Compound Effect Records
Songs about the books, ideas, and people worth remembering.
I run an AI music label called Compound Effect Records. I write the songs, AI sings them, and each one takes one big idea, from Goggins to Naval to Sowell, and makes it stick. Every song is dated, because this page is proof of work: I was doing this before it was normal.
- 82songs
- 5jukeboxes
- 1,819YouTube plays
- 2026first release
YouTube numbers refresh weekly, as of Oct 14, 2026.
Listen on YouTube Idea to Music: turn an idea into a song Songs For Your Story: a song for a real person
Mindset Jukebox 50 songs
One big idea per song, borrowed from the books and builders worth stealing from. If you've read the book, this is the version that sticks.
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This Is Water — David Foster Wallace
The most famous commencement speech ever given, turned into a song about the water you swim in without noticing. The hardest thing to see is the thing you're swimming in, sung plain.
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Three Doors to Reality — Nick Bostrom
Bostrom's simulation argument: one of three doors is real, extinction, disinterest, or you're in the simulation. A philosophy paper you can hum.
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Tradeoffs — Thomas Sowell
There are no solutions, only tradeoffs. Sowell's most quoted line, for everyone who thinks policy is a wish list.
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Show Me the Incentives — Charlie Munger
Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome. Munger's one-line explanation for almost everything institutions do.
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Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish — Steve Jobs
The closing line of the best commencement speech since This Is Water. Jobs borrowed it from the Whole Earth Catalog; this song keeps it moving.
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The Dip — Seth Godin
The Dip is the long slog between starting and mattering, and Godin's trick is knowing which dips to quit and which to push through. A song for the middle of the slog.
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You Can Just Do Things — Jay Yang
Jay Yang's whole philosophy in one line: you don't need permission, credentials, or an invitation. Two and a half minutes of just-go energy for anyone waiting to be picked.
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Comfort Will Cost You — David Goggins
Goggins' core warning: comfort is a debt that comes due with interest. The song for the mornings you don't want to get up, which is the point.
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The Obstacle — Ryan Holiday
The Stoic move Holiday built a career on: the thing blocking your path is the path. Almost five minutes of turning problems into material.
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The Long Game — Naval Ravikant
Play long-term games with long-term people and let compounding do the work. Naval's best idea, stretched over a five-minute track.
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Skin in the Game — Nassim Taleb
Never take advice from someone who doesn't pay for being wrong. Taleb's sharpest filter, as a song you can send to your favorite talking head.
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What If Everyone's Wrong? — Peter Thiel
Thiel's favorite question: what important truth do very few people agree with you on? A five-minute nudge to stop benchmarking and start disagreeing.
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Grit — Angela Duckworth
Duckworth's research in one line: talent starts the race, grit finishes it. For anyone who's been at something long enough to want to quit.
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Say It Straight — Sam Parr
Sam Parr's whole style: no hedging, no throat-clearing, say the thing. One of the shortest songs on the jukebox, and the most direct.
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Anti-fragile — Nassim Taleb
Fragile breaks, robust survives, antifragile gets stronger from the hits. Taleb's best idea, written for anyone having a volatile year.
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Zero to One — Peter Thiel
Copying something that works takes the world 1 to n; making something new takes it 0 to 1. Thiel's monopoly argument in song form.
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Eighty Years Old — Jeff Bezos
Bezos' regret-minimization framework: picture yourself at eighty, then make the call you'd be proud of. A song for the decisions you keep postponing.
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4000 Weeks — Oliver Burkeman
That's all you get, roughly four thousand weeks. Burkeman's case for accepting the finitude instead of optimizing it away.
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Yet — Carol Dweck
The most powerful word in Dweck's growth-mindset research is three letters long. “I can't do it” versus “I can't do it yet,” and this is the second one.
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Sunk Cost — Annie Duke
The money's gone whether you stay or go, and Duke's point is that quitting on time is a skill. The longest track on the channel, because this lesson takes a minute to land.
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Wrong Game — Shaan Puri
Before you try to win, check what game you're playing. Shaan's reminder that a trophy in the wrong game is still the wrong game.
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Front Row Dads — Jon Vroman
Vroman's question for successful men: what if you ran your family with the same intention you run your business? Built for the drive home.
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Every Day Adds Up — Darren Hardy
The Compound Effect is the book this whole label is named after. Small, boring, daily choices, and this is the anthem.
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The Resistance — Steven Pressfield
Pressfield named the force that keeps you from the work: Resistance, capital R. Put this on before you sit down to do the thing you've been avoiding.
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Lifestyle Investor — Justin Donald
Donald's playbook: buy assets that pay you before they grow, and let the cash flow buy your time back. The mailbox-money gospel.
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What You Can't See — Morgan Housel
Housel's theme: the risks that matter are the ones nobody is talking about. A quiet song about the tail events that write history.
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Two Way Doors — Jeff Bezos
Most decisions are two-way doors: walk through, walk back if it's wrong. Bezos' case for deciding fast and saving the slow process for the one-way doors.
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What Happens Next — Viktor Frankl
Frankl survived the camps and came out saying the last human freedom is choosing your response. The heaviest source material on the jukebox, handled that way.
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The Third Door — Alex Banayan
There's the front door, the VIP door, and then the third door: the kitchen, the window, the hustle. Banayan's seven-year quest to interview the greats, in under three minutes.
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Listen First — Dale Carnegie
Carnegie's whole book in one habit: be interested before you try to be interesting. Nearly seven minutes of the oldest advice in business.
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Friend of the Incumbent — Bill Gurley
Gurley's famous talk: regulation isn't written to stop companies, it's written to protect them. Cronyism dressed as policy, named plainly.
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Key Person of Influence — Daniel Priestley
Priestley's thesis: every industry has a handful of people who get the calls, and becoming one is a skill, not luck. A song about being the name that comes up.
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Inaction is a Choice — Seth Godin
Not deciding is deciding, and the house wins by default. Godin's push to ship the thing instead of circling it.
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Miracle Morning — Hal Elrod
Elrod's six-part morning routine has a cult following for a reason. A song for the alarm-clock negotiation.
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One Big Thing — Nick Huber
Huber's focus sermon: the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. For anyone with eleven tabs open in their business.
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The Unseen Cost — Shane Parrish
Every yes costs the things you can't do instead, and Parrish built a career on seeing those costs clearly. A song about the invoice that never arrives but always gets paid.
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Five Kinds of Wealth — Sahil Bloom
Time, social, mental, physical, financial, and only one shows up on a scoreboard. Bloom's recalibration of what rich means.
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The Hard Thing — Elon Musk
When something matters enough, you do it even when the odds aren't good. Musk's version of commitment, for the week the plan stops working.
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One Percent — James Clear
One percent better every day compounds into a different person in a year. Clear's Atomic Habits math, in under three minutes.
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Flywheels — Nathan Barry
Barry's creator math: flywheels beat funnels because every output becomes an input. For anyone building an audience one loop at a time.
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Wake Up — Anthony DeMello
DeMello's brutal little idea: most people are born asleep, live asleep, and die asleep. A gentle song about a rude awakening.
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Time to Build — Marc Andreessen
Andreessen's 2020 essay asked why we stopped building and told everyone to start again. Still the right question.
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Pretty Good at Three — Scott Adams
Adams' talent stack: you don't need to be world-class at one thing if you're pretty good at three. The career strategy for the rest of us.
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Main Street — Codie Sanchez
Codie's gospel: boring local businesses are the best wealth machine nobody brags about. Laundromats over lottery tickets.
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Morning Light — Andrew Huberman
Sunlight before screens, Huberman's most famous protocol, as a porch song. The cheapest performance upgrade there is.
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Launch Accelerator — Jason Calacanis
Calacanis' edge is the first check and the follow-through: do the work, send the update, keep the numbers straight. A song about what investors actually buy.
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Ship It — Pieter Levels
Levels ships in weeks what teams ship in years, alone, from a laptop. Two and a half minutes of stop-polishing-start-shipping.
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Nobody Comes Back — Shaan Puri
The secret, such as it is: a hundred reps, one small thing better every time, and almost nobody comes back to do it again. Shaan's consistency sermon.
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Loserthinking — Scott Adams
Adams' word for arguing from your bubble instead of from evidence. A song for your group chat.
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Fear Setting — Tim Ferriss
Ferriss' exercise: define the nightmare, price it, and watch it shrink. The practical cousin of every courage quote ever posted.
Liberty Jukebox 11 songs
Music for freedom, sound money, and individual liberty. The econ class nobody got in school.
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Keep It That Way — John Papola
Liberty isn't self-executing; somebody has to keep it that way. Free-market fire in three minutes.
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Today It's Billionaires
The crowd always needs a new villain, and today it's billionaires. A song about where that road ends.
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What if We Win
Everyone asks what if AI goes wrong; almost nobody asks what if it goes right. Cures, cheap energy, time back with your kids, sung as the optimist's answer.
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21 Million — Satoshi
Twenty-one million, no exceptions, no printing press. The sound-money anthem for everyone who read the whitepaper twice.
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Not On My Watch — John Papola
A dad realizes he outsourced his kids' heads to the school hallway and takes the job back. Papola-style econ backbone, kitchen-table delivery.
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Collectivist City
A tour of the city where everything is shared and nothing is yours. Catchy enough to make the point stick.
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School Zone
Who teaches your kids, and who decided? A five-minute question about education and government.
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Every Single Time
Central planning: same idea, same result, every single time. The jukebox's history lesson.
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Don't Price Me Out
What happens to a town when the people who built it can't afford to stay. Inflation and housing policy, sung from the zip code it's happening to.
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Friend of the Incumbent II — Bill Gurley
Round two on regulatory capture, because the first verse didn't take. The incumbents are still writing the rules.
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They Keep Printing
The money printer never sleeps and your paycheck keeps shrinking to match. Two minutes and change of sound-money frustration.
Founder Mode 8 songs
Songs from inside the build: the AI wave, the 2 AM prompts, the last stretch. Written while living it.
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Ahead & Behind — Cormac Riley
Every founder lives here: ahead of the market, behind on everything else. The most-played song on the channel for a reason.
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One More Prompt — Cormac Riley
You discover AI coding tools and suddenly it's 2 AM every night: one more prompt, one more build. For everyone caught between building the thing and living the life.
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Prove It — Maddox Higgins
Same last stretch, country-pop lane: the sunny version of still doing the work. Four artists, one argument: prove it.
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Before the Wave — Cormac Riley
You can feel it before anyone says it out loud. Partners smile polite, the sky looks fine, and your chest knows a wave is coming.
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Still Here Either Way — Cormac Riley
Scared, and saying it plain: if the good one comes, take it; if the hard one comes, face it. An acoustic song about refusing to live in the scare.
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Prove It — Cormac Riley
The tools got better and the clock got mean: long day, short road, still in the seat. Folk-pop for the last stretch, when thinking about it is over.
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Prove It — brxxton
Same last stretch, country-trap lane. Still the work, still the seat, louder.
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Prove It — Beckett Shaw
Same song, electro-pop lane. Proof that the last stretch can still dance.
Slice of Life 12 songs
Small songs about ordinary days: the 3 AM thinking, the family scoreboard, the next step. Sung plain.
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Back Up Off the Matt — Cormac Riley
Get-off-the-floor energy, discipline with a smirk. For the morning after a loss.
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Seven & Nine — Cormac Riley
A slice of family scoreboard life: the ages your kids are right now, gone before you know it. Numbers that actually matter.
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Ride the Wave — Cormac Riley
Momentum instead of force; let it carry you. For the weeks when pushing harder isn't the answer.
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3 A.M. — Cormac Riley
The hour when the house finally tells the truth. Late-night quiet for everyone who does their real thinking after everyone's asleep.
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High Wire — Cormac Riley
Balance under pressure; keep walking. A song for anyone carrying a family and a business on the same rope.
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Enough — Cormac Riley
The line where striving stops being useful. Permission to stop moving the goalposts.
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My Move — Cormac Riley
Own the next step; strategy with heart. A short song about agency.
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Back in the Room — Cormac Riley
Coming back to the moment; presence over performance. For anyone whose body is at dinner and whose head is at work.
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The Fine Print — Cormac Riley
Read what you signed up for, then decide anyway. A song about going in with eyes open.
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Two Steps Ahead — Cormac Riley
Think ahead without living there. Planning as a tool, not a hiding place.
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What They Actually Need — Cormac Riley
Listen past the ask and give the thing that helps. Works for customers, works for kids.
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Some Assembly Required — Cormac Riley
Life does not arrive built; instructions optional. A song for anyone staring at the pieces.
Loose Change 1 songs
Songs about big ideas that don't belong to a book or a guru. The small change that compounds.
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Copy of a Copy
Maybe the world is a copy of a copy; the choice is still ours. A song about living in the simulation and staying original anyway.