Welcome to The Nightcrawler, a weekly collection of thought-provoking articles and analysis on technology, innovation, and long-term investing. The Nightcrawler is published every Friday evening by Eric Markowitz, Managing Partner of Nightview Capital and the firm’s Director of Research. Follow him on X.
Subscribe here.
In this evening’s email…
Quote of the week: “The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.” — Arie de Geus
***
The one concept that saved my life
This week in my Long Game column for Big Think, I share a personal reflection on a concept that helped me rebuild my life after a major health scare. It’s an idea I believe is becoming more essential than ever across business, investing, and beyond.
In the aftermath of brain surgery, I had to relearn basic movements and functions. What made recovery possible wasn’t brute force or optimization. Over time, I realized it was something more simple: slack.
My brain adapted by tapping into backup systems and alternate pathways. Slack — the idea of carrying built-in buffers — shows up everywhere in nature, business, and life. It’s the principle that underpins resilience itself.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve come to believe that we often worship efficiency. But when the world breaks — and it seems to be breaking more than ever — it’s slack, not optimization, that makes survival possible.
- Key quote: “Nature figured this out a long time ago. In fact, slack isn’t a business concept. It’s a biological principle. Let’s start with plants. In fire-prone ecosystems, many trees store dormant buds beneath their bark. These buds don’t contribute to everyday growth. They’re not visible. They seem, frankly, unnecessary. Until they’re not. When fire scorches the canopy and destroys surface branches, those hidden buds activate. They sprout new growth. They bring the tree back to life. That’s slack. It’s backup potential. It’s not efficient in the short term — but it’s what makes long-term survival possible.”
***
Timeless lessons of long-term thinking from Warren Buffett
This Saturday, I’ll be in Omaha for Berkshire Hathaway’s 61st annual shareholder meeting. In the lead-up to the weekend, I found myself revisiting a favorite piece: a story by Wall Street Journal reporter Karen Langley, who combed through all of Warren Buffett’s annual letters to surface the most resonant quotes and ideas.
“He quoted Yogi Berra and Mae West, country songs and the Bible,” Langley writes. “In a February 2007 letter, he began a section about retroactive insurance transactions with, ‘Warning: It’s time to eat your broccoli,’ and concluded: ‘Aren’t you glad that I promised you there would be no quiz?'”
I know it’s a little cheesy — quoting Buffett always is — but I find that re-reading Langley’s highlights (and more importantly, going back to the source material itself) is still inspiring, both as an investor and as a writer.
- Key quote: “Occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur in the investment community. The timing of these epidemics will be unpredictable. And the market aberrations produced by them will be equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree. Therefore, we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either disease. Our goal is more modest: we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” (Feb. 27, 1987)
***
A quick personal note: A family member of mine is running a small fundraiser to support a scholarship fund for Meristem—an incredible Bay Area school dedicated to helping neurodivergent students thrive. The goal is to cover tuition for three students in need after a sudden loss of funding. Here’s the link to the fundraiser, along with Harry’s story—first as a student, now as an employee of the school where he trains employers on how to hire and retain neurodiverse individuals. Thank you for considering.
A few more links I enjoyed:
The Artist’s Superpower Is Speaking Languages Others Don’t – via Matt Zeigler
- Key quote: “When you learn to play an instrument you learn a language. When you learn to paint a picture you learn a language. A second language. That’s a superpower, if you know how to repurpose the skill. When we learn to speak, we learn to do something with no translation. Your word choice is, kind of it, going forward. Thoughts and feelings get labels, but then everybody else speaks what you speak. But when you learn an art, like an instrument or a visual craft or cooking or – I’ll be very generous in the definition here – you are learning a new mode of communication. It doesn’t matter if you become a great artist or not. All that matters is that you learn the skill.”
How losing all my free time forced me to rethink productivity – via Danny Kenny / Big Think
- Key quote: “This is the hollow chase that traps so many of us: We optimize our systems, track our metrics, implement the latest productivity hack to pursue recognition — all while avoiding the harder question of whether we’re moving efficiently in the entirely wrong direction.”
Ultra-Processed Minds: The End of Deep Reading and What It Costs Us – via Carl Hendrick
- Key quote: “If reading is being reshaped by digital habits, then so too is the content itself which is of the ultra-processed form: flattened, filtered, stripped of its essential intellectual nutrition and increasingly produced not by humans at all, but by algorithms. Where once content was the expression of an inner life, now it is often designed to catch a query. Short-form, SEO-optimised, and emotionally neutered, much of what passes for writing today is tailored not for the attentive reader but for the indifferent algorithm. Its purpose is not to reveal, disturb or nourish, but to rank.”
Magic, Money and the Main Quest – via Tom Morgan / Leading Edge
- Key quote: “Most people I encounter are specifically trying to find a way to reconcile the role of money in the pursuit of a more meaningful life. While each person seems to think they are struggling with it alone, this honestly seems like it might be the escape room “main quest” for humanity right now. In fact, it’s staying in a life that’s too small for you that’s like only playing the side quests. You’re grinding away in the dungeons accumulating a pile of gold and items, but never advancing the main plotline.”
From the archives:
Learning Through Play – via Shane Parrish
- Key quote: “If we think back to being children, we often played with things in ways that were different from what they were intended for. Pots became drums and tape strung around the house became lasers. A byproduct of this type of play is usually learning—we learn what things are normally used for by playing with them. But that’s not the intention behind a child’s play. The fun comes first, and thus they don’t restrain themselves to convention.”
Click here to view our latest fact sheet on our website—including updated top holdings, performance, investment philosophy, disclosures—and more.
This information should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell any particular security. It should not be assumed that any of the investments or strategies referenced were or will be profitable, or that investment recommendations or decisions we make in the future will be profitable. This article contains links to 3rd party websites and is used for informational purposes only. This does not constitute as an endorsement of any kind. While Nightview uses sources it considers to be reliable, no guarantee is made regarding the accuracy of information or data provided by third-party sources. Nightview Capital Management, LLC (Nightview Capital) is an independent investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. More information about Nightview Capital including our investment strategies and objectives can be found in our ADV Part 2, which is available upon request.
