Chamath Palihapitiya on happiness and investing

This was a good Knowledge Project podcast (Apple podcast link here for mobile). Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO of Social Capital and part owner of the Warriors. Not the most mind-blowing necessarily, and say what you will about your opinion of Chamath (I of course have mine - tldr I find his style offensive to my sensibilities), but he said so many things that resonated with me here. Overcoming imposter syndrome, asking for help, thoughts on being happy, and some good thoughts on investing (including why Amazon will be a $3tr company by 2025, deck from 2016 found here).

My favorite highlights below and some more in the episode page:

Solving for my blind spots by practicing things that will protect me from myself allows me to take bigger and bigger swings. Nobody would have ever told you that focusing on your happiness would make you a great investor. But focusing on your happiness in part is saying you’re exploring who you are as a person, you’re finding what makes you happy, and the other part of that is that you’re finding out what your blind spots and weaknesses are and finding how to deal with them. Well when you translate that knowledge of those things into business, particularly into investing, it’s enormously helpful, it’s a money making strategy. Spending time understanding yourself and translating that into actionable guardrails that you write down and stick to is a really important thing.

What do you do to find your blind spots? I talk. When I find that I revert into a comfort zone when I’m repeating past behaviors that I don’t like, it’s because I’ve stopped talking. The healthier I am mentally the more I’m able to overcome these natural inclinations to revert to comfortable patterns that have been very well established. People that know me they’re able to see patterns and can tell me, hey you’re being realty insecure there. Before I would get defensive and attack the person, but if you find people that really love you then it can work.

I found that, as a man, I was taught that talking is weak. I also found that, as a immigrant man, I was taught that talking about emotions was doubly weak. Then I was taught, in this industry, that talking is awkward. You put all these things together, and the biggest thing that I found that has helped me is just talking, and being open…

Being happy personally is the pathway to help everything else make sense and that is around mental health. I think the key unlock for mental health is just finding a resource to talk to.

Money accelerates the point at which you can declare yourself free, it liberates people, but it doesn’t make you happier. The path to happiness is an internal process. The path to freedom you can get with money.

Steve Jobs said “oh wow” over and over as he was passing away… I’ve interpreted this as: he sees his family, he sees the totality of his life lived, and he was happy… On the one hand you could say he was fanatical, he was a tyrant but on the other hand you could say he was very content, he had a family that loved him, he had a family that he loved, and as a result of that happiness he was able to leave that sanctuary, go to work, and channel that happiness into doing great things for other people. I want to live that version of the truth for me. The ‘oh wow’ moments.

Things that give me that “oh wow” sensation… I’m working a lot and there’s pressure and sometimes I just want to cry from the stress. Today I was feeling that and I turned around and went back home and kissed my four children and kissed my partner and just felt this happiness, that I’ve created this sanctuary for my family filled with love.

Zoomers see all of these generations older than them and they see evasiveness and unhappiness and they see similarities in all of us and they’re smart enough to see that they don’t want that. Something here is wrong. They see their truth and aren’t afraid to chase it.

Imposter syndrome is the dragon that I’ve been trying to slay my whole life. And it only gets stronger and stronger the more successful I get, but I also enjoy trying to slay it.