Wisereads Vol. 115 — Money Together by Heather and Douglas Boneparth, Tim Urban on toddlers, and more

Last week, we shared an excerpt from Tracy Kidder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Soul of a New Machine, about Data General’s race to build minicomputers. This week, we're sharing an exclusive preview of Heather and Douglas Boneparth's new release, Money Together: How to find fairness in your relationship and become an unstoppable financial team.

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Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth argues that the modern American self is shaped by a philosophical tension between two Enlightenment thinkers: Benjamin Franklin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He sees one worldview as more agentic than the other: "'Fake it until you make it' is often dismissed as shallow, but it’s closer to Franklin’s truth. Faking it long enough is making it. Repeated behavior, not sincere belief, shapes character. You become the kind of person who does what you repeatedly do."

Now a dad of two, Wait But Why creator Tim Urban reflects on toddlerhood’s wonder and madness: "It’s well-known that toddlers transform into mid-20th-century totalitarian dictators at the drop of a hat," and "Unintentionally, she’s a comedic genius... we had to rip a band-aid off her leg, after which she said, 'I am so perfectly sad,' and now my wife and I say that anytime we’re unhappy about something."

Replit founder and CEO Amjad Masad shares six hard-won tactics for entrepreneurial success, from persistence: "Often, gold is only two strikes away. Don't let that be you," to focus: "I remember doing a spelling bee when I was maybe in third grade, standing in line waiting to get called on to spell the next word. I looked around me and all the other kids were talking and joking around. I thought that was strange. How could you ever win if you're not in the mindset of winning. If you're not locked in?"

Capture, organize, review, engage: these are the pillars of the CORE productivity system Jeff Su taught to thousands of Googlers to help them maximize their workdays. "The purpose of a system is to help us do the thing, even on our worst days, when we're tired, unmotivated, and don't feel like doing the thing... this is what made it click for me all those years ago, the short-term discomfort of adopting a new routine will always be less than the ongoing stress and disappointment of not making progress on my most important goals."

Founders podcast host David Senra distills Elon Musk’s company-building principles after 60 hours of reading and research: "The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation" and "If you aren’t adding back at least 10% of the things you deleted, then you didn’t delete enough."

Although Sparkline Capital is bullish on AI, founder Kai Wu remains cautious about investor prospects, especially as the Magnificent Seven shift from asset-light to asset-heavy models amid the AI buildout. "While the Magnificent 7 are extremely profitable, their net income will be dragged down over the next few years once depreciation charges from their surging capital expenditures kick in. Making some very rough assumptions, we estimate annual depreciation expense could climb from $150 to $400 billion over the next five years."

Household finances aren't just about budgets and spreadsheets. They're about identity, values, and the unspoken dynamics between couples. With grace, clarity, and wit, Heather and Douglas Boneparth share their own story alongside insights from therapists, psychologists, and financial experts to help couples navigate one of the greatest taboos: money.

"Nearly three in four married or cohabitating Americans believe money is a source of tension in their relationships. If you're a living, breathing person who has ever shared anything with anyone—even a roommate—this shouldn't come as a surprise. But I think statistics like these make it too easy to assume that all disputes over money are about solving scarcity problems. In other words, couples only fight over money because they don't have enough of it.

Forbes examined the relationships of the 50 richest people in the United States and found they got divorced at pretty much the same rate as the general population. Turns out, fortune and fame don't produce a different outcome. Couples have problems with money, whether they're naming their first used car or a university library together."

We're beyond thrilled Heather and Douglas are sharing an exclusive preview of their newly released book, Money Together, with Wisereads readers. If it resonates, we invite you to purchase a full copy here. 🙏

On The Joint Account, this week's authors, financial advisor Douglas Boneparth and his wife Heather, a business director and former lawyer, share practical tips to help couples talk about money. From Estate planning is an act of love: "The irony here is that at some point in time, most of us will get sick. All of us will die. Any certainty we believe around these things is an illusion to help us cope with our discomfort. Therefore, preparing for anything is better than selling yourselves on one version of how things go, because that’s just not how life works."