FS | BRAIN FOOD
October 26, 2025 - #652 - read online - Free Version
Welcome to Brain Food, your weekly signal in a world full of noise.
+ The Great Mental Models box set came out this week, and it's beautiful. The set teaches you the thinking tools of history's greatest problem solvers. Learn more.
Tiny Thoughts
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A lesson I need to learn: It's ok to disappoint other people if you avoid disappointing yourself.
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Everyone searches for opportunities while running from problems, missing that they're the same thing.
Problems aren't obstacles to opportunity, they ARE the opportunity.
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When people feel like you deserve more than you have, they'll go out of their way to help you. But the minute you forget you were once the underdog, they'll root against you.
Insights
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Author Hector Macdonald on blind spots:
"The camera never lies… but you can take a thousand different pictures of the same scene."
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Dr. Julie Gurner on beating the odds:
"It's a lot easier than you think to 'beat the odds' because the odds are based on average people. Show up and elevate."
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Ray Kroc, who was instrumental in turning McDonald's into one of the most successful brands in the world:
"I have never worshipped money and I never worked for money. I worked for pride and accomplishment. Money can become a nuisance. It's a hell of a lot more fun chasing it than getting it. The fun is in the race."
The Knowledge Project
The incredible story of Jim Clayton and how he built Clayton Homes.
When the bank forced him into bankruptcy at 27, he started rebuilding the very next day, following an unconventional playbook: refusing to lower standards, vertically integrating everything, and playing relentless offense during downturns.
While the home industry collapsed in the 1970s, 1990s, and 2000s, Clayton stayed disciplined. While competitors chased growth with loose credit, he stayed disciplined and bought their pieces for pennies on the dollar.
Then Warren Buffett read his autobiography. Days later, Berkshire Hathaway bought Clayton Homes for $1.7 billion in cash.
It's time to listen and learn.
Here are 10 of the highlights I took away from this episode and my research:
1. "If you have to swallow a frog, don't look at him too long. If you have to swallow two frogs, swallow the big scudder first."
2. All complaining comes at the expense of improving.
3. "Positive action produces positive attitudes, which produce a positive atmosphere."
4. Make your plan conform to the territory, not the other way around. Either work with the world the way you find it, or it will teach you a lesson.
5. The best legal department is happy customers.
6. "There are 3 kinds of people: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and occasionally, someone who doesn't know what happened."
7. Sometimes you don't need to be great, you just need to be better than the competition.
8. Bad loans are a virus.
9. "The strong feed during depressions."
10. "In business as in flying, your instruments beat your instincts."
+ Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Web | X
Want to go even deeper?
+ Read the complete list of all 29 takeaways.
+ Read the 12 deeper lessons.
+ Members have access to all 92 of my highlights and notes from Jim's autobiography
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Thanks for reading,
— Shane Parrish
P.S. Have you actually told the bear to leave?
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