Your money and your future
Your money: Almost no one knows how to think about money and investing. Squadrons of people will try to confuse you and rip you off. Many will bore you. But Andrew Tobias has written a book that might just change your net worth.
His advice is simple: spending less is even more valuable than earning more. He is also a gifted writer, funny and dead on correct in his analysis. Highly recommended.
The brand new edition is right here.
Back story: 32 years ago this month, I had lunch with Andy Tobias. I was pitching him on a partnership, and the meeting had been difficult to get. I was intimidated and soaking wet from running fifty blocks through Manhattan (no Uber!). As I sat in the New York Athletic Club, my cheap suit dripping wet (you can't take off your jacket at the New York Athletic Club), I tried to break the ice by telling the moose joke.
I told it pretty well, but Andy didn't crack a smile. Even then, he was a canny negotiator. We never ended up working together, but his book probably did me more good than the project would have. And the story was priceless.
Your future: Kevin Kelly is the most erudite, original and prophetic futurist of our time. If you've ever picked up a copy of Wired, he's had an impact on your life.
If you hope to be working, producing value or merely alive in ten years, his new book (out in June) is essential. It might take you an hour or two to read certain pages—if you're smart enough to take notes and brainstorm as you go.
The people who read his previous book about the future (New Rules) in 1998 are truly grateful for the decade-long head start it gave them.
I've never had the nerve to tell Kevin a joke, but I did offer to do a magic trick for him.
It's rare that you can spend $33 on two books and have your life so profoundly altered.
PS new Creative Mornings podcast just up with my talk from a few years ago.
Backwards: Great designers don't get great clients, it's the other way around.
Patience is for the impatient.
Leading up is more powerful than the alternative.
…And a few more provocations. I only gave this talk once, I hope you enjoy it.