One Step Up Issue #8
This week, we cover how humble giants are ubundling the internet, the TikTok war, a write-up on Sea Limited, Jio's unbridled ambition, bankruptcies, the two types of knowledge among other things
Here We Are: 5 Stories That Got Us To Now
January, before Covid-19 upended everything, feels like a different lifetime. March is already a blur. Time slows when you experience surprise, and every day of 2020 brings a new shock. So the recent past feels like distant history.
To have any hope of making sense of what’s happening in 2020, we have to pay attention to a bunch of seemingly unrelated stories that began before anyone had heard of Covid-19.
Morgan’s writing has had a tremendous impact on the way I view this world. If I could have one superpower from anyone in this world, it would probably be to communicate my thoughts the way Morgan does.
Humble Giants are Unbundling the Internet
That is not to say that TikTok is not capturing data: it is vacuuming up as much as it can, from your usage to your IP address to your contacts and location (if you gave the app permission). This, as many TikTok advocates note, is similar to what Facebook does.
This, to be clear, is absolutely true. It is also at this point where important differences emerge. First, Facebook is a U.S. company, and while TikTok claims that it is independent from ByteDance and stores data in the U.S. and Singapore, its privacy policy is clear:
We may share your information with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group.
What matters more in an ideological war, though, is influence, and that is why I do believe that ByteDance’s continued ownership of TikTok is unacceptable.
However, if ByteDance is unwilling to sell, then the U.S. government should be willing to act.
Sea Limited (known simply as “Sea”) is a Singapore-based Internet company that has quietly become a contender for the “Tencent of Southeast Asia” title. It’s mobilizing gaming, e-commerce, and payments across SEA and I found Julie’s write-up quite detailed and helpful in understanding the landscape in which it operates.
The Unbridled Ambition of Reliance Jio
I’d be surprised if anyone at this point hasn’t heard of the investments Jio has received from marquee investors worldwide. But what I’m truly excited about is the potential a few of these partnerships will provide. Few companies in the world have the potential to change the outlook for a country. Reliance Industries is one of them. A bet on them is a bet on India.
The Two Types of Knowledge: The Max Planck/Chauffeur Test
At the 2007 Commencement to the USC Law School, Munger explained it this way:
I frequently tell the apocryphal story about how Max Planck, after he won the Nobel Prize, went around Germany giving the same standard lecture on the new quantum mechanics.
Over time, his chauffeur memorized the lecture and said, “Would you mind, Professor Planck, because it’s so boring to stay in our routine. [What if] I gave the lecture in Munich and you just sat in front wearing my chauffeur’s hat?” Planck said, “Why not?” And the chauffeur got up and gave this long lecture on quantum mechanics. After which a physics professor stood up and asked a perfectly ghastly question. The speaker said, “Well I’m surprised that in an advanced city like Munich I get such an elementary question. I’m going to ask my chauffeur to reply.”
The point of the story is not the quick-wittedness of the protagonist, but rather — to echo Richard Feynman — it’s about making a distinction between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
In this world we have two kinds of knowledge. One is Planck knowledge, the people who really know. They’ve paid the dues, they have the aptitude. And then we’ve got chauffeur knowledge. They’ve learned the talk. They may have a big head of hair, they may have fine temper in the voice, they’ll make a hell of an impression.
Pertinent reading in light of the recent bankruptcies we have witness brought on by the pandemic.
$XPO: Business Breakdown
Lessons from Investing in 483 Companies
Podcast episode of the week - no questions asked. h/t to Patrick for getting transcripts out!
Bonus:
OneTab: if you read as much as I do, you’ll likely have many tabs open on your browser. One Tab is a GREAT solution to saving these without feeling cluttered.
Till next time.
If you liked this newsletter, please feel free to subscribe and share it with your friends, family and colleagues!
Thank you.