Most skills are non-transferable
Most skills are non-transferable
The best way to learn how to run a startup is not by getting an MBA, but by getting in the weeds, building an MVP and talking to customers. The best way to write a book isn’t by studying literature, but by staring at an empty word doc until your eyes turn red and you’ve managed to spew out a few sentences. The best way to train for a marathon isn’t by riding a bicycle or rowing a boat or sprinting, but by running longer distances weekly.
That doesn’t mean there’s no value in an MBA, or studying Shakespeare, or doing some crossfit during marathon training. Cross-pollination of ideas breeds strength and innovation, and you can even find a ‘sweet spot’ of two or more skills to create your own niche (advice from Scott Adams). Having totally separate skills or hobbies, like being a physicist and playing the bongo drums, also comes in handy to keep your mind sharp.
But if you want to get good at doing the thing, you just gotta do that thing!
What I found interesting
The Billionaire Flippening. There are ~2393 addresses with >1000 BTC. At $1M/BTC, there would be 2393 billionaire addresses.
How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace. Rare insights from 17 of today's biggest marketplaces, including Airbnb, DoorDash, Thumbtack, Etsy, Uber and many more. Solid read for anyone running a marketplace or thinking of starting one.
The Human IPO. Human IPO provides a way to issue shares in yourself, which can be exchanged for your time on an hourly basis. The shares can be traded on a marketplace where the value goes up and down, just like Gold, Bitcoin or GameStop shares.
What I've been watching
The Serpent
As an avid traveler that's backpacked across Asia, this Netflix series hit it home for me. It follows the story of a French serial killer and con artist in the 1970’s who harbors a strong hatred for hippies, inviting them into his home, drugging them and stealing their things (and occasionally worse). Based on a true story and well worth the watch, but I can’t promise it’ll make you want to travel more!
What I read recently
Children of Time
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.
I’ve been into scifi recently, perhaps craving a break from all the non-fiction I devour. I couldn’t put down this book. Even if you don’t love scifi, this is a page-turner, and they should make it into a movie, if it isn’t already happening. Full of some weird alien spider shit but with a relatable thread of human emotion that ties it together. Notable quotes:
“If there had been some tiny bead present in the brain of all humans, that had told each other, They are like you; that had drawn some thin silk thread of empathy, person to person, in a planet-wide net – what might then have happened? Would there have been the same wars, massacres, persecutions and crusades?”
“It had been a long road to here from Earth, but not as far as he himself had travelled from their state of innocence. The burden of knowledge in his head burned like an intolerable coal: the certainty of dead Earth, of frozen colonies, a star-spanning empire shrunk to one mad brain in a cold satellite . . . and the ark overrun by the monkeys.”
What I've been up to
I’ve heard that nicotine gum is used by some people as a mild cognitive enhancement (nootropic), so in my never ending journey of self-experimentation, I picked up a box of Nicorette gum. I’ve smoked probably 2 cigarettes in my entire life, so I didn’t really know what nicotine felt like. I popped a couple of 2mg pieces and immediately had an itchy sensation in my throat. This was followed by increased heart rate for 5-10 minutes, a little nausea, and then back to normal. Apart from that I didn’t notice any real changes so I spit the gum out (pretty bland stuff). About 20 minutes later I felt a bit more calm and focused as I blasted out emails to investors. This ‘good’ feeling lasted for 30 minutes and then pretty much went away. It was not euphoric, just a bit more calm and focused, maybe similar to a sip of coffee + L-theanine.
Not impressed, I decided to take it up a notch. I bought a Nicorette patch which contains 21mg of nicotine, or the equivalent of 15 cigarettes. This is falsely advertised as slow release. Fifteen minutes after putting it on my shoulder, I got dizzy, very heavy, and nauseous. It felt like I’d taken a dose of klonopin muscle relaxants mixed with too much whiskey — not a pleasant experience. I then collapsed on the couch and took a four hour nap, only to wake up feeling a rare hangryness and raided the kitchen.
It’s safe to say that I won’t be slapping any more nicotine patches on my body, and the gum doesn’t seem to give me enough of a boost to be worth the cost ($20 for some gum). Glad I tried it out though!
Quotes I'm pondering
“If you will not reveal yourself to others, you cannot reveal yourself to yourself. That does not only mean that you suppress who you are, although it also means that. It means that so much of what you could be will never be forced by necessity to come forward.” ― Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos