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#362: Graham Duncan — Talent Is The Best Asset Class

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Feb 28, 2019

Guest

Graham Duncan

Graham Duncan, Co-founder of East Rock Capital and talent tracking expert, shares fascinating insights on evaluating human potential. He emphasizes the importance of navigating ambiguity in talent selection and discusses innovative hiring strategies. The conversation also touches on the orchid and dandelion analogy for nurturing talent, the mindset for successful investing, and the distinction between finite and infinite games in finance. Listeners will appreciate Duncan's perspective on valuing time over traditional wealth and embracing mindfulness in everyday life.

01:47:51

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ADVICE

Handling Ambiguity

When facing ambiguity in talent assessment, spend more time with the candidate in different contexts.
Observe them in real-world situations, like deal analysis, to understand their thinking.

insights

INSIGHT

Originality and Triage

Successful investors often possess originality, generating many ideas.
They also practice effective triage, prioritizing and discarding ideas ruthlessly.

insights

INSIGHT

Surfacing Hidden Assumptions

Coaches can surface hidden assumptions by observing how you make sense of things.
Identifying tightly held beliefs that you struggle to contradict reveals potential blind spots.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Navigating Talent in Investment Management

05:11 • 24min

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Cultivating Talent: The Orchid and Dandelion Analogy

29:37 • 2min

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Navigating Ambiguity in Talent Selection

31:31 • 3min

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Understanding Underwriting and Investment Management

34:11 • 3min

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Investing Mindsets and Personal Growth

36:47 • 26min

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Embracing Discomfort: The Wim Hof Method

01:02:52 • 5min

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Navigating Infinite Games in Investment

01:07:53 • 18min

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Time Billionaires and Mindfulness

01:25:49 • 16min

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Closing Thoughts and Listener Invitations

01:42:13 • 6min

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"Everyone's genius is right next to their dysfunction." — Graham Duncan

Graham Duncan (@GrahamDuncanNYC) is the co-founder of East Rock Capital, a multi-family office investment firm that manages $2 billion for a small number of families and their charitable foundations.

Before starting East Rock 14 years ago, Graham worked at two other investment firms and started his career by co-founding an independent Wall Street research firm. Graham graduated from Yale with a B.A. in ethics, politics, and economics. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as co-chair of the SOHN Conference Foundation, which funds pediatric cancer research.

Josh Waitzkin, the chess prodigy who served as the basis for the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, calls Graham "the tip of the spear in the realms of talent tracking and judgment of human potential in high stakes mental arenas."

Click here for the show notes for this episode.

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