Geopolitics has fascinated me since studying International Strategy in the 1990s. I still prefer reading The Economist over local news. I enjoy value investing and have joined the annual pilgrimage to Warren Buffett in Omaha since 2009 this serves to recalibrate my thinking around long-term compounding and ground myself.
Although I invested in early-stage AI companies since 2017 I, like most people, underestimated what LLMs would unlock. Trips to China matter to see things firsthand: factories, infrastructure, products, execution speed. Right now, many of these threads seem to converge: The productivity gains from AI are real. The fears around AI-driven job loss seem overstated. AI-first companies will replace incumbents that are merely trying to patch old processes.
The European Union is imperfect, but it is the only path for European countries to remain globally relevant. We may well buy our drones from Ukraine. And real-world AI is probably the next frontier.
More than ever, I believe building beats watching others build.
Creating beats consuming.
One of Warren Buffett’s best pieces of advice – invest in yourself – has become dramatically more accessible through AI.
Many of my entrepreneur friends stay up late to code again.
At the same time, staying calm, focused, and grounded has become harder.