Calvin French-OwenMore

I'm Calvin, as in Calvin and Hobbes.

I'm currently based in the Bay Area, previously I was a founder of Segment.

From 2011-2020, I spent most of my waking hours (and a decent number of my sleeping ones) thinking about how to grow Segment along with Peter, Ilya, and Ian.

In 2020, I spent time volunteering with USDR on vaccine distribution, and then working at YC as a visiting group partner for S21.

I'm currently digging into energy generation, data visualization, education, AI, and Tools for Thought.

Since 2019, I’ve started keeping a log of some the books I’m reading.

In my free time, I’ve been running various trail races and hacking on a number of different projects.

Contacting Me: If you’d like to get in touch, I’m calvinfo at this domain.

Updates

If you’re curious about what I’ve been up to lately, I started a newsletter that I put out every few weeks with what I’m learning. You can find it here.

Newsletters

In addition to reading books, I subscribe to a number of different regular newsletters. Generally speaking, I think following the 24-hour news cycle is a waste of time, but I’ll gladly read any sort of content which offers deep analysis or contains new subject matter.

I haven’t found many forums for sharing the “best ones”, so I figured I’d add my own list here.

For each of these, I typically apply an inbox label of Learning and snooze it until the weekend. Then I do a big batch of learning early in the day.

If you have a newsletter you’d recommend, please send it my way.

Podcasts

I don’t listen to a ton of podcasts, but there are a handful that I enjoy. I’ve switched mostly to audiobooks, but will occasionally switch things up with one of the following.

  • Invest Like the Best — my favorite new podcast, hosted by Patrick O’Shaughnessy. It’s not strictly an investing podcast, but has a lot of interesting leaders and investors share their perspectives on the world. Patrick’s questions are what make it a true gem.
  • Idea Machines — a set of interviews by Ben Reinhardt digging into how research gets done, and how innovations are made.
  • Rationally Speaking — Julia Galef hosts a set of interviews with a wide variety of academics, specialists, and thinkers. She has some of the most consistent, high quality questions that drive to the heart of the issue.
  • Reply All — a fun diversion, Reply All takes you through the weird corners of the internet and technology. The storytelling is what makes this podcast work.
  • Sean Carroll's Mindscape — hosted by physicist Sean Carroll, this podcast has it all. Many incredibly smart guests, good questions, and lots of exploration around the nature of reality.

Products

There are a bunch of products that everyone uses, but there are a handful which I’ve found particularly meaningful and useful. I consistently find them to be under-rated, so I’ll give them additional airtime here.

  • Aaptiv — a workout/health app. After repeatedly injuring myself and being told I was too inflexible, I started stretching every night. Aaptiv has a great set of guided audio stretches (and workouts) which take the annoyances of counting and focusing out of stretching.
  • Airpods — this product is perhaps the most well-known… but what can I say. Airpods are magic.
  • Audible — I first discovered Audible a few years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. I typically listen to books during my commute, on long runs, and during various forms of exercise. It’s a fantastic way to broaden knowledge.
  • EightSleep — I often get too hot while I sleep (especially while in heavy running season). EightSleep gives me better rest than anything else I've tried.
  • In-room whiteboard — I’ve found that having a whiteboard at home is one of the best hacks for thinking through complex ideas. I’ve ordered this one across multiple rooms that I’ve lived in.
  • Obsidian — I wouldn’t say that I’m a fanatic about which note-taking systems or tools I use, but I have found that Obsidian (along with Roam and Reflect) fits my thinking best. When using tools like Notion, I’d always be forced to figure out “where should this idea go?”. With Obsidian, I just start writing, and let the tool connect the dots for me. I'd also recommend Roam or Reflect if you care less about customization than I do.
  • Oura — I was skeptical about getting a sleep tracker, because I wasn’t quite sure what it would tell me, or what I’d do differently. It’s hard to explain the full value of the Oura ring, but think of it like a sleep coach. I started sleeping better almost immediately.
  • Oxo Cold Brew — Cold Brew will change your life. Well worth it.