Product & Startup Builder
Response To Climate Denial Post
My comment on a climate denial post (and huge, supportive comment thread) reposted here for posterity:
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Sending thoughts and prayers from Australia, where the entire continent (the size of mainland USA) is on fire for the first time in recorded history.
I’d love to participate in this thread, but I’m too busy watching the escalating wars play out in the Middle East so that the west can protect and control the supply of oil for the highly subsidized oil and gas industry.
I just want to say it totally makes sense that we continue to dig up dinosaurs and deploy the military to foreign lands to use decades old tech in the 21st century. It’s a smart, forward thinking idea.
Also, I know those scientists and eco-nerds are totally perpetrating a huge hoax on us. They have a massive financial incentive to stand in the way of those friendly and ethical oil companies from making massive profits. It’s like big Tabasco - but in reverse!
Go team!
Deep Fake Comparison
Truly amazing and horrifying. The future is a scary place full of lies and obfuscations that are basically indistinguishable from facts and truth. The information wars have begun, and the escalations are coming.
Criteria For the Perfect Beach
Criteria for the perfect beach:
Hot and humid weather
Powdery sand
Absence of debris/pollution on the sand and in the water (including rocks)
Access to world-class accommodation, food & supplies nearby
Clean, clear water that smells great
Soft gradient into the water - no sudden drops into the “deep end”
Choice of crowds and surf just by going up and down the coastline
Queensland beaches have it all. The best I’ve experienced anywhere in the world so far.
A New Kind of Literacy Is Needed
I just saw these two newsfeed stories back to back.
1. How to recognize a fake news story
2. How do you know if someone is really your friend?
Social media has disrupted so much about the way the word works. A new kind of literacy is needed for kids, young adults and boomers.
2020: Pride And Frustrations
It’s 2020. A new decade. Time to take stock of the past and look to the future.
Like everyone, I’m very proud of some of the things I’ve done, and frustrated that I haven’t achieved/grown more or better in some other areas.
Proud of...
- My time and experiences in Silicon Valley
- The invaluable lessons and insights I’ve learned about building things that affect change (movements, companies, brands, products, narratives etc)
- The support I’ve received and given to my family
- The amazing friends and connections I’ve made with some of the most amazing people on the Planet
- The beautiful and life changing loves and losses I’ve had with some amazing women
- Finding and marrying the love of my life, Aliya
- Finding a small amount of financial success to protect my current and future family from desperate struggle (not all struggle though!)
- Helping and supporting as many people as I could along the way
Frustrated by...
- Not having built anything that will outlive me. A legacy that will last beyond my death. Yet.
- Being so far away and so passively engaged in the lives of my #foundfamily. We live in so many different places around the world. I want to grow old with friends I love and admire who share a decades+ history. Still not sure how to address this.
- After a decade of feeling like SF was my home, I now feel spiritually homeless. I hope to rectify that this year.
- Scale. I need much more of it.
I look forward to making progress on these frustrations and much more in the decade to come!
My Goals for 2020
My resolutions are still the same from 4 years ago.
With the addition of some goals for 2020
1. Find a city and a home to live in for the next ~10 years
2. Make a positive impact on some great founders and companies through advisory and investment
3. Continue to make my wife smile and laugh
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And from 4 Years ago…
What are your new years resolutions?
Mine are the same resolutions/goals I strive for every day and every year (and mostly fail):
1. Work towards becoming a better person: More wise (by the technical definition: being able to deftly apply knowledge/experience in context), more patient, more effective, more content, more helpful, and ultimately more successful at achieving my goals.
2. To gather the best answers I can find to life's many questions - both large and small.
3. To make a big, lasting and positive impact on the people around me and ultimately the world.
How about you?
Great Example Of How Framing Changes Everything
This is exactly what I mean by perspective and framing. Some people are the victim of everything instead of being grateful for the gifts they’re being given. H/t Maggie Saad
Accepting Help Can Sometimes Be Near Impossible
- Offering help is easy
- Providing real help is challenging
- Admitting you need help is often hard
- Accepting help can sometimes be near impossible
A Piece Of Sage Advice
For every clever saying, there's an opposite, equally profound sounding quote. Wisdom is knowing which piece of sage advice to take in which circumstance/context.
A good example is Startups. You can read all the blogs and books, but unless you've deeply internalized the advice through hands-on experience it can be difficult to know what to apply to what situationShould you "do the unscalable thing first" or "scale at all costs"? Should you "focus on growth" or does "revenue cure all ills"? Should you "undercut the competition thanks to software efficiencies" or "charge a premium"?
These decisions depend on many variables and need to form part of a cohesive strategy.
This is one of the reasons why good advisors are priceless. If they have real experience (and are not just career talkers) then they should help you know WHICH piece of sage advice to apply at any given time.
Act Boldly
Act boldly and don’t accept arbitrary constraints set by dogma or bureaucracy.
Life is not about living within the boundaries set for you by society, family and friends. Rather it’s about bending the universe towards your ideal vision for yourself, your family and the world
Be Careful of The Lies You Tell Yourself
Be careful of the lies people tell you that you choose to believe. Lies you begin to tell yourself. These shared lies make it possible for others to hurt and abuse you with your permission.
Wake up. Face the truth. Act to remove toxic people and toxicity from your daily experience.
On the other hand, seek out and embrace those who confront you about the lies you’re telling to, and about, yourself. They will help disabuse you of your false narratives and self-delusions so that you can act with effective agency in the world.
2 Ways To Get In the Media
Two ways to get in the media: support their narrative or provide counter programming. Doesn’t matter if you know what you’re talking about, though.
Critique In Private
Praise in public. Critique in private. Learned from Khris. So easy to forget.
My Dream Garage
If I had unlimited funds I’d have a garage that featured:
1. Porsche GT2 RS (Track)
2. Porsche 718 GTS (personal spirited driving)
3. Porsche 911 GTS (spirited driving with fam)
4. Porsche Tycan Turbo S (family car)
5. Porsche Macan GTS (family camping car)
6. Electric/refurbished Delorean (nostalgia with a twist)
7. Electric/refurbished Jaguar E-Type (epic classic)
8. Refurbished 1969 Mustang (epic classic)
9. KITT Transam (nostalgia)
10. Mclaren 600 LT (personal kickass driving)
11. Aston Martin Vanquish (long road-trips)
What’s in your dream garage?
Treatment Of Immigrants
This week I’ve seen a number of posts in my feed explaining why immigrants are an economic or demographic net positive for a country.
I think people are missing the fact that most of the pushback against immigrants is not really about practical or pragmatic issues (although people pretend it is) - it’s about skin color and “culture”.
It’s about people wanting their country to stay white.
** Update to detail what *I* believe (from comments):
in general, I believe in a clean, clear and efficient path for immigrants that boasts a generous serving of empathy and recognition for our shared humanity.
I do NOT believe in the political narrative that pits “us” against “them” and pretends that crime, poverty or joblessness is the fault of the minority people (whoever they may be).
As for preserving culture: all culture is evolving all the time (in large part due to interactions with other cultures - either through direct contact or media). Therefore concepts like holding onto old cultural norms for the sake of tradition (a right-wing trope) or “cultural appropriation” (a left-wing freak out) are mostly distractions. The only time when this becomes a problem is in extreme cases when large groups of refugees flood in without a chance to assimilate or when people rip others off in a craven way (respectively).
That being said, almost by definition, refugees tend to undergo mass migrations only in cases of great strife in their homeland. It’s not by choice. But instead of solving the root cause (the strife in the foreign land), Politicians tend to focus on “othering” the desperate people to win cheap political points.
Finally: we’ve seen this play out countless times in the US. From the Irish to the Jews and now to the Muslims. Historic patterns are useful to keep in mind.
Greta Does The Math
Perhaps you've seen Game of Thrones? Remember how stupid everyone seemed ignoring the White Walkers?
“I’ll be happy when...”
“I’ll be happy when...” a dangerous line of thought.
Use Impostor Syndrome To Your Benefit
Great TED talk by Mike Cannon-Brookes about imposter syndrome. If you’re feeling like a fraud, then you’re probably growing and working at the edge of your potential. Keep going!
There are only 2 Constants and 1 Point Of Control
In life there are only 2 constants and 1 thing you can absolutely control.
Constants:
1. Change: Everyone and everything will change. All the time.
2. Hardship: Partly due to #1. Life is hard.
Things you can absolutely control:
1. Your reactions: How you react to the above constants and everything else that happens.
That’s it.