Never Fully Read #15

You are not rewarded for the comfortable choice.

☕️ Morning Coffee:

“Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed.”

Bob Riley

⬇️

🤖Tech News:

Definition by venture capitalist Matthew Ball, author of the extensive Metaverse Primer:

“The Metaverse is an expansive network of persistent, real-time rendered 3D worlds and simulations that support continuity of identity, objects, history, payments, and entitlements, and can be experienced synchronously by an effectively unlimited number of users, each with an individual sense of presence.”

“Today, Southern California-inspired activewear brand Vuori announces a $400 million investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a valuation of $4 billion USD, marking one of the largest investments in a private apparel company. The investment underscores excitement in the surging brand, known for its performance clothing that is built to move in yet styled for everyday life, as it sets sights on the international market.”

ClassPass, the subscription-based fitness marketplace most recently valued at $1 billion, is today announcing that it has been acquired by Mindbody. Mindbody is a bit like the OpenTable of the fitness world. Its booking software is used by studios, gyms and other experience-based service providers — the company recently signed a global agreement with Blo blowdry bar, for example — for customers and organizations to book their appointments, classes, etc.”

“On the one-year anniversary of Copy.ai’s launch on Twitter, the company, a GPT-3 AI-powered platform that generates copywriting tools for business customers, secured another round of funding. Copy.ai’s software costs $35 a month and can, for example, write a blog post outline based on a few sentences and create link descriptions for Facebook ads and even generate a company motto.”

“Pagos, a payment intelligence infrastructure startup founded by former Braintree and PayPal execs, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Started earlier this year, the remote-first Pagos is building a data “platform” and API-driven micro-services that it says can integrate with any payment stack. The end goal is to drive better performance and “optimization” of a business’ existing payments infrastructure.”

“Put simply, MagicCube’s software-based technology is aimed at replacing all security chips, which have historically been the standard for safely storing sensitive data and authenticating whoever needs access to it. And it’s starting with financial services. The company’s technology lets merchants transform mobile devices into payment terminals. Or in other words, it gives merchants a way to accept card payments on any consumer device with no reader or extra hardware required.”

⬇️

📈 Trends Of The Week:

Down-to-Earth Applications for the Satellite Imagery Industry

“Trend: Satellite data is more available than ever, and there are tons of ways to use it.

As we mentioned in this Hustle Sunday story, reusable rockets, miniaturized satellite technology, and the privatization of space industries have fueled a satellite boom.

In the next 10 years, the number of active satellites in orbit could rise from 4k+ to 50k.

Fifty-four percent of satellites are now launched for commercial use and ~25% are dedicated to observing Earth.

The quality and frequency of satellite images of Earth have increased rapidly in recent years. Industry leader Planet captures 1.2m images a day, covering the whole world. Their highest-resolution images can capture details as small as a shoebox.”

Sensory Art Has the Magic Touch

“Parents on Pinterest are searching for sensory art projects they can do with their kids.”

sensory art search volume over time

Source: Pinterest Trends

“Sensory art is a fancy name for a slew of crafts (like finger painting) designed to engage multiple senses at the same time.

It has its roots in sensory integration theory and is believed to help children -- including those with autism -- develop keener emotional regulation, creativity, and problem-solving skills.”

Opportunities:

  • Subscription boxes

  • Target occupational therapists

  • Finally, there’s a whole range of sensory play toys that generate hundreds of thousands of dollars each month on Amazon, according to Jungle Scout. For example:⬇️

🧠 Quotes that make you think:

  • “Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.” Chuck Klosterman

  • “Random violence makes the news precisely because it is so rare, routine kindness does not make the news precisely because it is so commonplace.” Matt Ridley

  • “It is strange to me that most people assume companies will be imperfect (as they are), but they assume that government agencies will be perfect, which they are not.” Matt Ridley

  • “I began to realise that if I never achieved anything outwardly ever again, I would still exist. The voice in my head is not who I am.” Elizabeth Day

  • “A trap is only a trap if you don't know about it. If you know about it, it's a challenge.”- China Miéville, King Rat

  • “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Robert F. Kennedy

  • “you are not rewarded for the comfortable choice.” Aubrey Marcus

  • “To wait for the external world to change before you alleviate your stress is a fool’s errand.” Aubrey Marcus

  • “It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.” Mitch Albom⬇️

⛓ Mental Model Of The Week:

“Second and third-order consequences

Humans are born with a second flaw, that we have a hard time to let go off. When making decisions, we are most concerned with immediate consequences, also called first-order consequences.

Exercise is a good example. The first-order consequence of exercise is exhaustion, sweating and maybe even physical pain. None of which anyone would pursue on their own. That's why many people have trouble to discipline themselves or even quit the sport at all.

What's interesting is that the second-order and third-order consequences often have the opposite desirability. The second-order consequences of doing sport are the feeling of success and satisfaction. The third-order consequences are muscle built up and having a healthy body. It's hard for us as humans to consider second-order and third-order consequences, because it would require us to think long-term. But Ray Dalio strongly believes that it's important to do so.

"I’ve come to see that people who overweigh the first-order consequences of their decisions and ignore the effects of second- and subsequent-order consequences rarely reach their goals." – Ray Dalio

Here is a way to activity consider subsequent consequences:

  1. Make a grid with all your options

  2. Ask yourself what consequences they have after 10 minutes, 10 days and 10 months

  3. Compare the different options and consider all their consequences”

⬇️

🎤 Podcasts I listened to:

“Rob Dial is an incredibly successful coach, who specialises in coaching coaches. He’s also a top 100 podcaster, speaker, and creator. This was a wide ranging conversation that included our lessons from plant medicine, the current polarisation in society, pathways to growing, and of course all things coaching. Rob Dial reveals the formula to becoming a highly competent coach with a lucrative career. I was even convinced it is time to get my own coach!”

“It’s hard to know where to begin describing such an incredible person as Mo Gawdat. He’s co-founded over 20 businesses, he’s the author of the ground-breaking ‘Solve for Happy’ and he was chief business officer of the pioneering wing of google, Google X, the ‘moonshot factory’ where they work on all the latest technologies like self-driving cars and robots.

But most importantly, Mo has learnt perspective about life. When his son died, this sent him on an incredible journey to look within himself and find the ‘happiness equation’, a simple technique that can help us all reduce our unhappiness and appreciate life, and ourselves, more.”

⬇️

📚 Book I'm Reading:

“Matt Ridley is a bestselling author. His books include Genome, The Rational Optimist and How Innovation Works, among others and collectively they have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards.

Life is on the up.

We are wealthier, healthier, happier, kinder, cleaner, more peaceful, more equal and longer-lived than any previous generation. Thanks to the unique human habits of exchange and specialisation, our species has found innovative solutions to every obstacle it has faced so far.

In ‘The Rational Optimist’, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley comprehensively refutes the doom-mongers of our time, and reaches back into the past to give a rational explanation for why we can – and will – overcome the challenges of the future, such as climate change and the population boom.

Bold and controversial, it is a brilliantly confident assertion that the 21st century will be the best for humankind yet.”

⬇️

⏰ Timeless Insight:

Mo Gawdat: Ex-Google Exec Engineers a Happiness Equation | by Sloww | Medium

Source: 

https://www.mogawdat.com/