Anchorman Walter Cronkite was known as “the most trusted man in America” in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Who’s the Cronkite of today? With all the noise out there, that’s not so easy to answer.
Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter and Medium, might agree. He thinks a big problem with the Internet is that it rewards extremes. Humans are triggered for fight or flight. Our brains are wired to be susceptible to fear, panic, and accidents. So the Internet, and those selling ads on it, shows us more of exactly that. There’s a reason why it leads if it bleeds. Real news about things that matter can easily get drowned out.
It’s crucial today to know who your trusted voices are. The Internet, despite any of the shortcomings Evan Williams mentions, has completely decentralized and democratized the world’s knowledge and information. Anybody with a smartphone today has better access to information than the President of the United States had 15 years ago.
Sure there’s more noise, but we now have the ability to connect to our trusted voices directly. We can hear the wisdom straight from their minds. We just need to know who they are.
Below are some of my trusted voices, particularly in business tech & finance. For years, I’ve read their books, listened to their podcasts, watched their interviews, and seen them speak in person. They’ve challenged me to get smarter and be better and they’ve taught me the tools needed for the journey.
Current affairs –
Fareed Zakaria is someone I’ve gone to for years for updates on what’s going on in the world. He hosts a weekly show called Global Public Square. He welcomes people of all views onto the show and never lets it become a screaming match. Fareed shares his opinions but is fair to all viewpoints. He contributes to the Washington Post and has a website but I mostly listen to the podcast recording of his show.
Productivity, Life-Hacks, and Better Living –
Tim Ferriss has been my go-to resource since 2011. His books and blogs share tips for optimal living and working more productively. On his podcast, he interviews successful people from all domains to distill their best ideas, processes, and recommendations. I own all his books but personally found the Four Hour Workweek most helpful. It came at a crucial time for me right after college. His other books, the Four Hour Chef, the Four Hour Body and Tools of Titans can be read as standalone chapters.
Technology –
Ben Thompson is a one of the clearest technology thinkers and writers I’ve come across. He’s the creator and author of Stratechery and co-hosts the Exponent Podcast. As a former employee of Microsoft and intern at Apple, he has a lot of unique insights to share. A lot of the content is free on his site and I recently subscribed to the newsletter, a steal for only $10 a month.
Peter Diamandis is the author of Abundance and Bold, two great books on exponential technologies and the entrepreneurs that are using them to improve the world. He’s also a founder of Singularity University, a program that equips entrepreneurs with the tools to solve some of society’s biggest problems.
- Check out his website here.
- His podcast, Exponential Wisdom, here.
- And the blog of Singualrity University here.
Mental models, Learning –
Shane Parrish is the recovering MBA behind the Farnam Street Blog. Shane’s blog is where I go to get smarter about everything. He covers a wide range of topics: best books, mental models, cognitive biases, Warren Buffet’s annual letters, and more. Like Ben Thompson, a lot of his content is free on his website. I’m also a paying member of the learning community that includes a private Slack channel with reading groups, discussions, and lots of other good stuff.
- Check out the Farnam Street blog here.
Tren Griffin is a Microsoft executive who blogs about tech and business at 25iq. He posts every single Saturday. Consistency is key. Tren always has comprehensive posts where he lists out the best things he’s learned from successful people. He reads their writing, watches their interviews, and boils it down to digestible takeaways.
- Check out Tren’s blog, 25iq, here.
Startups, Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital –
Paul Graham has an impressive resume. He’s the hacker and painter behind the YCombinator beast. YC is a start-up accelerator that’s given us companies like Reddit, Dropbox, and Airbnb. He has a simple website that stands out with incredible content. Check out his Essays for start-up wisdom and some general insights on life.
- Check out Paul’s website and Essays here.
Fred Wilson is a VC at Union Square Ventures, the firm behind Twitter, Foursquare and Etsy. He blogs daily at A VC. He talks about trends in technology and investing and provides actionable tips on the nitty-gritty details of running a company. Fred and USV take pride in being thesis based investors. They do the hardwork of fully understanding a field ripe for disruption before making their bets. Fred readily shares the firm’s theses so be sure to read those and to visit the archives of his MBA Monday series.
- Check out Fred’s blog, A VC, here.
Brad Feld is a former entrepreneur and current tech investor at the Foundry Group. He’s done an impressive job of decoding venture capital and empowering entrepreneurs, especially with his book Venture Deals. Brad shares everything from the details of term sheets to how an entrepreneur should negotiate with a VC. His book reviews and recommendations are handy too. He offers a free class on Novoed based on Venture Deals, I took it and highly recommend it.
Mark Suster is a 2x entrepreneur and current VC at Upfront Ventures. He’s been blogging about startups for a long time and has a lot of knowledge to share. Check his blog and his Snapchat stories for actionable info. He teaches you about sales, market trends, deflationary economics (aka Clay Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma), and more.
Finance –
Sam Dogen is the personal finance guru behind the Financial Samurai. He’s a former Goldman banker and Berkeley MBA who saved aggressively and achieved financial freedom at age 34. He blogs regularly about investing, real estate, entrepreneurship, and how to build an online business. His posts have been helping me with my finances for years. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, Sam has really helped me figure out the measuring part.
- Check out Sam’s site, The Financial Samurai, here.
Josh Brown, Barry Ritholtz, Ben Carlson, and Michael Batnick are a few of the straight talking investor-bloggers at Ritholtz Wealth Management. They’re not afraid to call BS on the industry when needed. They understand that investors are best served when you sell the steak, not the sizzle.
- Josh writes here at The Reformed Broker.
- Barry here at The Big Picture.
- Ben here at A Wealth of Common Sense.
- Michael here at The Irrelevant Investor.
There are a lot of other smart minds I follow but I kept this list above to those I’ve followed for years. It was hard to leave a handful of names off. See below for some other voices I regularly trust. Definitely add these to your RSS feeds and podcast subscriptions too…
Quick note first though: the process of writing often times helps you uncover things you didn’t realize before. One thing this particular blog has shown me is how every single voice I listed above is male. This wasn’t intentional by any means. I’m a big believer in drawing on many different sources for learning. I’ll make a point going forward to follow more female voices and read more books by female authors.
On to some additional follows…
David Cancel drops value bombs. Follow him for tech, startup, and book insights. It was hard not to include him above but I’ve only been following his work for 6 months as of this writing. He’s a former Chief Product Officer at Hubspot and current founder/CEO of Drift. He has a great blog and is the co-host of the Seeking Wisdom podcast. Read his posts and you’ll find yourself shaking your head yes! with how clear and true his points are. He says in 100 words what others need a full book to convey.
Sarah Tavel on Medium for tech/startups.
Marc Andressen’s blog archive here and his firm’s blog here for tech/startups.
Marc’s nemesis yet great investor nonetheless, Bill Gurley at Above the Crowd.
Mike Maples on Medium for tech/startups.
Morgan Housel at Collaborative Fund for new posts on personal finance/investing/generally-though-provoking-stuff and his archive on Motley Fool.
Nick Maggiulli at Of Dollars and Data for investing/personal finance.
Bill Gates at Gates Notes for book recommendations.
Alex Blumberg formerly of Planet Money at NPR and now of Gimlet Media and Season One of the Startup podcast for storytelling. Also on youtube sharing his secrets here and here.
Ellen Chisa on Medium and her website for tech/startups/product management/book recommendations.
Tara Brach on her website for mindfulness and meditation.
Charlie O’Donnell at This Is Going to Be Big… for tech/startups/VC.
Ray Kurzweil on his website for all things future.
Send any recommendations over in the comments, thanks for reading!