This is where I share 3 things every week with my friends and anyone else interested.
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A picture from my life:
I went hiking normally while my friends “rucked” and carried 30+ pounds in their backpacks. Why am I friends with these people? Do I want to feel like an imposter forever? 😂
Thing on my mind:
Substack launched Private Substacks and I enabled it for this newsletter so that it’s no longer discoverable. I don’t know if this is what I want but we’ll see. 🤷♂️
My mind’s all over the place so let me just pull a bunch of thoughts from my notebook.
We go to our local fitness studio mostly because it’s convenient. I know that now because the classes they offer online just can’t compete with the best content on the Internet or Peloton.
Cloud kitchens are likely on the rise, but pitching cloud kitchens to restauranteurs is essentially pitching a smaller menu and a downsized dream.
People join The Wing and WeWork to rent space even though they’re sold like a “community.” I heard The Wing’s been hosting online community events but no one’s going.
Essential workers and teachers are extremely valuable but we don’t pay them like we do, but how do we pay them more?
People protested the shutdown despite the pandemic, and then people protested to shut down the police despite the pandemic. We are a very self-actualized country.
The government knows how to collect money but didn’t know how to send money. The stimulus check was good practice for UBI, which may be needed sooner because automation is accelerating and jobs are not coming back.
Hospitals are going under because they make money off of elective surgeries.
Colleges are going under because they rely on international and out-of-state students’ tuition. Also because distance learning can’t replace the value of going / sending kids away to college.
I’ve improved my cooking skills so I might not eat out as much post-pandemic. When I do, I’d try to eat things I can’t easily make at home.
I was planning on moving somewhere more central in the city and closer to transit, but I’d probably move somewhere with more square footage. This sucks because I love cities and I love public transit.
I got a bunch of the blue surgical masks from Taiwan and they’re extremely comfortable to wear and I can keep them on all day. Unfortunately they are not the N95s so they don’t protect you as much but they protect other people. I think we have a better chance at getting people to wear these than the more protective but uncomfortable kind. I’m still seeing way too many people without masks.
It’s crazy to see friends in Taiwan living very normal lives and here we are in the US planning permanent changes to how we live. Will the globalized world begin to diverge more quickly?
Sometimes you just have to stick around long enough for a pandemic? Animal Crossing launched in 2011. AirTime launched in 2011. HouseParty launched in 2014. Bunch launched in 2015.
A friend said Covid-19 is a black swan event that led to us spending way more time on our screens, amplifying the effect of social media. That created another black swan event in the BLM protests. Is there another coming? Btw Nassim Taleb doesn’t consider Covid-19 a black swan.
Piece of content I recommend:
I also wanted to recommend a bunch of links because of what’s happening in the world!
Starting with more serious topics…
Trevor Noah on George Floyd and Minneapolis Protests - When I saw videos of burning buildings and people looting in Minneapolis, I was shooked just like everyone else. Then I saw this clip on Instagram and was very impressed by how quickly Trevor Noah turned around this video and how well he explained the idea of the social contract being void for black people in this country.
Trevor Noah on Defunding the Police - I’ve been thinking how it’s really hard to lead in the age of social media with millions of voices fighting each other, but that’s also why we need good leadership more than ever. With the protests, I was looking for leaders to know how to direct my actions. Trevor Noah asked this exact question at 18:17 to the movement organizers and I learned that these movements are not leaderless but “leaderFUL.”
Graham by Radiolab - A good history lesson on how the reasonable officer standard came into being. It was meant to protect victims from police brutality, but came to be used to justify more brutality.
Too Small to Fail, Vol. 4: Eddie Huang on The Dave Chang Show - Dave Chang’s been interviewing restaurant owners. Lots of tears and emotion because many had to shut down forever (including Momofuku). I’ve been learning about how difficult it is for restauranteurs. This one was more upbeat because of Eddie Huang and they also spent some time talking about Taiwan!
Sin, Secret, Series A by Byrne Hobart - I spend a lot of time trying to learn about how the world really works, and this article vastly accelerated my learning and it’s not even a long read!
And for lighter topics…
Russell Peters calling out Trevor Noah for stealing jokes - start at 18:33. Not trying to take anything away from Trevor Noah because he is certifiably brilliant, but the more I love him the more I want to know everything about him.
Building the Perfect Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder by Mark Rober - I was sad when I heard that John Krasinski sold Some Good News. I counted on it every Sunday to put a big smile on my face, but not to worry because Mark Rober came to the rescue with the most elaborate contraption to play with squirrels in his backyard.
Marbula E Race 3 "Jakarta" by Jelle's Marble Runs - Speaking of elaborate contraptions, this was a truly exciting race full of drama and even controversy. Did you know that the creator of Jelle’s Marble Runs, Jelle Bakker, is autistic? Did you know he spent years making marble runs on YouTube and then accidentally deleted his YouTube channel with 620,000 subscribers and had to start over. Imagine that!
Stay safe everyone! Love you all. 🤗
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As always, you can find out what I’m thinking in more real-time on Twitter and my essays are on my website. My latest essay is called “From Socialcam to TikTok: How we figured out video social in a decade”
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