3/4 – What’s Next
Hey there – can you believe it is already March?
Enjoy the newsletter and please email me if you have any questions.
Articles to Read.
Sometimes life seems really short, and other times it seems impossibly long.
It kind of feels like our lives are made up of a countless number of weeks. But there they are—fully countable—staring you in the face.
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You don’t want to be in a career where people who have been doing it for two years can be as effective as people who have been doing it for twenty—your rate of learning should always be high. As your career progresses, each unit of work you do should generate more and more results. There are many ways to get this leverage, such as capital, technology, brand, network effects, and managing people.
All great careers, to some degree, become sales jobs. You have to evangelize your plans to customers, prospective employees, the press, investors, etc. This requires an inspiring vision, strong communication skills, some degree of charisma, and evidence of execution ability.
It’s often easier to take risks early in your career; you don’t have much to lose, and you potentially have a lot to gain. Once you’ve gotten yourself to a point where you have your basic obligations covered you should try to make it easy to take risks. Look for small bets you can make where you lose 1x if you’re wrong but make 100x if it works. Then make a bigger bet in that direction.
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Anthony Bourdain on Writing, Hangovers, and Finding a Calling
What advice would you give the younger you?
I wouldn’t have listened. That’s the kind of asshole I was. I would never listen to me — I could show up and tell him exactly what’s happening, you know? I would have gone right ahead and made the same mistakes. I was that kind of person, I would have said, “Fuck it. I don’t care, old man, I’m still taking this ride.” And look — it paid off! All that fucking up seemed to directly get paid off. So I don’t think I’d even want to go back and have that conversation at all.
How does a man find his calling? How do you know what you’re doing is right?
I don’t know — you keep at it. I like building things. I like making things. I liked making plates of food. I was a very happy dishwasher. You know, the plates went into the dishwasher dirty and they came out clean every time. And that felt good. I liked making plates of food.
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Kelly Slater, who is forty-six, is the best surfer in history. He’s won eleven world titles. He was the youngest-ever world champion and the oldest-ever world champion.
In December, 2015, an astonishing video was released: “Kelly’s Wave,” it showed Slater, warmly dressed in a quilted jacket and a gray wool beanie, arriving at a misty pond at daybreak. In a voice-over, he calls it “our little secret spot” and admits to nervousness after “working on something for ten years.” As the first wave rolls, the camera stays on Slater’s face. His reaction to what he sees goes from anxious wonder to wide-eyed joy. “Oh, my God!”
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What I Learned From the Hacker Who Spied on Me
When my nanny sends me a photo of my 18-month-old son busy at play, my immediate thought: He’s a genius.
When a hacker sent me a photo of my son, after breaking into the baby monitor on my Wi-Fi network, my thought: I’m an idiot.
To be fair, I gave Alexander Heid, a certified ethical hacker and chief research and development officer at security firm Security Scorecard, free rein to try to break into all my cameras. Still, that’s no excuse for my not changing the default password.
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Soggy Fries vs. Sagging Profits: Restaurants Face Delivery Dilemma
Ever eat a french fry that’s been carted across town? By the time you bite into it, that fry has morphed into a cold, limp, greasy wedge that takes some courage to swallow.
Restaurant owners face a choice: set up their own delivery team or contract with an outsider. The first option comes with more overhead at a time when low unemployment and rising minimum wages have increased labor costs. The second option also comes with a cost, however, the premium restaurants must pay to a third-party delivery service or app.
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CO₂ and other Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The cumulative contribution of the United States began to rise in the second half of the 19th century into the 20th. By 1950 its contribution peaked at 40 percent; since then it has declined to approximately 26 percent, but remains the largest in the world.
By 2015, China accounted for 12 percent of total cumulative emissions, and India for 3 percent.
The monthly emissions per capita in rich countries are mostly higher than the yearly emissions per capita in poorer countries. The largest emitter, Qatar, has per capita emissions of 50 tonnes per year (1243 times that of Chad, the lowest emitter).
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More to Check Out:
– Building a Time Capsule – Guidelines for Preserving Minerals
– Welcome to the stochastic age
– Mechanical beasts and where to find them
– Chinese company leaves Muslim-tracking facial recognition database exposed online
– We asked 1000 people; ‘what do you ask your Voice Assistant?’
Books I Read
- God’s Chinese Son: Incredibly interesting history of the Taiping Rebellion, led by failed student Hong Xiuquan, from 1845-64. His dream-encounter with God inspires him to lead an uprising. By the end of his reign, 20 million Chinese lie dead.
- The Unbanking of America: “In 2014, Americans paid nearly $32 billion in overdraft fees, and $6 billion of it went to the three biggest banks (Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo).”
My Update.
- Excited to travel again. Need your recommendations! I leave Wednesday for a 10 day trip to Denver, Panama City, Medellin (Colombia), NYC, PHL, and then back to STL.
- Are you hiring or looking for a job? Email me! I can try to help 🙂
- I am convinced that reading this list of links will make you a much better person.
Thanks so much for reading! Find me on twitter : )