Dec 21, 2021 · 1h 6m · my-first-million
This Year's Best Twitter Accounts to Follow
Shaan Puri · 41m spoken Sam Parr · 16m spoken Andrew Ross Sorkin · 52s spoken CNBC Co-Anchor · 12s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Celebrating over one million monthly downloads, My First Million co-hosts Sam Parr and Sean Puri curate a high-signal list of their favorite under-the-radar Twitter accounts across finance, marketing, philosophy, and comedy.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 98.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 3.5 Guest teaching 0.6 Guest disagreement 1.2 The hosts pushing back 1.0
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 31:52 CNBC anchors dismissing Musk compensation milestones
In the historical media clip, CNBC commentators openly laugh at and question the extreme tiers of Elon Musk's compensation package, deeming them unrealistic.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 36:13 Shaan pushing back against negative visualizationShaan directly challenges Sam's stoic exercise of imagining catastrophic scenarios, arguing it creates unnecessary stress rather than direct gratitude.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:24 Sam explaining automated account clawback mechanicsSam explains how ACH-connected automated investment accounts operate to Shaan, who was unaware you could automate distributions out of a primary checking account.
The host holds their own ▶ 46:06 Sam detailing his bottom-fourth resume hiring rubricSam demonstrates deep operator expertise by articulating how he evaluates candidates' genuine passion and communication skills using the bottom section of their resumes.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introductory Banter & Body Fat Scan Results | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Sam and Shaan engage in lighthearted introductory banter regarding Sam's recent DEXA body fat scan results. Shaan playfully jokes about fitness influencer standards and body composition ranking systems without serious debate. | |
| Milestone Announcement and Twitter List Episode Setup | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Shaan introduces the Twitter curation format and pitches the anonymous finance account PostMarket. He reviews the account's critical analysis of Grove Collaborative and public market valuations in a collaborative setup. | |
| Account Recommendation: Ramit Sethi & Personal Finance Frameworks | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Sam recommends Ramit Sethi's personal finance philosophy and automation frameworks. Shaan pushes back on Ramit's advice to buy premium durable goods, offering his own 'barbell' strategy of buying disposable bulk athletic wear. | |
| Account Recommendations: Harry Dry & George Mack | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Shaan highlights Harry Dry of Marketing Examples and George Mack, breaking down Harry's creative Kanye West story landing page. Sam supports the recommendation by noting previous attempts to hire him. | |
| Historical Parallels: Pessimists Archive, Tesla Q, & Musk's Compensation Plan | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | Sam introduces Pessimists Archive, prompting Shaan to discuss historical tech skepticism and his Tesla investment mistake. An archival news clip features Andrew Ross Sorkin and CNBC commentators expressing skepticism toward Elon Musk's 2018 compensation package. | |
| Account Recommendation: The Daily Stoic & Negative Visualization Debate | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | Sam endorses Ryan Holiday and The Daily Stoic, defending negative visualization as an effective daily appreciation tool. Shaan actively challenges the practice, arguing it represents a needlessly pessimistic and roundabout route to gratitude. | |
| Account Recommendation: Aviral Bhatnagar & The Resume's Bottom Fourth | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Shaan details Aviral Bhatnagar's Indian startup insights and recounts a college course taught by Lisa Keister on career differentiation. Sam reinforces the concept by sharing his own hiring filter based on the 'bottom fourth of the resume.' | |
| Account Recommendation: Willy Woo's On-Chain Crypto Analytics | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Shaan recommends on-chain crypto analyst Willy Woo, detailing the difference between technical chart analysis and transparent blockchain indicators such as coin age and average buy-in prices. | |
| Account Recommendation: Rohin Dhar's Airbnb Portfolio Transparency | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sam profiles Rohin Dhar's transparent documentation of his single-family Airbnb rental business, citing public disclosures of mortgage payments and occupancy yields. | |
| Humorous & Unfiltered Accounts: James Fridman, Nikita Bier, & Haralabob | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Shaan and Sam review entertaining accounts including James Fridman and Nikita Bier before Shaan details Haralabos Voulgaris's early quantitative NBA sports betting arbitrage. | |
| Algorithmic Packaging & Stand-Up Comedy Insights with Hasan Minhaj | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | The hosts discuss YouTube packaging and Shaan's private text exchanges about comedy structure with Hasan Minhaj. Sam playfully roasts Shaan for bragging about his celebrity connection. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Puri: My First Million podcast pacing for 1.3 million monthly downloads
“We're on pace for 1.3 right now, smashing old record highs of 900,000.”
Puri: Chamath profited from poorly performing SPACs while retail investors suffered
“Chamath in reality had a bunch of really shitty SPACs where he made a bunch of money. And people who invested in his SPACs on the whole, like just got ripped to shreds this year.”
Puri sold only about 15% of his Amazon stock from Twitch
“Have I sold, yeah, I sold a small amount, maybe 15%.”
Puri: Buy either the best or cheap disposables to avoid stress
“I either buy the best or I buy extremely cheap disposable where I don't have any stress about it because I didn't invest hoping it was going to be the best.”
Puri: Harry Dry is one of the internet's best content creators
“This guy, I would say is one of the best content creators on the internet.”
Puri missed out on $5 million by selling early Tesla stock
“I bought Tesla stock very early on. I think I bought it under a hundred dollars a share. And I think if you if you adjust for the splits, I think it's now over like 5000 dollars a share. So I think I would have made about five million dollars on a stock buy th…”
Puri: Struggling founders must project confidence to prevent fatal panic
“He's like, you know, it is in the incentive of somebody, of the captain of that ship, To go down with the ship and the whole time be saying, oh, we're so close to our destination. Basically. He was like, they're never going to come out and say, yeah, we don't …”
Puri: India's $133B software exports exceed Saudi Arabia's oil exports
“India now exports more software, one hundred thirty three billion than Saudi Arabia exports oil, one hundred thirteen billion.”
Puri: Building bridges into specific regional markets creates major business arbitrage
“It would be really great arbitrage to do by the way, if you, instead of trying to compete in the same pond as everybody else, like, Go provide a really useful bridge into one specific market or one specific geography.”
Parr: Candidates unable to speak passionately about their major make bad writers
“And if they can't tell me a story about something that they spent four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on, then they're just not going to be a good writer because they're not interesting enough.”
Puri: Long-term crypto holders selling is a leading indicator of price moves
“And so, like, when a bunch of old hands start selling, that's actually a signal that comes before the price changes. It may not even affect the price yet, but it's an indicator of something to come.”
Sam Parr: Rohin Dhar owns 8 to 12 Airbnb properties across the US
“And this guy, he owns, I think, 12 or 10 or eight, somewhere in that eight to 12 range. He owns eight single family homes in New Mexico, in California, Hawaii, wherever. And you can go and look and he'll kind of show you where they are and I'll show pictures o…”
Puri: Being constantly offensive prevents cancellation better than one-off remarks
“Well, it's kind of like the Donald Trump rule, right? Which is like, you say one offensive or weird thing you know, you're canceled, but you say all offensive and weird things you're, you get like, you know, you get the pass.”
Puri: Haralabob earned millions exploiting NBA first-half Vegas betting lines
“So he started off, he got famous because he was a big sports better and he famously one year and I think the year 2000, like just absolutely raked it in in Vegas cause he found an arbitrage that he could bet on and he just like milked it.”