Inflation-Adjusted Biography Reading

Sam built an AI tool to transform business biographies into structured, actionable insights with modern context. Here's how it works.

The problem with reading business biographies

• Hard to track timelines across 400-500 page books
• Difficult to know what applies to your specific situation
• Historical dollar amounts lack modern context (e.g., $50,000 in the 1930s = $8,000,000 today)
• Reading multiple biographies on the same person creates information overload
• Wikipedia doesn't dive deep enough on the financial numbers

The solution: Bio to Notion tool

• Built using Claude Code/Cowork in 45 minutes
• Uploads 1-5 business biographies on the same person (PDF, EPUB, MOBI, or text)
• Processing takes about 5 minutes
• Outputs to a structured Notion page

What the tool generates

1. Financial summary with inflation-adjusted numbers

   • Converts historical dollar amounts to modern equivalents
   • Provides proper context for understanding business decisions
   • Makes it easier to grasp the actual scale of deals and investments

2. Timeline of key events

   • Visual representation of the person's journey
   • Includes relevant photos from different eras
   • Helps track progression and context

3. 3-5 bullet point summary

   • Quick overview of the person's journey
   • Key takeaways at a glance

4. Founder's playbook section

   • Tailored insights based on your personal strengths and weaknesses
   • Connected to ChatGPT business coach with context on what you complain about
   • Surfaces relevant lessons for your current challenges

The reading strategy

• Read 3-4 biographies on the same person to get different perspectives
• Use the tool for "pre-reading" preparation
• Read Wikipedia or book summaries first to understand the overall story arc
• Knowing what's coming helps identify patterns and cracks early (e.g., seeing why a first marriage will fail)
• Having the blueprint helps put information into buckets while reading

Key benefits

• Makes it easier to extract insights across multiple sources
• Identifies patterns that repeat across successful founders
• Provides "founder therapy" by showing problems other entrepreneurs faced
• Helps you feel less alone in your struggles
• Shows that successful people were willing to do anything (e.g., Ted Turner pushing a ball with his nose, wearing a bag over his head on TV)
• Reminds you that "there's nothing beneath me" if billionaires were willing to get on their hands and knees

Future enhancements suggested

• Use an AI agent to automatically find and download biographies weekly
• Agent selects people you might like based on your interests
• Automatically processes and delivers summaries
• Convert output into a personal podcast
• Create a feedback loop where the system remembers what types of anecdotes resonate with you
• Build a "README file" of what Sam resonates with to surface similar stories in future biographies
• Make the system smarter with each biography processed

The philosophy behind it

• "We don't need therapy, we need history"
• Reading about real adversity (wars, Great Depression) puts modern problems in perspective
• People magnify small problems because they haven't faced real adversity
• Studying history provides context and reduces anxiety about current challenges