#008: Parting Lessons from Charlie Munger, The Theory of Relativity, Smiling and Sales

Hi All!

We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com.

In this edition, we explore some parting wisdom from Charlie Munger, the theory of relativity in our lives & cinema, and how something as simple as smiling can help you sell. Let's dive in:

Build & share your own machine learning app

Say hello to Gradio. This web application allows you to build your own machine learning applications in a low-code testing environment. It can be easily installed with pip and only requires a couple lines of code to be added to your project. You can embed it in Python notebooks or present it as a webpage, and host it on Hugging Face Spaces.

Check out examples in the community and make one yourself!

Why time passes faster atop a mountain than at sea level

One of the most fascinating concepts within Physics is Einstein's famous theory of general relativity. We can begin to understand it with this simple example: place one clock at the top of a mountain, and another at sea level. Eventually they will tell different times. This is due to the gravity of a large mass, like Earth, warping the space and time around it. This concept of time being 'elastic' is one that will certainly bend your mind. Read (or listen) more about it in this article from Big Think.

*Bonus* If you're a fan of Interstellar, here is an article from astronomer Jeffrey Bennett that covers the plausible and speculative uses of relativity used in the film!

Smiling and sales

When is the last time someone successfully sold you something? When was the last time someone unsuccessfully tried to sell you something? Did you notice anything different between their strategies?

​@retirementkeys on X made the observation that the art of selling reflects the bell-curve meme. The 'lowest-IQ' and 'highest-IQ' salespeople both use the same tactic: smile & see if your offer can help the prospect, then pitch. Next time you are looking to persuade someone, remember to use Dale Carnegie's 5th Principle: Smile.

How to safely drive this winter season

It's not a secret that driving on ice is more difficult than dry, ideal roads. But have you ever taken a moment to understand why?

​This short, 5-minute video from Engineering Explained goes over everything you need to know about driving in the snow. It covers traction circles of snow tires, how to think about stopping distance, and other useful tips to help you drive more safely this winter.

One of Charlie Munger's finest speeches

We celebrate the life of legendary investor, businessman, and philanthropist Charlie Munger as he passed away on November 28, 2023. He was most well known for being the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway as well as Warren Buffet's 'right-hand man' and closest partner.

One of his most famous speeches was in 1995, where Charlie discussed the framework for decision making and the psychology of human misjudgment. The following are links to the full speech as well as an abridged version.

Be sure to order the new Stripe Press book, Poor Charlie's Almanack, which is an abridged version of the famous 2005 text.

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Always wishing you the best,

JB