Favorite page. “Real security comes from adaptability.”

ingredients needed for this dynamic to work: 1) tech works, but too expensive/immature for broad commercial adoption 2) govt has strategic reason to care about the tech 3) govt becomes anchor buyer, not just grant-giver 4) orders are repeated+standardized enough to create real manufacturing learning/process improvement 5) as 4 happens, costs fall with more scale, repetition, process improvement 6) much larger commercial mkt waiting as costs come down advanced reactors as a potential candidate via Evercore

interesting convo, got me thinking...decentralized org structure w/ decision making pushed out of HQ down to the local level has been a trait of some great businesses historically, bonus points when paired w/ serial M&A...possible in a world of AI we start to view that same org structure as more of a constraint going fwd?

"I was really smart yesterday, and today is different. And I can teach you the way that I got to be smart, but the answers that I have in my head are not the answers that are going to work for you."

three ways to be a better investor: feedback, writing, built-in guardrails

nice touch from $rms.pa "The company does, though, sell a scarf called Tulipomanie, covered in frilly blooms of an exquisiteness that seems to rebut the charge of excess hype with a wink." newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…

impressive trajectory & recalibration obvi has been/continues to be a strong tailwind, but the more I read about Safelite's moats (especially TPA) the harder it is to imagine how bad the rest of Belron had to be for the whole thing to run at 5% margins a decade ago

reading the aggreko docs, the biz has elements of two v attractive categories, equipment rental and BTM power, but lacking key trait that made equipment rental winners like URI + Ashtead so good: economies of scale (network density/fleet availability) & on the BTM power side, where speed-to-power seems to be what wins rn, so far they either can’t or won’t really aggressively lock up gas capacity. 17 GW fleet, but only 2.1 GW gas, which is spread globally.

Love WEB and like BT’s broader point about See’s / BNSF, but don’t think it’s fair to say See’s category doesn’t offer both high margins + larger absolute profits. Lindt has disproved this and Buffett has certainly followed that story. The particular way See’s runs its business, very successfully, doesn’t scale (local hero), but other paths have worked. Doesn’t mean BNSF wasn’t right decision, just not as obvious to me that that’s the path. Prob why I’m not Buffett / 🐐.

tough but fair? still thought this was a good read, imagine we'll all learn a lot about this space, no pun intended, over the coming yrs. interesting to see how far apart sellside is in orbital compute capacity. GS fwd-thinking there, tbd if correct.

avg US grid connection waiting time is ~5 years, but not an issue for CRWV - how? “We’re very focused on grid power…we’re not really doing too much behind the meter or self-build generation right now. We think grid power is the right type of resource to be working with and have found plenty of availability across the US.” schwabnetwork.com/video/core…

any good books that cover the dynamics in the 50s and 60s that led to this?

re-reading old AWS notes, what a great line from Kirjner, Oct 2014 "Given the many ways one can be wrong, we like the scenario where we can be wrong in our estimates and recommendation to investors to own a growth company because the company is growing too fast, and being too successful."

When I remarked on how unusual it was to find a banker who translated poetry, Mattioli’s face took on an expression of sardonic merriment, and his voice took on a histrionic resonance. “I see no difference whatever between a poem and a balance sheet,” he said.

was there a better company/stock for boomer PMs to "Peter Lynch" invest-in-what-you-know the last few years than Viking?* *this tweet inspired by listening to a smart boomer PM explain why it's a good biz "The issue here might be who is Viking's comp set at this point? Historically, they have been compared to other cruise and travel entities, but the quality and methodic nature of the revenue and earnings remains differentiated to other travel brands."

+1. Melius gets it. Or as Don Valentine said: "learning to tell a story is critically important because that's how the money works. the money flows as a function of the stories."

Ken’s PM of the future needs patient capital youtu.be/gZweef8LX7M?is=Cosm…

refreshing, evergreen disclosure

Do Investors Still Care About High Margins in Industrials? via Melius