Keep watching this video for a contrarian view on something I stumbled upon recently.
So the common wisdom in investing today, and indeed something that I have followed myself,
is the idea that software is a better bet than hardware. And I'm pretty confident you can go
and ask 100 investors and 90, 95 of them will give you that same opinion, maybe even 99.
and for so long I've thought you know that's definitely true because of xyz and the truth
behind that is something that I'm actually starting to question and that's because of
some recent experiences that I've had and when you're thinking about return of capital
i.e trying to get your equity back at some stage as an investor versus return on it's like
there's a big difference there right it's something more conservative approach I just want my money
back rather than give me hockey stick growth. And this is something I've been thinking about quite a
lot recently. What does it mean with artificial intelligence and the improvement that that brings,
the efficiency gains on the back end of a business? Do you even need a business partner?
Maybe that's not the case any longer. And why does it help to have a shared talent pool at the top
of a business when maybe, maybe you just don't. So really, I've been questioning some of my
previously strongly held opinions. And that's what this video is going to be all about. Basically,
hardware versus software as an investment. Now, you might be wondering if this is the first time
you've tuned into the podcast, why listen to me? Very briefly, I've been investing my own money for
over a decade. I've made some great calls. I've also made some really bad ones. And I like making
these videos because I can help people avoid the mistakes that I made. And also, it's a great way
for me to learn new things. So if you find it valuable, give us a subscribe, give us a like,
whatever platform you're on. If you want to get in touch, then reach out to me on email,
hi at jakewoodhouse.io. And really cool, I'm a big advocate for NOSTA, right? Free speech online
couldn't be more important in today's environment. So download a podcast player like Fountain,
have a tune in on there, and you can send me some zaps or some boosts, which I highly recommend as
experience. So let's get into the meat and potatoes of today. A brief history just to begin with. So
I've been investing my own money. I'm not going to go into why I got that, but
it's really difficult. You get this cash into a bank account. It's like, how do I know that 10
years from now, I've got a good chance of not only having this still there, but being able to give it
the next generation, you know, true legacy style inheritance planning. And therefore, I started
investing. And this took me through a bunch of different things, such as an early stage investment
group called the Green Angel Syndicate, which is based in the UK, looking for early stage clean
technology startups. I invested in nine companies through that syndicate. I read a great book by a
guy called Jason Calacanis called Angel, How to Turn 100 Grand into 100 Million. And that was
fascinating. What's the playbook on angel investing and how does that work? And I went through some
programs, one called Entrepreneur First and one called Antler, which are talent investment venture
capital funds. So they throw 100 people in a room together, they pay for them to be there for three
months, and they try and match people up saying, okay, you're the technical guy, you're the
commercial guy, show me how you're going to build the next Google. And they would place bets on
businesses that came out of those accelerator programs. The long story short of all of this is
like software is a great bet. It didn't used to exist as a business model 25 years ago in the
same way it does now. The cost of marginal production to fulfill a new customer is close
to zero. And that's why you get this extraordinary breakout growth if a company gets super traction
and hits product market fit. And the next step is then what you see today, which is actually what
largely people think is the internet, which I would question itself, but digital monopolies.
and they're able to defend those monopolies with all sorts of tactics that are very interesting to
pull apart and not the point of this video. What I'm really getting into here is like the status
quo has become such that, yes, software is great, hardware no. And there's tons of other reasons for
that, but that's enough of an introduction to this now. So I have been putting money into software
companies and some of them worked, some of them didn't work. I'm also, of course, a huge advocate
The Bitcoin that changes the landscape of purchasing power over time is actually money rather than an investment per se.
Saving and investing are not the same thing. Sound money. The Austrian School of Economics.
Maybe I'll make another podcast on that because that is a huge moment as an investor when you realize that actually you can just save money in Bitcoin as the tool rather than having to invest in all these things to try and make a return.
Anyway, lately, a friend of mine chatting away, if he ever watches this, he'll know it's him that I'm referring to, really, really is hitting me with some cool stuff.
And I'm not going to say exactly who they are, but the structure of the conversation and the thrust of it is still valid for anyone else out there like me who's a retail investor trying to figure out, well, what's the best way of keeping what's mine, taking a sufficient amount of risk, and really hitting some good returns.
um now the business case is interesting so it's a vertically integrated set of businesses for which
he controls so they're his businesses and it's in the raw material production space
so you basically you know the input is a raw material the output after a series of different
refinements is then products for a market that other people can buy and what he's doing is he's
using AI in a way that previously wasn't possible to write bespoke code for machinery in that raw
production process that is basically it's faster, cheaper, and more bespoke than anything that's
been possible before. So the major shift in the investment landscape here is this previously held
viewpoint of Marc Andreessen, you know, software is eating the world. It's a good quip. It was a
Great quote, and was very helpful for a lot of people to make a lot of money.
But is that still true?
And what if it's the case that AI is eating software?
And so the trend is very clear, in my opinion.
These big software engineering heavy businesses are either paying outrageous numbers for the
talent that understands how to create the artificial intelligence, or they're sacking
them.
And so previously, a software startup had a moat in a sense, which is, you know, you've got a product, you've got a product manager, you've got a front end engineer, you've got a back end engineer, you've got a graphic designer.
And those guys cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to put in a room together.
And so for me, as an entrepreneur, following an idea in software, it was like, well, I've got the idea, I've got the business case, but now I need some money to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to actually build this thing.
So what if that moat, that talent moat is gone, right?
Where is the defensibility in the software business going forwards?
And so it's a really interesting change.
Now, what does it mean?
Some digital monopolies I wanted to mention that, you know, things like Uber, Lyft, Spotify,
Snap, Twitch, what do they all have in common?
Well, they're valued at huge numbers, but they're not profitable businesses.
How does that work?
And more and more, I see that the status quo venture capital industry, I would like to think of myself as someone who believes in the honor of venture capital.
I believe it's an extremely important process.
It's like capitalists taking large risk on early stage bets for potentially high payout.
And it's exactly the same as what was happening hundreds of years ago when people were setting sail from Europe in search of new places to populate and to trade and to build businesses.
There were people somewhere that took risk on those risk takers and gained a reward.
And it's the same thing today.
But with an inflationary monetary policy and central banks in their current guise, the funds that sit in an early stage, what was a seed stage is now a pre-seed.
It may even be a pre-pre-seed.
The valuations have gone up.
The check size has increased.
But what are they doing under the hood?
What's actually changed?
And it's basically a symptom of an inflationary monetary policy and cheap money.
The venture capital industry has become what it is today.
And so what does this mean going forward?
How is it going to be possible to make the kind of returns that were previously made if the ability to create software bespoke to a business problem?
So you're chopping the engineering cost out, you're chopping the time issue out, and you're getting something that's absolutely specific to the business problem you have.
Well, that's a big, big change.
So is the idea of hockey stick growth still valid?
Big, big question.
And so as I go through this it like all right so what going on now And I been researching it like okay so if you could own the physical supply chain of a product that becomes really interesting and so
what is what another common thread i'm looking at currently is like the boomers are all retiring
and that's fair enough they've been working for 40 years they want to sell their businesses
so what's a really boring boomer business that i could buy with regular cash flows and at a at a
reasonable net asset ratio, like I'm talking, you know, two to one or three to one, things like
laundrettes, things like property management companies, things like accounting, because then
the next tier is what industries are most ripe for automation through AI. So I could potentially
become the business operator and then say, okay, let's look at how this business process actually
works, document the whole thing. I go, okay, well, we can build some software for this. We can build
some software for this we can build some software for this myself i no longer need the the expensive
engineering heavyweights to come in and do these like fairly simple tasks big big shift okay so
you're no longer actually competing with the technology businesses it's the physical assets
underneath that are the most important thing that you're then competing against the boomer run
laundrette around the corner that hasn't adopted these technologies now in five years from now this
opportunity might not be quite the same, right? Because other people will have caught on. And the
speed of which AI is improving is such that these tools will get better and better and better.
And that trend is another thing that I would really highlight when it comes to this like
status quo concept, like software is better than hardware. It's like, look at how good
ChatGPT has got now versus where it was six months ago. So businesses raising money at the moment,
being like, we're a software business, and we're going to go after this market. It's like,
okay, how long until what you're doing can be replicated by an AI? And that is not return of
capital, right? I could be investing into a business that's actually far higher risk
than what I realize. This brings me then to this idea of like the idea of teams and also the fact
that like as a physical business, let's use a laundrette as an example. Let's say you go and buy
the local laundrette, you tart it up with a better website, you have some kind of like Google ads
process where you're driving more business. You incorporate a bunch of things like membership
programs. I don't know. You have an automated locking system on the front door. You have an
automated process for actually using the laundrette. Whatever efficiency gains you might be able to
bring in. But the key then is you build it on a Bitcoin standard. So you say, OK, all the excess
cash flows from this business, we're going to accumulate Bitcoin. And so you get startup-like
returns on your purchasing power, but with very low risk. That's a cool play. And the question,
of course there being is how do you finance the purchase of the laundrette in the first instance
such that you beat the pace of Bitcoin and that's where leverage on your Bitcoin becomes an
interesting process as an investment skill and I'm going to do another podcast on that in the future
and where that then gets me it's like okay well my previously held philosophy you know going
through something like an entrepreneur first is oh you want to have shared skill sets at the top
of the business because you can't do every simple role well that's true you know when I did that in
2018, but it's now 2025. And what if I can actually completely outsource a CFO? What if I can actually
completely outsource a CMO? And when I say outsource, I can ask ChatGPT or Grok or any of
the other different AI tools, give me the best strategy for this specific business when I want
to grow at this specific rate and I've got this much to help me do it or this much time. And it's
basically a brainstorming process through which I can input information, the output, I still have
to distill. But you can't let the AI think for you. And you also have to be very wary of its
ability to lie. This has come up a few times for me recently. But maybe I just be the business owner
myself. And it's like, okay, any gaps that I don't currently have, you don't know what you don't
know, that's true. But I can be in control. I don't need to have to listen to anyone else. Most
of the problems I've ever had in the startup space have been team issues, you know, falling out with
someone for a piece of behavior or having a difference of opinion on a vision. And it's gone,
right? Actually, I'm the business owner. I control this. I see the strategy is this. This is the
operational requirement for year one. And this is what I think we're going to do. So, okay, this is
really interesting. And you can make faster and better decisions. Cool. And so what's the rest of
marketplace doing? Well, especially in this kind of boomerone space, they got their own retirement,
right? They've been working for 40 years. They're not going to be sitting there going, okay, how can
I improve this business? How can I make it more efficient? How am I going to out-compete everyone
else? I keep control of the business myself. I finance it in a way that I think is effective
versus Bitcoin as an ROI. And then I'm going to incorporate these efficiency tools. Again,
these are just concepts, right? But it's really challenging the idea of software is better than
hardware. Now, as I run through this side note, if you think this is interesting, drop us a comment,
get in touch, find me an email, hi at jakewoodhouse.io. And as I said before, like a big
fan of NOSTA, so jump on there, get in touch, send me some zaps, I'll get straight back to you with
one myself. A great, great way of communicating online, and in particular, a better allocation of
our capital, because we can't be switched off. The platform risk is significantly lower. Anyway,
having pumped Nostra. The additional context for this is I did a deep dive on Satlantis,
a business that's been built at the moment. And it's kind of the convergence of Nostra and AI
and Bitcoin. And they're looking at the travel industry and disrupting that. And shout out to
Alex and the team there, Jordi as well, who came on the podcast. Honestly, wishing you guys the
very, very best of luck. I think they've got a great team. I think they've got a good chance.
but what if what i'm highlighting here is true they might well raise a seed round and and then
maybe a series a but like ai is improving at such a pace that that original use case of like okay you
land in a new place and you need help with recommendations from a social graph that
actually already exists like who's going to pay them what is the business model there now in some
ways that's the risk of a startup investment you've got to just let that one happen but in other ways
it's also like okay well maybe there's a different model that the true return on equity the true
return of capital could be and i'm maybe i'm seeing it now maybe it's evolving and so okay
let's think about this like the use case we mentioned of obviously the the laundrette
the speed at which jack gpt is improving it's like okay you can take this physical process that
you're pretty certain is going to be demanded in the future. Where is the puck going? Yeah,
just to reiterate that point, as investors, that's what we want to be thinking about. It's like,
what's happening right now that helps us predict where the future might be?
And so ultimately, it's like, okay, hang on. So maybe we're measuring things wrong.
Now, anyone that spent any time looking at Bitcoin knows that Bitcoin as money is measuring value.
value ultimately is completely subjective based on human action and what the individual requires
in any one moment but it's one of the reasons why i therefore love this concept of of like a three
tiered approach to capital so you've got the humanistic capital you've got the intellectual
capital and with those two you drive financial terms and so oh let's buy uber let's buy lyft
They're really great businesses to end.
They're not profitable.
So because of the kind of warped way of money printing, the business looks like it's valuable,
but is it?
Well, maybe not.
So the symptoms of broken money, they're everywhere, right?
And so when a software development process can be done at a fraction of the cost, a fraction
of the time, and totally bespoke, where does the value come from?
And that's why I think the physical side of things is such an interesting place to now
look.
And hence, maybe hardware is the way to go.
another example i want to bring up is is beef like grass-fed regeneratively grazed beef is
in my opinion the best form of food we could possibly have and a brief shout out to brisket
who he and i have talked about this in the past it's like okay so you want to you want to build a
a beef business well you need a farm okay so you've got to own the land okay well the opportunity
cost of not owning Bitcoin versus owning land is massive. You go and pay for a piece of land today,
in five years time, you could buy five pieces of land. But you need food. And so in an environment
where we're moving into an inflationary period, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's going
to happen, right? The bankrupt, the level of debt to GDP of all the major countries around the world
driven by the Fed is so high, they can't do anything but print more money.
And so what that means is the price of hard assets is going to go up.
And so maybe, just maybe, the comparison of the Bitcoin returns versus land,
you making the wrong measurement like I touched on before Maybe we measuring the wrong thing So OK at some point you have to not think purely financially you got to think about that humanistic investment it like you got to live
somewhere much like my last episode when i was talking about you can't live in a bitcoin you
need shelter you need food you need to clean your clothes but maybe you'll do it yourself instead of
going to a laundrette um and so okay so what does this look like well maybe you have to own the land
maybe you have to rear the beef maybe you have to then process that beef yourself and if you can
own all of that, then the value that you're actually creating is far higher than what some
of the metrics we previously would have used to create are, especially if you can go into these
physical supply chains and start implementing the AI that we've discussed so far. And again,
like the average age of ranchers and farmers is well over 50. They're boomers. They're not going
to do this stuff. Now, would it be difficult? Yes. But are you able to deliver value to the
marketplace that is incorruptible from the likes of inflation. With something like beef, I believe
so. And it's a set of competencies, right? Who else can create the beef? Well, there's only a
handful of people that have the land to do it on, have the skill set to actually do it, have the
herd in the first place to replicate. And so, yeah, conceptually as investors, maybe we're
overlooking something here, or maybe I personally am overlooking something here. Now, this is where
of things get a little in the weeds and again the friend that I was having this conversation with if
he ever goes through this we'll know that it's him but he started sending me some stuff that really
really hit home and this takes us back to like ancient Greeks and number one matter so matter
is the potentiality of a thing it is that of which something is made and the substratum that can
receive form. So for example, bronze is the matter of a statue. Flesh and bone are the matter of a
living being. So matter by itself is indeterminate. It doesn't yet have the actuality of the thing
until form gives its structure. Does that make sense? So the raw material is the matter, but the
output is the form. And so to talk through form, so form is the actuality of a thing. It is the
principle that makes a thing what it is rather than something else. So for example, the shape
or design of a statue, the soul as the form of a living body. So Aristotle, form is not a separate
realm, but is imminent in things. Does that make sense? And so there's something called
hylomorphism. So hyl is matter and morph is form. So this is the unity of matter and form.
Every natural substance is a composite of matter and form, i.e. potential and actual.
Neither exists independently in the natural world. So pure matter is never found without form,
and pure form exists only in immaterial things.
Pretty crazy, right?
To think that humans have been thinking about this stuff for so long.
So to give another example, a wooden bed,
the matter is the wood structured by the form,
which is the bed arrangement.
As we carry on through this, like Aristotle's categories,
and this is where the modern business comes in,
it's like the matter is the underlying substrate,
the stuff that can take on form.
And in modern business, that's the commodities,
the raw materials, the hardware, the energy, the land,
the logistics capacity, so the competencies,
so anything physical, finite, and slow changing.
And then the form, the structure and principle
that makes the matter what it is,
in modern terms, that's then the software,
the data, the AI, the design, the brand,
the user experience.
the pattern that extracts value from matter.
So to re-highlight that,
so the matter is anything physical,
finite and slow changing.
And the form is the pattern
that extracts value from matter.
Interesting.
So this is very much like form and matter,
the business principles I'm talking about today
of software versus hardware.
And in particular, this idea of form,
i.e. the software layer.
So what if our access to complex form
is now so cheap and so fast
that any individual can do it on an iPhone
from wherever their business problem is.
And how is that defensible?
If you're just investing in form,
I don't know.
It's a great discussion,
and that's why I wanted to make this podcast.
And so the tension in modern economics
on the matter side of things,
aka commodities,
it anchors you in real assets
with scarcity and intrinsic durability.
Costs are not collapsing.
if anything they're rising with scarcity or logistics shops so an example being you know
the energy industry metals real estate right and on the form side of things aka information
processing software the costs collapse rapidly that's moore's law that's ai models that's cloud
scale the marginal cost of applying new form to old matter is approaching zero so using ai to
design or optimize your physical production process of raw materials right this is really
interesting stuff isn't it it's like okay so so the point is it's like how are you ever going to
get return of capital when you're only investing in form you still need the underlying matter
in order to drive equity value long term so form is cheap and accelerating matter is finite and
anchoring. So Aristotle's hylomorphism is alive in business today. Both are necessary, but they
behave differently under time and market pressures. Interesting. Okay, well, this is just the kind of
stuff I like to learn about. Incidentally, I'm pretty certain that this investigation into
Aristotle's way of thinking is using AI. So we can build on the shoulder of giants, right, the
previous thinkers of multiple, like whatever that is, like 2000 years ago, we're now reapplying that
to business today. That makes us in some ways, the most sophisticated business operators the world's
ever known. So how are we not driving more value? How do we not have better businesses? How do we
not see more abundance all around us? My number one answer to that is money printing. And that's
where it's so important to dig back into the history books and see what happened in the past
and how people reacted. So let's apply this concept to a business model. It's like, okay,
so going back to my friend that I originally touched on that we had this conversation with,
secure the long-term control of physical assets that others cannot replace digitally or cannot
replicate. So examples, forests, land, logistic fleets, so my old area of expertise, shipping,
manufacturing um these assets you want to hold or grow in value because they're scarce slow moving
and immune to the collapse of digital costs so you know that is the primary means of production
basically like how do we get our hands on that as equity investors to then build on top of that
better form so stay exposed to form form that we mentioned before of like the drop in cost of
building software is reducing so fast it's collapsing okay and place those on top of these
physical processes so you know there are a bunch of examples that we can probably think of where
this could be true i always already mentioned the laundrette right and having a more automated
process through that am i confident that a laundrette is enough of a basic necessity that
it would be inflation proof well that i'd need to think about some more my hunch is yes people still
need to wash their clothes right um but who knows what could happen you know if the energy prices go
sky high and i'll touch an example in a minute that really gets you thinking the point is the
cost of form keeps falling so your competitive edge increases as the tech costs collapse and this
is what i touched on before where basically you're competing against other business owners in
traditional physical businesses that haven't adopted any software in the way that you're
envisaging. If you anchor too heavily in matter, you risk becoming a commodity business where price
competition erodes margins. If you anchor only in form, you float in a space where entry barriers
collapse and competitors scale infinitely at lower cost. The hybrid is obviously the base case of
those two combined. So matter is the scarce base, form is the multiplying layer. I mean, isn't this
cool, right? This is the kind of stuff that really gets me pumping. It's like, oh, for so long, I've
overlooked physical businesses is just not the way to go because of the lack of ability to scale.
And therefore, software is just a much better bet. But what if I'm wrong now that software is eating
now that AI is eating software? So the hybrid is matter is the scarce base, form is the multiplying
layer as I just touched on Your business owns finite substrates and you continuously apply ever cheaper forms i you constantly upgrading the software the AI and the data approaches to how you running those companies or to how you
providing those services. And so the result being is the assets you control are worth more in your
hands than anyone else's. And that, I think, is the key insight for how do we beat the Bitcoin
hurdle rate? One, are we measuring things correctly? And two, what if there is a humanistic
capital here that's been completely overlooked given the capability of building something like
what I'm just discussing. Now I want to make some shout outs to some previous episodes that I've done
which will be interesting to have a look at. One is with Pete Wynn and Pete is talking in great
detail about how he could potentially build a platform for completing micro tasks with AI
and Nostra is a part of how he would build that. Point being is it's a way of becoming more efficient
and he's really thinking about like we talked in the past about the high street and how you might
make a cafe more efficient or how you might make a florist more efficient so that's a that's a fun
rabbit hole to head down and Pete's absolutely at the forefront of what's going on here.
Rupert Faust who is working on a project in Australia and really thinking about like what
happens when shit hits the van right this inflationary environment that we know is coming
Land is scarce.
Where are you going to live?
Where is your shelter?
Where's your food coming from?
And perhaps I know that Rupert's already doing this with the marketing he's doing in the podcast and really layering on this more efficient stuff above the underlying asset he's managing is a really cool thing to think through.
And finally, Sam Benson, who came on the podcast recently talking about Oceanbit and how to harness ocean thermal technology to run data centers.
And I've just written it off hardware too hard.
But then you think, actually, shit.
if that's successful
the
access to energy
and the ongoing
ability to provide value to the marketplace
a technology business like what Sam
envisages is
huge
and he can also
layer on this AI
so maybe that is the edge
he needs to actually get together
a project that makes sense from a hardware
perspective
so those are really cool conversations go and have a look at those and as i thought further
about this i also like the idea of a physical product sold digitally so you know the classic
set you go on instagram right and just get pounded with adverts and people just selling all sorts of
crap i i bought i bought a uh i had some cracked heels and i bought something called helilulia
which is a really cool little product where basically you have some cream on your heels
and it sold you these like mini socks to wear.
Is that something I'd buy in a hyperinflation environment?
No, but the concept applies.
Like sell stuff people need and fulfill the supply chain yourself if you can.
And some background reading, like go and read When Money Dies.
You know, the hyperinflationary Weimar Republic, it's crazy, right?
But if you were selling eggs, you did okay.
And, you know, I'm quite bullish on real estate, especially here in Australia, given all the things I've learned recently.
But beware, because, again, I started reading just last night the diary of Benjamin Roth, an American guy in Ohio during the Great Depression, has written this really fascinating diary of his experience and watching financial markets.
And there was a quote I came across.
It was basically saying real estate investors got hammered and they couldn't even collect rent.
And when that was the case, they couldn't afford the interest payments.
And all of the financing businesses were under the pump as well.
So the reclaiming by the banks and banks became huge real estate owners.
And the tax position was such that it was often better to knock the real estate down than keep it there for the future.
Like, how crazy is that?
But real estate investment, oh, yeah, it's totally fine to put down a deposit, take on some leverage.
And, you know, you can always just rent it out.
But what if you don't get paid?
Right.
What if no one's got any money?
Like, I prefer to be selling eggs than selling housing in that incredibly unlikely, but also it's happened before scenario.
Right.
And so it really gets you thinking, doesn't it?
It's like, shit, this whole like, maybe I need hard assets.
You know, that's what I want to get involved in.
Now, time will tell, of course.
But the final thing I want to touch on is another amazing book
that you've got to go and check out.
There's a Guy Swan Bitcoin Audible podcast series
where he actually just reads the whole thing.
It's called The Great Taking.
And it's an incredibly in-depth look into what could be going on under the hood
if there was some kind of debt jubilee.
And the threat is debt is a weapon that will be used by central banks
and the securities law that they've created
and the enormous derivatives markets
to hoover assets onto their balance sheets,
which are ultimately private people, right?
The Federal Reserve is a private institution.
Who are the shareholders?
We're not entirely sure.
That's the crazy thing.
It is not a government institution.
Let's be very clear about that.
And when this is playing out,
you've really got to consider that, right?
because, oh, let's take on some leverage.
We'll get into real estate.
That's a hard asset.
We'll always get paid to rent.
But hang on, what happens if the rent dries up?
Well, suddenly you're on the hook for the interest payments.
Okay, well, fuck, you don't have any money, mate.
Oh, you've got to sell them.
Or maybe I'll just keep them.
Oh, no, the land tax has gone up
because the government's bankrupt as well,
which is what's caused this problem in the whole first place
because of inflationary monetary policy
and loose spending and complete unaccountability
from the people that supposedly run our economies for us.
so just beware right there's risks everywhere a counterparty is a massive problem and i think
it's completely overlooked so yeah just to shout out some of those resources that for me are really
important go and study the history books is it i mean recent times have really made me question a
lot of history that i've ever read but it can still inform thought today you know the so to
recap when money dies the diary of benjamin roth and the great taking like those three things
combined, you're like, wow, I've got to be super, super careful with counter-party risk. I've got
to be super, super careful about what it means if it's actually a hyperinflation. I've got to be
super, super careful about how I actually navigate this process and get return of capital. Anyway,
that's going to bring to conclusion today's episode. I hope you found that useful.
Let me just highlight a few things. Where is the puck going? I don't know, right? No one knows.
do you know like 100 reach out get in touch i'd love to hear your view i'm going to make some bets
on decisions and decisions that i can make with information in hand and the key is information
travels unfairly through markets so if you think you know something that other people don't and you
can benefit from it why haven't you acted on that and what's your strategy for not acting on that
or what's your strategy for acting on it document it and and keep in mind you're always like what's
the portfolio allocation? Where's my real risk coming from? Where's the reward going to come from?
Am I managing to keep my head above water from real inflation? And what's my purchasing power
year after year? You've got to track it, right? Track your net wealth against gold, track your
net wealth against Bitcoin. You'll be extraordinarily surprised to see how differently things look when
you start changing the way that you measure value around you. Now, I'm not quite sure what the
structure is. Let me be very clear. I'm not quite sure what the business opportunity is I'm going to
go after. I'm always going to be considering the Bitcoin hurdle rate. And what is my cost of
capital? So perhaps that's an episode I'll do in the future. Keep an eye out for that.
Some things are worth more than money, right? Financial returns doesn't measure everything.
And that's where this becomes really interesting. So always review your predisposition to things.
Why do I think that? Am I now wrong? How might things change in the future? And, you know, see where it takes you.
Ultimately, you've got to take some risk. You've got to make some bets. And without doing that, without getting your hands dirty.
This is kind of how I feel in a way. It's like, oh, that business is way too hard basket.
But in some ways, getting involved is how you learn. And that's where the reward is. Follow that.
oh, that work scares me. It's like the only way you're really going to understand what it's like
to understand risk, let's just use Australia as an example today, is are you running a business
in Australia? Are you paying payroll tax? Are you paying land tax? Are you paying whatever else they
come up with to do that? And how badly does that actually affect the ability of the business?
And through that experience, that helps you improve as an investor. Anyway, that's enough
for me today. Give me a shout on email. Hi at jakewoodhouse.io if you've got anything to share
or if this makes sense, drop us a comment. And most of all, just get into Noster. It's absolutely
awesome innovation. I think it's the future of online communication. Send me a zap. I'll send
one straight back. Thank you.