How an Engineer Evaluates a Business
Why engineers see businesses differently than finance people, and how bottlenecks, wear, maintenance, and failure modes often explain the difference between average businesses and great ones.
Exceptional businesses. Long-term ownership.
Essays and frameworks on capital-light compounders with durable advantages and room to reinvest at high returns, written for long-term owners.
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View all →Opportunity Cost Is the Only Metric That Matters
Why most long-term mistakes come not from what decisions cost, but from what they quietly crowd out across investing, work, and life.
Why Great Businesses Don’t Always Make Great Investments
Why operational excellence alone isn’t enough, and how valuation, scale, and capital allocation shape outcomes.
When Trimming a Winner Improves the Math
Why trimming an extended position can improve probability-weighted returns, and how valuation discipline and tax structure shape long-term compounding.
AI Is a Feature, Not a Threat, for Royalty Businesses
Why AI increases operating leverage and durability for protected royalty businesses like FICO, Moody’s, and S&P Global.
The Deepfake Paradox: Why the Selloff Is Backwards
In an AI world where information gets cheaper and less trustworthy, verification becomes scarce and trust infrastructure may matter more, not less.
Why Dividends Are Mostly Irrelevant
Dividends are often treated as the goal of investing, but they are usually just a side effect of capital allocation decisions and reinvestment opportunities.
AI, Labor, Capital — Follow the Incentives
A structural look at artificial intelligence through the lens of labor and capital incentives, and why understanding human motivation may matter more than forecasting model capability.