1: Living an Interesting Life with Hampus Jakobsson
My guest Hampus Jakobsson (@hajak) is a Swedish entrepreneur and a climate investor at Pale Blue Dot (@palebluedotvc). He was a co-founder of The Astonishing Tribe which was acquired by Blackberry in 2010. Since then Hampus has invested in close to 100 companies as an angel investor and is one of the most active angel investors in the Nordics. He was most recently a Venture Partner at Blueyard, a Berlin-based VC fund before committing all his time to climate change and starting his own fund: Pale Blue Dot.Hampus is one of the most thoughtful persons I know. When asked from his friends, they described Hampus as the ‘super kind crazy guy who has 48 hours when others have 24 hours since he is so efficient. When you look at Hampus you start to become a little tired by just looking because he is on a different clock speed.’ Hampus blogs at https://hajak.se/. Topics Hampus has blogged that came also up during out discussion included Be the Captain of Your Own Ship, How to Plan Your Next Move and You can play life in three ways. My personal favorite blog post from Hampus is Don’t make your children normal.SELECTED LINKS FROM THE DISCUSSIONhttps://750words.com/Feynman TechniqueSimilated Annealing method SHOW NOTES05:32 What makes an interesting and examined life. 07:33 Simulated annealing method to avoid local maxima in deciding what to do in life.10:53 How Hampus plans for the year, the two kinds of journaling he does, and what coaches are good for. 14:18 An attempt for obsession. 28:57 The most common pitfall people trip up in: How you see yourself, how you think other people to see you and how other people really see you. 35:06 Mental model for kids: They are Hampus' drunk friends.38:07 Growing up in Malmo, Sweden in a family of two teachers and three older brothers and how that influenced him.45:37 How acceptance and love from his family equipped Hampus with ability to experience no pain in feeling stupid, gave him the permission to be curious and how that has served him well in life. 52:16 How his first intimate relationship made him understood how homogeneous group of people doesn't solve the problem the best way, unless the problem is very well defined.54:34 How what we study early on influences our thinking.1:21:30 When trying to understand what university if good for it helps to break the job to be done in three different parts: Accreditation, learning skills, and opportunity liquidity. 01:36:06 How to think about your vintage in your twenties, the cocktail party problem, and your peers. 01:38:31 Your peer group and how geography stopped playing a role. 01:41:42 Find challenges, find the Terra incognita, and just stare at it. Mental model of dice players, poker players, and chess players in how well people handle information and risk.01:46:19 Mitigate your weaknesses or strengthen your strengths? How immersing yourself in different cultures is so beneficial and how reading fiction helps. 01:53:32 Hampus' learning methods: Feynman technique, blogging, podcast, and doing.
