Welcome back, everybody. This is part two of an extraordinary conversation with an

extraordinary individual. We're here with Shane Parrish who is more devoted to bringing

knowledge to others than perhaps anyone I know. I mean, certainly up there with the very

top echelon of people who don't just want to share insight and knowledge but

have built an institution, let's say, in doing that. Let's get to it.

As we get into this conversation now, Shane, I want you to talk about, look, how did you

get to the knowledge project to find them straight and from there to clear thinking, this

marvelous new book that you've published?

I started a blog, not a business, but a blog. I don't know, 2008, 2009, while I was still

working for the intelligence agency, and I wasn't allowed a public profile. You couldn't

Google me. I mean, that would have got me in so much trouble. So I created an anonymous

website and I didn't want other people to read it. So I called it 68131-1440.blogger.com,

which don't go to that website today. Somebody stole it. I've like, re-linked this, but

I talk about it a lot.

That's too bad. That's a little sad.

The reason is that's the zip code for Berkshire Outthaway and the unit number at QA Plaza.

I thought nobody would type in a series of digits. What I was really trying to do, going

back to the game, was how do I become the best in the world at what I do, or at least

better than where I am, and how do I take outside ideas and apply them in the context of

my environment? So I was reading a lot about Daniel Common and decision-making because

I was ended up making decisions that affected my team and my country and other countries

and troops and theater. So I wanted to get better at these types of decisions and just

...