Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Explain it on a napkin
Writing as a test
Talking about ideas for hours teaches little, because only putting them in writing shows how deep an idea really goes. Ribbit's essays start around 20 pages long. When one is finished, its author can sketch the whole argument on a napkin, and that ability is the sign of understanding.
Thesis and conviction
The essays aim at the world as it will look in 10 or 15 years, not the one that exists today. Writing a thesis gives conviction, and conviction keeps an investor from riding mood swings up and down with the markets. A joyful investing life means playing a very long game and being willing to be wrong for a long time. Going from sitting down to a thesis worth sharing takes a year to a year and a half.
Sharing the essay
Then the essay goes to the firm's founders and investors so they can hold the firm accountable, and so they can walk away if they stop believing it. Most of the founders who read it have not been invested in, since the firm is learning from them as it writes. Some of the best read it, see that the firm understands their field deeply, and call to talk.
Why does writing expose weak thinking?
Computer scientist Leslie Lamport has said that when you think without writing, you only think you are thinking. Prose forces each step into a sentence that can be checked, so gaps that hide in conversation become visible. Amazon built the same idea into its meetings, replacing slide decks with six-page narrative memos, a practice Jeff Bezos described in a shareholder letter. Bezos wrote that the narrative structure of a good memo forces better thought about what matters more than what.
How does conviction keep investors steady?
Investors tend to buy after prices rise and sell after they fall, which hurts their results. Morningstar's annual Mind the Gap study has repeatedly found that investors' actual returns trail those of the funds they hold, because of the timing of their purchases and sales. The study compares a fund's return with the return of the average dollar invested in it.
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