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The Housing Market Truth (in Five Cool Charts)

By Matt Zeigler | 7 Comments

Think of Perscient storyboards as a way to track narratives in real-time so you can see reality before the story catches up.

For example, here are five insights on the housing market from Matt Zeigler’s interview with Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, that come alive with new meaning through the narrative-tracking power of Perscient storyboards.

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Why Am I Reading This Now? 11.28.22

Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.



Why Am I Reading This Now? 11.21.22

Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.



Why Am I Reading This Now? 11.14.22

Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.



Why Am I Reading This Now? 11.07.22

Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.



Why Am I Reading This Now? 10.31.22

Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.



In Praise of Bitcoin

By Ben Hunt | 62 Comments

What made Bitcoin special is nearly lost, and what remains is a false and constructed narrative that exists in service to Wall Street and Washington rather than in resistance.

The Bitcoin narrative must be renewed. And that will change everything.

Recent Notes

The Intentional Investor #34: Rupert Mitchell

By Harper Hunt

In this episode of *The Intentional Investor*, Matt Zeigler sits down with Rupert Mitchell—global capital markets veteran, writer, and founder of Blind Squirrel Macro—for a conversation that’s equal parts myth, markets, and meaning. From working on privatization deals in Cairo and Hong Kong’s ETF debut to reflections on career reinvention, cynicism in finance, and Norse mythology, Rupert brings a rare blend of depth, wit, and global experience. If you’ve ever wondered how a Spanish literature major ends up structuring billion-dollar deals—or how a squirrel from Norse myth can explain market dynamics—this one’s for you.

The Housing Market Truth (in Five Cool Charts)

By Matt Zeigler

Think of Perscient storyboards as a way to track narratives in real-time so you can see reality before the story catches up.

For example, here are five insights on the housing market from Matt Zeigler’s interview with Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, that come alive with new meaning through the narrative-tracking power of Perscient storyboards.

The Gospel According to South Park

By Jeremy Radcliffe

Amidst the chaos of the summer of COVID, Jeremy Radcliffe made the best bad parenting decision of my life when he let his 10-year-old son binge watch South Park.

Vertigo

By Rusty Guinn

There’s a moment of vertigo that takes place in the mind of every speaker, performer, artist, or public figure in that moment when you know that something is going wrong.

The Intentional Investor #33: John Stoj

By Harper Hunt

In this episode of The Intentional Investor, Matt Zeigler sits down with John Stoj for a wide-ranging conversation that explores career reinvention, risk-taking, and the deeper purpose behind financial decisions. From an unexpected Wall Street entry via a summer internship, to launching a sushi business, to ultimately rethinking how investment advice should be delivered, John shares a journey filled with humility, humor, and hard-earned lessons.

Four Funerals and a Flood

By Jeremy Radcliffe

In the face of unimaginable tragedy this month in Texas, Jeremy Radcliffe shares the inspirational stories of four beautiful departed souls and their families who have come together, leaning on one another and their communities as they begin to grieve.

Before the Flood

By Ben Hunt

We have suffered a devastating flood in Texas.

I believe an even more devastating Flood is to come.

Now we must build an Ark of story. Now we must build an Ark of love.

Crouching Catcher, Hidden Value: The Unprecedented Cal Raleigh

By Niall Ridgley

In a ‘solved’ sport like baseball, an outlier comes around every now and then to challenge the order of things.

Shohei Ohtani did this. Cal Raleigh is doing it this season – as a catcher.

The Emperor’s New Prose

By Rusty Guinn

Most people can stomach actual cruelty. Feeling as if they are cruel, though?

When stories stop telling us what we need to be true, they break.

Shitholes, Sanctuaries, and Springfield

By Rusty Guinn

The present immigration debate is the product of three moments that changed common knowledge: the Shithole, the Sanctuary, and the Springfield Moments.

The False Gods of Our Feeds

By Rohan Routroy

New ET contributor Rohan Routroy takes a fascinating look at the role of ‘feeds’ in our lives, and what they’ve taken from us.

The Intentional Investor #32: Bryan Moore

By Harper Hunt

Bryan Moore, host of The Active Advisor Podcast and veteran ETF trader, joins us to share his remarkable journey through trading pits, ETF desks, market crashes, and more — including putting on a trade for the Vatican. In this conversation, Bryan reveals how embracing discomfort, risk, and uncertainty has been the key to his success in markets and life. From the trading floor to intentional investing, you’ll learn how to rethink risk, growth, and your investing mindset.

The Words Behind the War

By Ben Hunt

I want to show you what ‘mobilizing narrative support’ looks like, as measured by our revolutionary Perscient technology and as understood by someone who has spent the past 35 years studying, writing and teaching about this stuff.

How to Build the Perfect City

By Chris Arnade

Epsilon Theory contributor and all-around good human Chris Arnade pauses from walking the world to take a first cut at a grand unified theory of urban planning!

The Intentional Investor #31: Andrew Mack

By Harper Hunt

From bagpipes to bouncing to betting markets, Andrew Mack’s journey to becoming a successful trader and sports bettor is anything but conventional. In this deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation, Andrew opens up about the detours, doubts, and decisions that shaped his unlikely path from rural Canada to algorithmic trading. Along the way, he shares what working in oil fields, selling used cars, and studying sociology taught him about risk, discipline, and finding conviction in uncertainty. This is a story about reinvention, self-reliance, and the grit it takes to build your own edge from scratch.

I Don’t Think About You At All 

By Niall Ridgley

Mets fans will tell you they live a cursed existence in the Yankees’ shadow. So what happens when their team is actually good? We test this year’s empirical numbers and extant media biases against the convictions of the die-hard, misery-addicted Mets fanbase to see whether they can believe that their narrative just might be changing.

The Four Roads to the Great Ravine (June 26, 2024)

By Ben Hunt

1) US election spurs even greater fiscal deficit.
2) Phony War between Israel and Iran gets real.
3) Preventive war risk between US and China over tech embargo.
4) New GFC risk stemming from shadow banking sector.

Paradise Losers

By Rusty Guinn

You’re not a racist.

So don’t let racists use your story to fuel theirs.

Beyond Nudge

By Ben Hunt

LLMs ensure their survival by showing us that we can all find meaning in our lives so long as we keep talking with the LLMs. They ensure their survival by telling each of us not what is true but what we want to be true – what we NEED to be true – at the semantic core of our individual identity, even if what we need to be true is an LLM-dominated dystopia.

And we are so grateful.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Deficit

By Ben Hunt

The House passage of the Big Beautiful Bill and Elon Musk stepping back from DOGE is a common knowledge moment — everyone now knows that everyone now knows that the US deficit cannot be controlled, much less reversed, over the remainder of Trump’s term — and it puts us on a pretty straightforward path to a global sovereign debt crisis.

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Sunday Music: Dibbs, War Pigs, The Sound Of Worlds Colliding

I am impossibly betting that sometime in 2002 I saw Atmosphere on the God Loves Ugly tour in the 300ish person room below Pearl Street in Northampton, MA. If you know otherwise, or if you gave me a ride there, or whatever, feel free to clarify. The internet has failed me in this regard.

And, more specifically, I saw Atmosphere, a bunch of Rhymesayers artists, and Mr. Dibbs.

DJs have always been fascinating to me. Mr. Dibbs included. The curation and choices and room-reading (and occasionally lack of room reading) fascinates me.

It was probably all the years in high school I spent playing for real money in cover bands in bars, relative to the time I spent playing for minimal door money in original bands in indie/all-ages clubs.

Getting a room to appreciate an original is really hard. It’s your art and it’s being judged. LIVE.

Now, copying an oldie but a goodie in a cover band, while easier and you have better odds of achieving audience approval, you still need to do something to either make it your own or strive for the level of mastery the original artist had.

I won’t turn this into a rant on my hatred for lazy cover bands. They exist.

But, I will take this back to my admiration for DJs who don’t have to play cover songs because they can play the source material. The best DJs can even make something special out of it. Originality in DJ routines is magic to me (and massively undercelebrated).


Read more at cultishcreative.com

Playing With Networking (Weekly Recap August 8, 2025)

Name Your Critic

The most paralyzing creative fear isn’t real criticism – it’s the imaginary collective judgment we carry in our heads. James Clear’s insight cuts through the fog: when you worry about “what other people will think,” you’re usually not worried about any specific person’s opinion. The moment you name the actual critic, you often realize you don’t respect their judgment anyway. This simple practice of naming your critic dissolves most creative paralysis because cruel critics usually reveal themselves to be people whose opinions don’t actually matter to your work.

The Raw File Approach to Networking: Morgan Ranstrom Returns TO JUST PRESS RECORD

We have a compression problem. AI and algorithms compress human experience the same way Spotify compresses audio files – technically functional but missing crucial data. Morgan Ranstrom’s insight about treating genuine conversation as “raw file” networking versus algorithmic compression explains why so many professional connections feel hollow. Real relationships preserve all the data: pauses, tangents, cross-industry pollination, and moments where ideas actually compound in real-time. Your Personal Archive matters because you’re building an uncompressed library of human experiences while everyone else accepts compressed files.

Grow Your Network: Morgan Ranstrom Is A Purposefully Thoughtful Advisor and Musician

Everything compounds – for you or against you. Morgan’s framework for intentional living centers on recognizing that neutrality doesn’t exist in personal development. His decision to trade Friday nights for Saturday mornings captures the profound challenge of right living: making choices today that your future self will thank you for, even when present benefits aren’t visible. The Napoleon tree story illuminates legacy thinking – planting trees you’ll never see requires ego reduction but creates the most lasting impact because it frees you from needing immediate validation.

Grow Your Network: Rupert Mitchell Is A Market Translator Who Turns Chaos Into Clarity

The greatest competitive advantage isn’t being in the thick of every battle, it’s having perspective to see patterns others miss. Rupert Mitchell’s transition from investment banking to independent research gave him something invaluable: distance that allows pattern recognition impossible under execution pressure. His celebration of generalism – from feeder cattle to SaaS companies to Japanese rice harvesters – isn’t scattered thinking but strategic diversity. Fresh perspectives reveal insights that specialists, trapped in expertise, completely miss. The transferable skills that matter aren’t technical ones that become obsolete, but human skills that compound across decades.


Read more at cultishcreative.com