Wisereads Vol. 3 — A new newsletter by Readwise
Welcome to the third edition of Weekly Wisereads! 🙂
Last week, Paul Millerd generously gifted his self-published The Pathless Path to the Readwise community. This week, we’re excited to share an exclusive preview chapter from the soon-to-be-published Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO by Elizabeth Joy Zalman and Jerry Neumann.
Keep reading to add to your Reader account below 👇
Most highlighted Articles of the week
Beware the Metagame
In any discipline, there are those who do the thing and those who talk about doing the thing. Amjad Masad warns us of getting sucked into the latter — the metagame. "In the startup world [you] see famous people that sell books, talk at conferences, and tweet advice to founders, but when you take a closer look, they've never done much founding themselves. They're like the ‘entrepreneurship’ professor that never built a business… I call them metapreneurs."
Energy makes time
Through brisk prose, coach Mandy Brown illuminates a paradox of busyness: often the one activity we can’t make time for is the one activity that could create energy for everything else. “Then one day they say fuck it all. They eat leftover pasta over the sink, drop mom off at her mahjongg game, and go sit in the park to draw. They draw for hours, until the sun goes down and they’re squinting under the street lights. And, lo and behold, the next day they plow through all those lingering to-dos.”
The Worst Programmer
Software consultant Dan North tells the story of how his teammate Tim was once labeled the “worst programmer” in terms of individual story points shipped yet somehow elevated the entire team’s productivity. “Tim wasn’t delivering software; Tim was delivering a team that was delivering software. The entire team became more effective, more productive, more aligned, more idiomatic, more fun, because Tim was in the team.”
Most highlighted YouTube Video of the week
9 tactics to build a stronger mind
Alzheimer’s and dementia are increasingly dire concerns for modern society, but neurologist Lisa Genova — author of Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting — reassures us not to panic. “Your memory is amazing. It is limitless in what it's capable of remembering if you supply it with the right kind of information, if you supply it with the right kind of tools and associations.”
Most highlighted Twitter Thread of the week
How to analyze 3 financial statements in under 5 minutes
In this graphics-laden thread, Brian Feroldi steps you through the essentials of analyzing a company’s balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. “With <1 minute of analysis per financial statement, you can quickly identify a company's strengths and weaknesses.”
Most highlighted PDF of the week
Enhancing Low Back Health through stabilization exercise
Stuart M. McGill — professor of Spine Biomechanics at the University of Waterloo and author of the literal textbook on Low Back Disorders — shares a daily routine of exercises commonly known as “The Big 3” designed to protect the low back. “The following exercises have been chosen to spare the spine, enhance the muscle challenge, and enhance the motor control system to ensure that spine stability is maintained in all other activities. Each one has been quantified for these metrics.”
Hand-picked book of the week
Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth about Venture Capital from Startup to IPO
In theory, the interests of venture capital investors and startup founders are fully aligned. In practice, they’re often not. In Founder vs Investor, Elizabeth Joy Zalman, founder, and Jerry Neumann, investor, share their alternating perspectives throughout the journey of a venture-backed startup, from fundraising to exit.
Investor View: “There’s an offer to buy the company for $50 million… The founders walk away with life-changing money! The investors do not.”
Founder View: “Let’s assume Jerry has gotten into your head and you decide to reject this early offer. You’re going bigger and that means more money and it comes time to raise a Series A. This means you’re working for that triple-triple-double-double.”
Founder vs Investor’s official release date is September 12th, but Elizabeth and Jerry are giving the Readwise community an exclusive sneak peek by sharing all of Chapter 6 on Exits in PDF form. If you like what you read, you should pre-order a copy on Amazon (which meaningfully helps the book succeed and helps us line up more exclusive sneak peeks in these newsletters!).
Handpicked RSS feed of the week
Reaction Wheel
Jerry Neumann — coauthor of Founder vs Investor above — is perhaps best known for his blog Reaction Wheel where he writes dense, evergreen essays on venture capital, startup strategy, and most recently, uncertainty. From A Taxonomy of Moats: “Value is created through innovation, but how much of that value accrues to the innovator depends partly on how quickly their competitors imitate the innovation. Innovators must deter competition to get some of the value they created.”