The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Michael Lewis argues private companies are much better run than public ones
“I think there's an argument to be made that in any industry where they're both private and public companies, the private companies end up being much better run. And I mean like that mostly bad things happen when companies go public and certainly less pleasant.”
Lewis lacked an ending for his SBF book until FTX collapsed
“With Sam Beckman-Fried, I was a year into it, and I did not know what I was gonna do with it until it blew up”
Michael Lewis: Book writing does not compound audiences across topics
“The books have a kind of, Market, and it's a big market, biggish market, but it doesn't, I see no evidence that I'm dragging people along with me. I feel like each book feels like another startup, and then I've got to go out and make it happen almost as if I'v…”
Lewis: Nike blew its dominance by ditching wholesale retail for direct-to-consumer
“Nike basically blew it, right? They let these, they let, they got rid of their stores. They thought it's all going to be online and on and Hoka roll in”
Michael Lewis: Improvisational risk engages audiences far more than scripted speeches
“Do you know how your heart sinks when someone gets up at a podium with a script, with a speech, and they're gonna read their speech? The audience is waiting for you to get through this thing, because they know nothing's going to happen. Like, whatever's on tha…”
Michael Lewis: Acquired will eventually evolve into doing standalone biographies
“At some point you're gonna wake up and say, you know, we should be doing more biography. We should be doing more people, and if that person is not, you know, is not naturally a huge corporation, you may still, I have a feeling there's more, there's an evolutio…”
Jim Simons personally declined Michael Lewis's pitch for an authorized biography
“Jim Simon's son had a kid in my oldest child's class in high school, and I tried, I approached, I said, look, I can't do it unless you want me to do it. There's no point. And he said like, Dad, just like, no, no, no.”
Michael Lewis: Acquired achieves the same narrative grip as long-form books
“You created the environment with the podcast that I tried to create with the book. You grab the listener. Like I try to grab a reader and get them to the state of mind where they'll let you take them anywhere, ah, and teach them about stuff that they don't eve…”