The School of Knowledge | Substack

Big ideas that sharpen how you see the world, or as Charlie Munger would call it—worldly wisdom.

The Lab

19 Thinking Tools For Making Better Decisions

Concepts, mental models & frameworks i've found interesting

Jan 11 • The School of Knowledge

3 Ways We Fool Ourselves

Why is the reality most acceptable to science one that no small child can be expected to understand?

Jul 27, 2025 • The School of Knowledge

Bayes' Theorem and the Changing of Your Beliefs

A model for better rationality, avoiding the Bayesian thinking trap, and a multi-billion-dollar engagement machine

Jul 14, 2025 • The School of Knowledge

A Complete Thinking Framework for Better Decisions

Welcome to The School of Knowledge and this week’s free essay. Each Sunday, I send an essay to help you navigate your personal or professional…

Jun 8, 2025 • The School of Knowledge and Leo Rule | Align Your Family

Disorder, Chaos And Decay: How To Avoid High Entropy

In February 2009, I headed down south on a 5-hour train to join the Royal Marines.

Jun 1, 2025 • The School of Knowledge

Synthesis of foundational books and papers. The core ideas without the 400 pages.

The Reading Room

Lessons on Capital Allocation from Reading "The Outsiders"

Exhausted from treatment at the Chestnut Lodge psychiatric facility, Philip Graham had convinced the hospital doctors to allow him and his wife…

Nov 9, 2025 • The School of Knowledge

Overcome Uncertainty by Using Ray Dalio’s Strategy for Better Decisions

Ray Dalio's book Principles offers the kind of wisdom that helped him build a $14 billion fortune—yet you can hold it in your hands for just $20.

Sep 28, 2024 • The School of Knowledge

Ikigai: How To Truly Find Your Purpose In Life

There are two types of people in this world:

Aug 17, 2024 • The School of Knowledge

5 Powerful Lessons From Naval Ravikant For A Happier Life

“I would rather be a failed entrepreneur than someone who never tried.”

Aug 10, 2024 • The School of Knowledge

How To Be A Sales Guru: The Gary Halbert Way

You’re sitting there on a quiet Sunday afternoon when an overwhelming feeling of motivation, agency and excitement overcomes you.

Aug 3, 2024 • The School of Knowledge

The Nuts and Bolts

How to Read a Cash Flow Statement

Why profit tells you what a company earned—and cash flow tells you whether it's real

May 2 • The School of Knowledge

45 Financial Metrics Owner-Operators Must Understand

The School of Knowledge is the weekly newsletter for SME owners and investors who want frameworks they can actually use — frameworks, checklists, and…

Apr 25 • The School of Knowledge

Where to Draw Your Systems Boundary

Boundary decisions are the highest-leverage choices a business makes. How transaction costs, asset specificity, and Ashby's Law should guide yours.

Apr 19 • The School of Knowledge

Why Warren Buffett Reads the Balance Sheet Before Anything Else (And How to Do It Yourself)

Learn how to read a balance sheet from scratch — assets, liabilities, equity, and the ratios that matter most to investors and business operators.

Apr 11 • The School of Knowledge

Deep research on concepts, businesses and operators.

The Case Library

How to Eat Your Competition for Breakfast

Counter-Positioning: rational choices and cognitive biases that paralyse businesses

Mar 28 • The School of Knowledge

Why Google Couldn't Beat Facebook—And What It Teaches Us About Network Economies

Why Meta's 3.5 billion users make It almost impossible to compete with

Mar 4 • The School of Knowledge

Why Intel Can't Beat TSMC (And What It Reveals About Every Business)

Hamilton Helmer's Scale Economies unpacked with TSMC case study, Surplus Leader Margin formula, and a 3-question diagnostic to identify real competitive…

Feb 25 • The School of Knowledge

Why Value Creation Alone Isn't a MOAT (yet)

An introduction to the 7 Powers

Feb 17 • The School of Knowledge

On Quality

The 2,000-Year-Old Philosophy Hidden Inside Amazon's Leadership Principles

Amazon's Leadership Principles aren't just corporate culture—they're ancient Stoic philosophy. See how Bezos encoded Seneca into a $2.9 trillion…

Mar 12 • The School of Knowledge

Is "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" Terrible Advice?

Our founding membership for The School of Knowledge Community will be opening soon. Thank you to those already on the list. If you haven't joined the…

Apr 27, 2025 • The School of Knowledge

Why Quality is the Most Important Aspect of any System

The concept of static and dynamic quality for systems thinkers

Mar 23, 2025 • The School of Knowledge

5 Stoic Lessons Every Multidisciplinary Professional Should Know

Hello, and welcome to The School of Knowledge, a newsletter that helps entrepreneurs and professionals convert worldly wisdom from books into actionable…

Oct 6, 2024 • The School of Knowledge

The Weekly

Visually Understand Anything In Claude

Accelerate your learning by seeing things clearly

May 3 • The School of Knowledge

A Lot of Good Business Decisions is Just Figuring Out What You Don’t Want

Via negativa, Munger's inversion, Buffett's too hard pile: the smartest operators use subtraction, not addition. Here's how to build your exclusion…

Apr 12 • The School of Knowledge

Cynefin: The Decision-Making Tool Every Operator Needs

Not all problems are the same type of problem

Apr 5 • The School of Knowledge

Why You're Having a Midlife Crisis (And What's Really Behind It)

From Royal Marine to oven cleaner: What i learnt about living with purpose

Mar 29 • The School of Knowledge

Every Business Decision Has a Hidden Price — Here's How to Calculate It

A real-world capital allocation case study on opportunity cost for operators and investors.

Mar 22 • The School of Knowledge

The Weekly: 9/2/2026

Japanese proverbs on perspective, organising digital notes and getting started with NotebookLM

Feb 9 • The School of Knowledge

Weekly Highlights #23

5 things I found interesting, fun or helpful this week.

Sep 15, 2024 • The School of Knowledge

Weekly Highlights #22

5 things I found interesting, fun or useful this week.

Sep 8, 2024 • The School of Knowledge

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