The Power of Serendipity

[00:01:31] – (First Question) - In true form, Patrick and Jason shift from investing and start talking about their family and the lessons Jason has instilled in his kids

[00:04:57] – Jason reveals the two most important tools to have in your toolkit in order to succeed

[00:08:13] – Some of Jason’s life-changing books and why he is such a huge fan of Richard Feynman

[00:14:29] – Jason explains his procedure for finding new books to check out

[00:16:40] – While there are benefits to social media, there are dangers of living in an echo chamber and suffering from confirmation bias

[00:18:55] – You should probably avoid only watching CNBC all day long with the sound on

[00:19:53] – Jason lists some of his can’t-miss writers

[00:21:36] – Jason highlights one of the challenges in mass communications, getting the right balance of skepticism and anger/nihilism

[00:23:10] – Patrick questions Jason on the current state of the financial advisory business – Now that Vanguard has absorbed much of the active management business, so the next question is what happens to financial advisory

[00:24:45] – Jason says there needs to be a disruption in the fee-based advisory business

[00:27:45] – Jason explains why we should probably begin to unbundle some financial services offerings

[00:30:20] – What changes Jason would make if he was given czar-like powers to regulate the industry

[00:40:18] – Diving into the impact of academia doing research on the markets and the right way to analyze the markets using data

[00:48:40] – Reasons Jason believes some investors are better off with active managers over index funds, and some of the ones he specifically admires

[00:53:24] – Some of the people that Jason has enjoyed interviewing

[00:57:23] – Patrick questions about the kindest thing anyone has ever done for him professionally and Jason reveals why personal relationships are so important in your professional life

[01:01:26] – The importance of serendipity and luck and how they differ

[01:08:40] – Which one book would Jason recommend people read first if they are unfamiliar with his work

[01:15:20] – Jason reveals the book that he would miss most had he not read it