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 414 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
Galloway: US Will Spend More on Debt Interest Than Defense
“We're now, this year, gonna spend more money on interest on the debt than we spend on our military.”
Sanchez: US debt interest payments now exceed national defense spending
“Well, for the first time ever, our net interest payments in the US, we pay more towards those than we do our national defense, which is scary in a world in which China's China and we have what's happening in the Middle East and we have what's happening in Russ…”
Van Edwards: 82% of human impressions are based on warmth and competence
“Research has shown that 82% of our impressions of people are based on two traits. Warmth and competence.”
Kamala Harris went from historic low primary percentages to viral popularity
“Watching how fast a character that got one of the lowest percentages ever in a primary, Kamala Harris, to now front and center in BRAT,”
Dr. Lyon: Six cups of quinoa equal one small chicken breast
“You would need six cups of quinoa to equal one small chicken breast, and at the end of the day, if you care about numbers, then you have to understand these things are not interchangeable.”
Rove: A $14,000 local ad buy baited John Kerry's infamous 2004 gaffe
“We bought 11,000 or 14,000 dollars worth of ads in Huntington, West Virginia. I think it was February or March of 2004. He was going to be appearing the next day in front of the VFW audience to talk about his military experience versus Bush's lack of it. So we…”
Sanchez: Studies find higher IQ correlates with decreased happiness from socializing
“As someone climbs the intelligence curve, AKA they become more and more intelligent as measured by IQ, it turns out that being around other people, social interaction, friends or otherwise actually decreases your happiness.”
Kennedy: Save Our Allies operates with U.S. DOD and DOS support
“If you think that I can walk into Afghanistan during the middle of the evacuation without DOD and DOS support, like, you're an, you're a crazy person. If you think that we're going to be in Djibouti or Sudan during a coup, like, you're a crazy person without t…”
Brooks: American happiness has declined for 30 years due to institutional retreat
“American happiness has been falling for 30 years. Usually little by little by little because of the retreat from institutions like faith and family and friendship and, you know, the relationship with work.”
Sanchez: Over 76% of millionaires inherited zero dollars
“Most people who become millionaires, more than 76% of them actually inherited nothing, zero dollars.”
Sanchez: Children of Divorced Parents Have Higher Suicide and Divorce Rates
“Your kids are more likely to commit suicide or self-harm. If you get divorced, your kids have a higher likelihood of becoming divorced themselves.”
Sanchez: Keeping a day job increases startup success rate by 33%
“But the numbers tell us that you are more likely to succeed by 33% if you stay at your job and build your side thing than if you just go and build your side thing.”
Sanchez: Dave Ramsey's corporate headquarters operates entirely on debit cards
“But then I've been to his headquarters and he, like, for instance, they don't have credit cards. Zero credit. The entire place, nobody has a credit card in it. They have debit cards only.”
Sanchez: Michael Jordan was a front-office nightmare as an NBA owner
“Jordan actually bought an NBA franchise, and suddenly the man who won six rings by trusting a system, he was a nightmare in the front office, burned through six head coaches, trusted his gut over every expert, and posted the worst record in the league.”
Sanchez: Businesses Without Owner Dependency Are Valued at ~4.5x Profit
“This value builder scored 80,000 companies and found the exact price of being irreplaceable. The businesses that did not have what's called owner dependency, they were worth around four and a half times profit.”
Sanchez: The average entrepreneur makes $46,000 to $65,000 a year
“I read the average entrepreneur makes 46 to 65,000 dollars a year.”
Sanchez: Income increases happiness for most, according to 2023 research
“In 2023, the two rivals did something nearly extinct in academia. They put all their data together, brought in a neutral referee, and published a joint answer on one of the top journals in the country. The finding? Both were right about different people. For m…”
Sanchez: Blood pressure drops during positive fantasies as body powers down
“There's this amazing experiment where the same researchers who measured blood pressure while people indulged in, like, positive fantasies What happened is their blood pressure dropped, which is a physiological signature of the body powering down.”
Sanchez: 2011 Study Shows Visualizing Death Increases Life Gratitude
“There's a 20 11 study in the Journal of Positive Psychology that randomly assigned people to vividly manage their own death in like specific personal detail versus a control group that didn't do anything, obviously. And what happened? Well, the death group cam…”
Sanchez: UCLA Study Shows Process Visualization Outperforms Outcome Visualization
“UCLA psychologists tested exactly that on students the week before a midterm. One group visualized the outcome, so getting that A, right? The other visualized the process, when they would study, where they would sit, which chapters, and then a control group ba…”
Sanchez: Dave Ramsey's Company Fires Employees Caught Gossiping
“He says, at my company, we have a no gossip rule. We just don't allow it. And so if anybody's gossiping or talking about anybody, and they find out at Dave Ramsey, you get fired.”
Hammer: 40% of Americans Cannot Cover a $400 Emergency Expense
“40% of Americans can't do a 400 dollar emergency.”
Hammer: Klarna interest reaches 35%, exceeding high-rate credit cards
“And a Klarna loan immediately gets you up to like 35%, where even like the highest credit cards, we're talking 30%.”
Hammer: Nearly 30% of youth bet on sports, with similar gender rates
“Interesting enough, both genders are actually using those sports betting pretty similar. It's like off by like four percent. I think it's nearly like 30% of young people. But pretty close to both genders, but they're not really talking about the young women ge…”
Hammer: College borrowers average $38K debt and 40% drop out
“The average, not median, so average, which is a little boosted, borrows like 38,000 dollars to get a to get a bachelor's degree, if I'm not mistaken, or to go all the way through college. And 40% of those who borrow drop out.”
Hammer: Meal delivery services have a 90% markup
“And then the percentage of those meals specifically getting delivered, which has a 90% markup.”
Sanchez: American Apparel went bankrupt because Dov Charney centralized all decisions
“Dove Charney built American Apparel. Into like a six hundred million dollar company from the factory floor up. But every ad, every hire, every product decision ran through him. He was so obsessed with control. The company reportedly told retail staff how to sh…”
Pabrai: Ford, Walmart, Microsoft, and Ikea were built without VC
“Some of the biggest businesses we have today in the US and the world Were not created with venture capital, Ford Motor Company, Walmart, Microsoft, you know, the most of these companies, Ikea were created on a kitchen table with nothing.”
Pabrai: Elon Musk personally interviewed first 3,000 SpaceX hires
“I think he interviewed the first 3000 hires at SpaceX himself.”
Evans: 70% never ask for raises, but 70% who ask get them
“Second thing is, just statistically, 70% of employees never ask for a raise. This is probably foreign to me and you, because we're, A little aggressive. But, 70% never ask. And yet, of the 30% that do ask, 70% of them get something.”
Sanchez: Dave Ramsey's company fires employees after two gossip offenses
“Dave Ramsey's company when I went and went to his headquarters, and I have a lot of respect for Dave in many ways, is they have a no gossip policy. It's really aggressive at their company. And if you're, if you know, you do it, and another team member hears yo…”
Taylor: Over 90% of Kickstarter project creators fulfill their rewards
“Now, ninety-something percent of people on Kickstarter fulfill, but there's still a small percentage of people that don't, and so you really have to drive that level of trust to make people feel comfortable, That you're actually going to deliver on time, and y…”
Gladwell: Historically disadvantaged regions are economically better off than ever
“Particularly once you abstract out from the United States, I mean, if we were having this conversation in Africa, we would not be bringing this up. We would be like, there's never been a better time, or South America, or any place that was historically economi…”
Jain: Bilt Rewards processed over $100B in housing volume
“And by the way, we did over a hundred billion dollars of housing volume through our platform, right?”
Sanchez: Mark Rober's YouTube viewership is 10x larger than Discovery Channel's
“Their viewership's, like, 10 x smaller than Mark Rober's on, on YouTube.”
Sanchez: The average union actor cannot afford union health insurance
“The average what is that? The average actor who is in a union... Cannot actually afford the insurance payments That are required as a member of the union.”
Zimmer: Big tech ad revenue completely dwarfs legacy Hollywood studio profits
“When you look at ad revenue from YouTube or Meta or Google or Amazon, you know, which is anywhere from, you know, forty billion to two hundred and ninety five billion, as compared to ad revenue for
You know, Warners or Comcast or whatever, which is like eight …”
McDonald: Studies show self-control and reliability increase perceived attractiveness
“There are studies that straight up show that traits like self-control and reliability and the ability to follow through on your word, those are all traits that are seen as more attractive by the opposite sex.”
McDonald: Communicating individuals synchronize brainwaves, increasing with closeness
“Our brainwaves tend to sync up with the people, well, with anyone we're in communication with. So even us right now, our brainwaves are syncing up. And if we were best friends, they would be syncing up even more.”
McDonald: Humans emit airborne stress chemosignals that others can detect
“And then there is chemo signals, which are kind of chemical signals, chemo signals, chemical signals, that leak through the air, especially when you're stressed.”
McDonald: Stress from negative thoughts can shrink the prefrontal cortex
“Negative thoughts in general, not just complaining, judging, criticizing but negative thoughts in general, they lead to this stress that actually can shrink your prefrontal cortex.”
McDonald: Priming power through writing boosts job interview performance
“I was just reading a study about how they actually had people, they asked people to write about a time where they felt very powerful and then they had another group write about a time where they felt powerless, and then they had them go and do an interview. To…”
Eyal: Seligman and Maier reversed their theory on learned helplessness
“Those authors, Seligman and Meyer, declared that they had gotten the study a hundred percent backwards. That the study results were a 180 degrees the opposite of what they thought. That we don't learn helplessness, that's our default.”
Nir Eyal: Rescued rats in 1950s experiment swam for 60 hours
“The rats didn't swim four times longer. They didn't swim for 60 minutes. They swam for 60 hours. They went from 15 minutes to 240 times more persistent.”
Eyal: 90% of phone checks stem from internal triggers, not notifications
“Studies have found 10% of the time you check your phone, is it because of some kind of ping, ding, or ring? 90% of the time, it's because of an internal trigger.”
Eyal: Recalling a memory actively revises it in the brain
“Every time you think of a memory, you are actually revising it in your brain.”