TIP763: Investing Lessons for My 18-Year-Old Self w/ Clay Finck
Host Clay Finck delivers a solo episode structured as a letter to his 18-year-old self, sharing 12 key lessons from his investing journey, including starting early, using index funds, focusing on great businesses, and managing emotions. He explains why beating the market is difficult but possible, how patience and time horizons create an edge, and why moats, management quality, and megatrends matter more than simple valuation metrics like P/E. The episode also covers investor psychology, avoiding unnecessary complexity, building a peer network, and developing an independent, process-driven investment philosophy that fits one's personality and goals.
TikTok's Trojan Horse Strategy
Planet Money teams up with sound design podcast 20,000 Hertz to explain how TikTok created and deployed one of the most effective sonic logos of the last decade. Sound designers Afrik Lennon and Roscoe Williamson describe TikTok's brief, the months-long creative process, and how they arrived at the distinctive boom-bling sound built around an 808 kick, an E major 7 chord, and even an accidental dog bark. The episode also details TikTok's covert "sonic sticker" rollout and how automatically attaching the logo to downloaded videos turned it into a Trojan horse that spreads across rival platforms.