Acquired
03:39:33 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:39:33] S1: Not from the book sales. No. No. [03:39:35] S0: Alright. On to carve outs. The first one is many of you will notice that we started writing in the Wall Street Journal. So we are very, very pumped about that. If you wanna read our article on Ferrari, you can do that by clicking the link in the show notes. Also, on Vanguard, we just did one two days before this episode came out that came out in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. [03:39:56] S1: Yeah. This is, a, super cool, and b, what a fun full circle moment for me. Earlier in my career, I worked at the journal on the business side, not as a writer. Like, the idea that someday I and we would have a regular column in the journal would have blown my 24 year old mind. [03:40:15] S0: So listeners, if you are not subscribed to the journal and you would like to read our columns, you can go sign up at acquired.fm/wsj, and we will get you sent special links that are free for you to read because we want this to be accessible to every Acquired listener. Yeah. Super cool. Even if you already have a Wall Street Journal subscription, sign up at acquired.fm/wsj if you just wanna be notified when we do have a new piece so you don't miss it. That's acquired.fm/wsj. Okay. My real carve out is I am recording this episode on a brand new MacBook Pro m five Max. Yeah. You went all out. I clicked the biggest [03:40:56] S1: spec possible. The max button.
03:40:56 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:40:56] S1: spec possible. The max button. [03:40:58] S0: I I did. And I was definitely in the camp of all Apple silicon is amazing, and it's remarkable how my m one still feels snappy, and I was wrong. The what getting getting an m five max revealed to me just how slow my 2021 computer was, and, god, this thing is just such a beast. So it is very fun to be using a computer again because I don't wait for anything anymore. Also, I upgraded my Internet to get two and a half gigs up and two and a half gigs down. So there is just no latency between me and, anything I can imagine at the moment, which is a delightful place to [03:41:37] S1: be in computing. Good job. Yes. Every Every time you go to visit, you haul that beast out of your backpack. I'm like [03:41:44] S0: My mobile battle station. [03:41:45] S1: I'm in awe of the computing power resting [03:41:48] S0: in front inches of pure horsepower. [03:41:51] S1: Oh, amazing. [03:41:52] S0: It's my LaFerrari in a backpack. [03:41:53] S1: Yeah. Alright. I've got three carve outs this time. The first one is Michael McKelvey on YouTube. He's this awesome YouTuber who I've discovered recently. He makes these super in-depth, usually sports analytics focused YouTube videos, and they're amazing. Very thoughtful, very intellectual, very highly produced, and hilarious. He He just does a great job. Huge fan. I think he's based in Seattle too. [03:42:24] S0: Oh, sweet. Yeah. You just sent him to me a couple days ago. I just clicked subscribe.
03:42:24 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:42:24] S0: Oh, sweet. Yeah. You just sent him to me a couple days ago. I just clicked subscribe. [03:42:27] S1: So that's one. Two is the new Super Mario Brothers movie, Super Mario Galaxy. So my older daughter and I love the first Super Mario Brothers movie. When she heard that the second one was coming out, she said, oh, dad, I really wanna go see it in theaters. And so I promised her, like, okay. We'll go on a date. You and me, daddy daughter date. We'll go to the movies. It was the best date I've ever been on in my entire life. I mean, don't tell Jenny or actually do tell Jenny. We had the most amazing afternoon. We walked to the movie theater. We held hands the whole way. Wow. We ordered lunch. The movie theater had special Super Mario themed Shirley Temples. We had popcorn and candy. You know, she snuggled up during the scary moments. And I was just like, this is what you become a parent for. This is like the best afternoon of my entire life, you know. Can't recommend it highly enough. Go on dates with your children. [03:43:21] S0: I love it. Congratulations on parenting heaven. Yeah. And then [03:43:26] S1: it was back to the salt mines after that. But it was great. And then my third one, a surprise last minute carve out. While I was doing research yesterday, polishing up the show notes for the script, I came across totally accidentally by googling Brooks Vanguard shoes. Is, like, the ultimate acquired crossover. Did you know that these things exist? [03:43:51] S0: No.
03:43:51 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:43:51] S0: No. [03:43:52] S1: These are old school Brooks running shoes that they still make. Now. I feel like we gotta order some of these and wear them to our, you know, next event. [03:44:03] S0: Are they actually Vanguard something, or is it just No. No. No. It's called Vanguard. [03:44:08] S1: Is called Vanguard [03:44:09] S0: Oh, I see. By Brooks. I was thinking it was, like, bought the Nike Kirkland Signature shoes because I had to. No. It's not an official crossover. It's just Yeah. These are sweet, though. [03:44:19] S1: But they look pretty sweet. I feel like we gotta get a couple pairs. [03:44:22] S0: And they have them in acquired teal. [03:44:24] S1: Oh, yeah. Alright. Ord. Nice. Ord. Live ordering during carve outs.
03:44:29 · Ben Gilbert
[03:44:29] S0: That's right. That's right. Well, a huge thank you to a bunch of the great folks that we chatted with to prep for this episode. First, to our partners this season, JPMorgan, trusted, reliable payments infrastructure for your business no matter the scale. Jpmorgan.com/acquired. Vercel, the developer tools and cloud infrastructure to build fast, secure applications on the web. Vercel.com/acquired. ServiceNow, the platform that puts AI to work for people. Servicenow.com/acquired. And Statsig, bringing experimentation, future flags, product analytics into one unified system for product teams. That's statsig.com/acquired. You can click the link in the show notes to learn more. And as always, all of our sources, the books that we used, etcetera, are all linked in the show notes as well. So on to the folks that we talked with to prep for this episode. For me, Arvind Navaratnam, as always, at Worldly Partners did a great, great write up on Vanguard. And since he is in the investment business, this one was very close to home. We'll also link to his write up on the the 100 Xers. And we didn't get to it in this episode, but he has sort of a a framework on how you could create a valuation for Vanguard at the end of his write up, which is cool for anyone who wants to check that out. To Morgan Housel, our good friend and financial author, famously of psychology of money and past ACQ two guest. Yeah. To Bill McNabb, the former CEO of Vanguard 2008 to 2017 and thirty year veteran of the firm. Thank you so much for hopping on the phone with us multiple times to kinda work through a few different things that we were thinking about. As always, to Mike Miller, the former Wall Street Journal editor who has been really helpful in crafting these episodes with us. David, while we're on the topic of The Wall Street Journal, I know you have won.
03:46:14 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:46:14] S1: Yes. Jason Zweig, the legendary author of the Intelligent Investor column in the journal and one of the most prolific authors on the entire fund space, and of course, Vanguard and Jack Bogle throughout his life. Thank you so much for all of your help. [03:46:31] S0: Man, The Wall Street Journal party continues to, Justin Baer, there who has a book coming out soon called house of fidelity, which I think is actually due out this week. And then to Charles d Ellis for the book inside Vanguard and Eric Balchunis for the Bogle effect. Both really great books with a lot of detail on the history. [03:46:51] S1: And from me, thank you to all of the other folks who helped us who we won't say your names here, but you know who you are. We deeply appreciate it and really made the episode special. Thank you. [03:47:03] S0: Well, if you like this episode, go check out our episode on RENTECH or Berkshire Hathaway, which we have three of for a total of, I think, nine hours. Yep. Costco and Visa. You can join the Acquired email list at Acquired dot FM slash email. You'll get our big takeaways from each episode in writing, past episode corrections, behind the scenes photos found in the research, and it's where you can vote on future episode topics. Plus, you'll get David's little hint at what our next episode will be. David, very curious to see what you come up with this time. That is acquired.fm/email. [03:47:37] S1: I'm cooking. [03:47:37] S0: And come talk with us in the Slack at acquired.fm/slack. So with that, listeners, we'll see you next time.