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- Be More Interesting NFR #18
Be More Interesting NFR #18
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill
☕️ Morning Inspiration:
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill
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🤖Tech News:
“WhatsApp will today begin beta testing a new, cloud-based version of its WhatsApp Business API, hosted on parent company Facebook’s infrastructure. With the shift to the cloud, the setup time for integrating with the API will drop from weeks to only minutes, the company claims, so businesses can more quickly transition to WhatsApp’s API platform to communicate with their customers who have opted in to receive their messages.”
“The United States government has offered a bounty of up to $10million (£7.4m) for information about the hacking group known as DarkSide. In May, a DarkSide ransomware attack shut down a vital 5,500-mile-long fuel pipeline on the east coast of the US. The pipeline carries 45% of the fuel used on the east coast.”
“One-click checkout company Bolt Financial made headlines earlier this month by announcing new funding at around a $6 billion valuation. Now it's already back in market with a deal that could nearly double that price, Axios has learned from several sources.”
“Software services company Zendesk Inc (ZEN.N) said it would buy Momentive Global Inc (MNTV.O), owner of the popular SurveyMonkey platform for nearly $4 billion in an all-stock deal.”
“H2O.ai — a startup that has developed an open-source framework as well as proprietary apps that make it easier for any kind of enterprise to build and operate artificial intelligence-based services — has seen a surge of interest as AI applications have become more ubiquitous, and enterprises beyond tech companies want to get in on the action. Now, it has raised $100 million to fuel its growth, a round of funding that values H2O.ai at $1.7 billion post-money ($1.6 billion pre-money).”
“Earlier this week, Thirteen Lune, a direct-to-consumer beauty platform that was launched last year in LA with $1 million in seed funding from Diddy, Gwyneth Paltrow and Beautycounter founder Gregg Renfrew, announced $3 million in additional seed funding. We might not normally pause on this kind of development, especially in a market where dozens of startups are announcing funding every day, but this deal stood out for a few reasons beyond its celebrity backing.”
“Fusion energy has been a fiery dream for lovers of clean energy since the first controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction was accomplished some 60 years ago. The technology promises all the benefits of current-generation nuclear fission generators, at a fraction of the risk, with far less radioactivity when running, and with very little radioactive waste. There’s been one catch: So far, it has been hard to get the fusion process to generate more energy than it has been consuming to keep the reaction under control.”
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📈 Trends Of The Week:
Solving (Chronic) Pain Points
“There are ~780m people worldwide affected by chronic pain (CP), and their suffering is getting worse.
A recent study found that 70% of people with CP noticed their condition worsen as a result of the stress of the pandemic.”
“A quick look through the r/ChronicPain subreddit reveals a number of other unmet needs that entrepreneurs could address, including:
Healthy meal options and recipes for people who can’t stand long enough to cook healthy meals
Job boards that curate job openings suitable for people with CP
Online and in-person communities and dating apps for CP sufferers
Advice for people caring for loved ones with CP”
Don’t Catnap on Rare Breeds
“Niche (read: “expensive”) pet breeds are trending.
Subscribers of fancy cat subreddits such as Nebelung (which cost $600-$1.2k from a breeder), Siamese ($400-$1k), and ragdolls ($800-$2k) have all increased by 50%+ since the beginning of the year.”
“Merch is also an option. According to Jungle Scout, these products are making bank every month on Amazon:
Pug plush toy (~$181k/mo.)
Siamese cat fabric for upholstery (~$59k/mo.)
Afghan hound dog calendar (~$35k/mo.)
Australian cattle dog mugs (~$27k/mo.)
Bichon frise personalized ornaments (~$21k/mo.)”
UTIs Are Getting the D2C Treatment
“Earlier this year we reported on a slew of first-aid essentials getting a D2C makeover (and minting millions).
Welly, provider of premium first aid “for when fun wins,” launched in 2019. The company nabbed a seed round of $8m and generated $10m in its first year.
Next in line to receive the modern D2C treatment: urinary tract infections (UTIs), which affect ~60% of women and ~12% of men in their lifetime, and cause 8.1m visits to health care providers every year.”
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🧠 Quotes that make you think:
“Reading after a certain age diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any person who reads too much and uses their own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking, just as the one who spends too much time in the theater is tempted to be content with living vicariously instead of living their own life.” Albert Einstein
“I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.” Michael Phelps
“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
“What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.”
“Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.”
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” Friedrich Nietzsche
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct them to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” Friedrich Nietzsche
“Liberty consists in doing what one desires” John Stuart Mill
⛓ Mental Model Of The Week:
Forcing Functions
“A forcing function is any task, activity or event that forces you to take action and produce a result. Another way to think about forcing functions is as a catalyst that changes your default behavior in the future by aligning your short term incentives with your long term goals.
At the heart of it, forcing functions are about forcing you into a position to execute. The quicker you can execute and take action against business ideas, the quicker you can gather feedback and iterate. By aligning short term incentives with long term goals, you also get the added benefit of compounding effects over time.
Forcing functions are about the size of the commitment. If you don’t have large amounts of capital to deploy as a forcing function, use the opportunity cost of not executing the activity or event as the primary motivator for your business. Having a forcing function means that you have skin in the game. If you’re serious, sometimes you need to go all in.”
Source: Indie Hackers
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🎤 Podcasts I listened to:
“In one of my FAVORITE PODCASTS OF ALL TIME, I am joined by Dr. John Vervaeke PHD. John is an award winning lecturer at the University Of Toronto, and has been teaching courses in cognitive science, psychology, buddhism, and philosophy. In this incredible conversation we talk about the meaning crisis in western civilisation, meditation vs. contemplation, psychedelics, love, anti-debate and much more. John also takes me through some incredible verbal exercises that open a portal to personal insight and effective communication.”
“Self-awareness is that thing many people claim to have but in no time at all you know this person is completely unaware of themselves. Our versions of reality seem to fall in line with the narrative and stories we constantly remind ourselves of, but the truth is, we’ve constructed a reality shaped and influenced by emotions that were never truthful from the beginning. Robert Greene, just released another book, The Daily Laws, and he joins Tom in this episode to share his profound wisdom and understanding of human nature. He beautifully peels back the layers of complexity around how we are able to perceive the world around us and the way in which we fit into our own stories. The main point Robert drives home is the power of detaching yourself from the emotions and egos to take an honest assessment of what you are truly experiencing.”
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📚 Book I'm Reading:
Siddhartha: An Indian Tale
Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse which deals with the spiritual journey of an Indian boy called Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha.
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