are inviting it to stay.”
- Michael Singer
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise, instead, seek what they sought."
- Matsuo Bashō
"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."
- Haruki Murakami
"He who is shipwrecked twice is foolish to blame the sea."
- Publilius Syrus
“If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”
Beryl Markham
Explore our Two Thoughts series: doses of wisdom delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday. Warning: may trigger incurable curiosity.
Conversations 🗣️
Alex Lieberman — On Voice, Unicorns & Intrinsic Motivation
How to spot a writing unicorn.
“I truly believe if you cannot write something for the fifth grade reading level, you're not explaining things simply enough, which probably means you don't understand it well enough.”
Arkady Kulik — Bridging Science & Entrepreneurship
Finding science’s ultimate goal.
“So people, fake it till you make it doesn't work in deep tech […] you cannot growth hack your way against laws of physics.”
Eric Jorgenson — on Publishing, Progress & Reinventing the Playbook
Embracing the new playbook.
“Venture capital has lost its way […] It's supposed to be this technology risk-first kind of systematic de-risking of unlocking massive new markets with technology. Not like, ‘ah, we only invest in software.’ You're supposed to be out at the frontier, you're supposed to be doing crazy stuff. You're supposed to have a poor outcome ratio, but truly insane outcomes. It's just become a muddied word. And a lot of people refer to themselves as venture capitalists, that aren't actually taking technical risk in big markets anymore.”
George Mack — The Game of Life
Executing on the top 0.1% of ideas
“And I think the ultimate midwit razor or filtering process is to just always try and avoid being the genius, because that's the mistake the Midwit makes is, he thinks he's the guy on the right.”
For root access to your humanOS, dig into our back catalogue of 197 episodes (and counting).
Words ✍️
Infinite Futures | “You step inside and are immediately hit by the contrast in sounds: the metronomic whirring of machines and clacking of chisels on stone are punctuated by the sound of electronic instruments playing in a syncopated rhythm.”
Context is King 👑 | “Studying the Primavera with this knowledge reminds us that, to fully understand our own place in history, we must understand that of our ancestors: how they thought and what moved them to act, believe, and behave as they did.”
Five Big Ideas | “True originality is a mirage. Everything is a remix; each idea a descendant of another. Magic lies not in the originality of creation but in the alchemy of your influences.”
Infinite Media Recommends | “Here’s something to see you into the New Year: several OSV team members have handpicked three of their favorite watches, reads, or listens of 2023. The content was not required to be published in 2023, so prepare for some deep cuts from the last 50+ years!”
Love what Infinite Loops is doing. Keep it up!
Books in space! 💚 🥃