Visiting the Village Global Podcast

On the Future of Investing

n.b. For better or worse, I have acquiesced and joined the ranks of the Twitterati. I invite you to follow along for more querulous quips, shorthand scribbles, half-baked haikus, and rudimentary ruminations.

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I share below some lines from a previous edition of White Noise:

Longtime readers know full well that White Noise is more personal scribblings than professional memos. This is intentional.

Delving into the very nature of our behavior and psyche—namely, what we do and why we do it—interests me much more than “leveraging synergies” or “boiling the ocean.”

Unfortunately, I feel that most of what we consider contemporary, professional work resembles the above phrases; it is obscure, futile, and light on real meaning.

It is jargon writ large—professional patina lazily smeared atop muddled thought and unclear purpose.

It is confusion masquerading as cogency, bullshit impersonating bravado.

It reigns supreme in the harshly-lit, drop-ceilinged offices of old.

This is not to say that it is bad, just (mostly) banal and boring. After all, we work for pay, not play.

Thankfully, the above does not describe my work at On Deck.

I do what I love and love what I do with people whose work ethic, integrity, and intellect I very much admire. In this day and age, this is a privilege—very much the exception to the rule.

Because of this, I feel comfortable violating my usual separation of personal and professional to share some exciting news.

On April 6th, Kyla Scanlon and I unveiled the On Deck Investing Fellowship. A ten week, remote program, ODI is for all those who want to deepen their knowledge of public markets, understand investor psychology, and accumulate practical tools for long-term wealth creation.

Earlier this week, Village Global partner, On Deck founder, and my boss(!), Erik Torenberg invited Kyla and me to discuss our vision on Village Global’s Venture Stories Podcast. Per the show’s description:

Kyla Scanlon and Tom White of On Deck Investing join Erik on this episode to discuss:

• Why managing our own psychology is as important as our asset allocation

• How to think about our “life portfolio” holistically, instead of paying attention solely to our investment portfolio

• Why it’s “never been a better or worse time to be an investor” and how On Deck Investing plans to remedy that

• How investing resembles a liberal art, in that we can become better investors by learning from economics, psychology, philosophy, and other disciplines

• What Kyla and Tom wish they knew about investing when they got started

• What the On Deck Investing Fellowship will consist of and who might be interested in applying

If of interest, I invite you to listen along:

• Soundcloud

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

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Gratefully,

Tom

P.S. If the inaugural cohort of On Deck Investing interests you, please apply via my personal referral link!