Positions taken in public, with the strongest case against each.
A model predicts the past decisions in its training data; if those were biased, the model is a bias machine with a straight face.
Any model used on people, credit underwriting, hiring tools, and AI governance questions in a bank.
From Weapons of Math Destruction · Cathy O’Neil
Whatever you can measure and reward will be maximised literally, including the gaps between the measure and the goal.
AI product and risk discussions, designing any metric or bonus scheme, and evaluating a model's objective.
From The Alignment Problem · Brian Christian
Answer accretion with arithmetic and value with evidence, and never let the first stand in for the second.
Any M&A interview, any accretion-dilution question, and any board case where accretion is offered as the reason to proceed.
From Session 25: Acquisition, a Value Destroyer? · Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern)
In a field where the rules keep changing, a late specialist with range usually outlasts an early one without it.
Explaining a non-standard background, choosing between a narrow and a broad early role, or answering why you changed direction.
From Range · David Epstein
Ask how a business escapes competition before asking how large its market is.
Venture and growth interviews, any moat discussion, and any pitch that leads with market size.
From Zero to One · Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
Supply shocks faded on their own; the hikes anchored expectations so the fading could happen. Credit both, in that order.
Macro and rates interviews, and any debate about central bank credibility.
From The contribution of monetary policy to disinflation · Pongpitch Amatyakul, Fiorella De Fiore, Marco Lombardi, Benoit Mojon and Daniel Rees, Bank for International Settlements (BIS Bulletin No 82)
A rescue that swaps assets at fair value changes nothing; only new capital changes a bank's solvency.
Banking crises, bailout design, and the interview question of what a capital injection does that asset purchases do not.
From John Hussman's October 2008 market comment on recapitalising the banks · John Hussman
Follow the incentives through every institution in the chain, including the ones that were supposed to be the check.
When a conversation about a failure stops at the most visible actor, and when assessing any system where the checker is paid by the checked.
From Inside Job · 2010
A compute vendor's case is a flywheel from agents to tokens to compute; the buyer's case is the return on that compute, and both have to be read together.
Semiconductor and data-centre coverage, technology investing, and any debate about AI capital spending.
From NVIDIA's fiscal 2026 letter from Jensen Huang · Jensen Huang
A founder-controlled company should say what control is for and what investors give up; the 2004 letter is the template for saying it plainly.
IPO process questions, governance debates about dual-class shares, and any founder letter that cites this one.
From Google's 2004 IPO founders' letter, "An Owner's Manual" · Larry Page and Sergey Brin
The practices that make shipping frequent are the ones that make it safe, so do not trade one for the other.
Engineering management questions, system design discussions about release process, and any debate that assumes speed costs reliability.
From Accelerate · Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble and Gene Kim
Treat stock compensation as a cost of doing business; either deduct it from cash flow or count the dilution, and never ignore it twice.
Any technology company valuation, any adjusted EBITDA reconciliation, and the interview question about non-cash charges.
From Session 5: Accounting Inconsistencies · Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern)
Investors as a group earn what businesses earn minus what they pay to helpers; every layer of advice is a claim on that pool.
Asset management economics, the active-passive debate, and any fee discussion.
From Berkshire Hathaway's 2005 letter to shareholders · Warren Buffett
In any industry, ask who holds the data the models need; the shift favours them more than the vendors of the models.
Bank and fintech coverage, the question of who wins from AI in finance, and any moat built on data.
From Capital One's 2024 letter from Rich Fairbank · Rich Fairbank
Prepare for the parts of the job the tools make scarce, judgement and client sense, rather than the parts they make cheap.
The interview question about what AI changes for an analyst, and planning what to get good at before you start.
From Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on AI, Debt and America’s Future · Prof G Markets