#114 – Deep Voices & Reading

Good morning everyone,

Hope you’re having a great week!

Let’s jump in.

read online on my website 

read time 3 minutes 

#114 at a Glance:

• Quote: Appointing the decision-maker.

• Podcast: Acquired x Jamie Dimon.

• Interesting Phenomenon: Deep voices & CEOs.

• Hack: Read what you feel like reading.

• Tweet: Ignorance isn’t bliss.

Quote I’ve been thinking about:

Podcast I listened to:

Acquired: The Jamie Dimon Interview

This was an awesome conversation, live in front of 6,000 people.

As the global CEO of JPMorgan Chase, I feel like the name “Jamie Dimon” tends to get thrown around quite a lot in the corporate world.

But this conversation felt like a genuine peak behind the curtain.

How does the guy running the single largest investment bank think about the world today?

How did he navigate (and mitigate against the impact of) the GFC?

What made him invest half of his net worth into the company on the first day he became CEO?

How has JPMorgan been so successful in one of the most competitive industries in business?

For anyone working in the corporate world or adjacent, this is truly worth a listen.

Very inspired by how logically and systematically Jamie uses a first-principles approach to problem-solving, drawing largely on history as his “greatest teacher.”

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

[Duration: 1 hour 6 minutes]

Interesting Phenomenon I came across:

Deep Voices & CEOs 

Since we’re already on the topic of CEOs…

I managed to come across quite a fascinating insight this week:

A study of almost 800 male CEOs of publicly-listed companies in the US found those with deeper voices manage larger companies, and as a result, make more money.

After including proxies for other CEO attributes including experience and education, they documented economically significant voice pitch effects.

For the median CEO of the median sample firm, an interquartile decrease in voice pitch (22.1 Hz) is associated with a $440 million increase in the size of the firm managed, and in turn, $187,000 more in annual compensation. Deep voiced CEOs also enjoy longer tenures.

For context, a frequency of 22.1 Hz falls within the very low end of human hearing, just above the typical lower threshold of around 20 Hz.

So in other words, only a marginally deeper speaking voice was associated with half a billion more in company value and almost a $200k bump in salary.

Absolutely wild.

2 thoughts in relation to this:

1. How we speak—our intonation, modulation, vernacular, tone, pitch—matters more than we realise. Best to analyse it, practice it, and master it.

2. I would love to know if a similar relationship is observed amongst female CEOs, or alternatively if there is a similar correlation that exists with another unique characteristic.

Check out the study here.

Hack I came across:

Read What You Feel Like Reading

Honestly, the amount of times I’ve gone weeks (if not months) without reading just because I was stuck halfway through a book and I didn’t want to start something new until I finished it…

It’s just not worth it.

Finding the discipline and time to read is hard enough.

Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking that you’re only “allowed” to read one book at a time.

One of the things I’ve started doing to keep myself consistent with reading is I’ve compiled a stack of books that sit on my desk like so:

And I simply pick up whichever book I feel like reading when I’ve got 15-60 minutes to spare.

It sounds so trivial, but it’s actually been quite liberating.

The decision to pick up a book is no longer laden with the opportunity cost of all of the others that have to now wait in line until I finish it.

I’ve also found that I’m no longer “reading a book,” but rather, “grappling with ideas.”

Chopping and changing between different authors and different topics, putting pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together in my own unique way.

It’s really cool.

Highly recommend this approach if you’re someone (like me) who can incur reading fatigue from time to time.

P.S. What are you guys reading at the moment? Recommendations please.

Tweet I liked:

Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡

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This goes a long way to helping me reach more people :)

See you in the next one,

Dimi

(P.S. the best ways to get in touch with me are via email or LinkedIn).