Living with Stress, Aiming for "Good Failure" & Weekly Tech Round-Up

What I Learned at School this Week

Nov 27, 2020

Happy Thanksgiving Y’all!

Hope you enjoyed some turkey, naps, time with loved ones (in person or digitally) and the — odd energy of this year’s pre-recorded — Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

✨ If you read one thing in this post, I recommend: Aiming For “Good Failure” ✨

Here’s a sweet Tweet from yesterday, that went viral (the progression in the comments is beautiful):

Jessica Kantrowitz 🍂💫 @jfkantrowitz

If anyone is alone today and feeling lonely, you are invited to my Thanksgiving dinner. I made lemon & rosemary turkey. Tell me your hair & eye color & what you’re bringing, & I’ll draw you in.

Virtual Experiences

This week, Pinterest started testing online events with “class communities”.

They’re jumping into the growing pool of other players, already in the space:

Airbnb's second product was Experiences
Zoom announced OnZoom last month during their annual conference
Amazon created a product in September
And MasterClass raised $100M in May on the success of its virtual "Edu-tainment"

Digital experiences are not nearly the same as in person. IMHO, they have a long way to go. And even if things don't go back to normal anytime soon, I don’t see a world where people are doing tons of digital experiences.

I think for a truly enjoyable experience online, there needs to be a leap in innovation around VR, coupled with widespread adoption of the technology. This is likely still years out (ie: 5+ years). With all that said, I do think digital experiences will eventually be a huge business. Creating super unique experiences for consumers. Think of the NBA being able to sell thousands of court side seats to a single playoff game. Where you get 5 minutes “sitting” with a celebrity and talking live with them.

We’re already getting use to living in a digital world. The proof is simple: look at the Screen Time section of your phone.

It’s only a matter of time until some digital experiences will be more dynamic than in-person events.

The Art of Living with Stress

I realize this is a very sensitive topic. And, I am (obviously) by no means a doctor. But mental health is hugely important, especially in America today.

Movember is happening right now (men’s health, including mental).

So when I came across this great little illustration called “The Art of Living with Less Stress,” I thought it would be worth sharing.

It’s a conversation with Tim Ferriss and Derek Sivers. I’ve written about Derek Sivers before (see: bullet #2). And the illustration-overtop-a-podcast reminds me of the Midnight Gospel (previously written about as well, see: bullet #5).

Please enjoy this 6 minute video:

Aiming For “Good Failure”

Nassim Taleb famously said:

Shaming a risk-taker for losing money is like shaming a soldier for losing a limb.

Especially in the start-up world, and sales world, failure is definitely something that is “accepted” and even “expected.” But not all failure should be treated equally.

I’ve never been able to distinguish between the two types of failure in such succinct terms. Check out this simple and elegant excerpt from Invent & Wander:

Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag

Bezos on experimental vs operational failure. Simple and elegant comparison.

ICYMI — Weekly Tech Round-Up

ON launched a subscription service for their New Recyclable Shoes
- Some chuckled cynically, claiming it’s “peak SaaS”.
- I, on the other hand, think it’s the future.
Saleforce in Talks to Buy Slack
- Here is a great case, from Jason Lemkin, of why it could work. H/T to Greg for sharing this tweet thread with me!
DOW Hits 30K for the First Time Ever
- That’s 2% up from it's pre-pandemic high
- Meanwhile:

Kristen Clarke @KristenClarkeJD

On March 18th, America's 614 billionaires were worth a combined 2.95 trillion. On November 24th, there were 650 billionaires and combined wealth was close to 4 trillion. 13M Americans are on the verge of losing benefits that keep them one step away from hunger and homelessness.

The S&P 500 is up 9% from its pre-pandemic high.
1. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is up an impressive 33% from its pre-pandemic record.
BTC Dips
- The last two weeks, I have not-so-subtly pointed out Bitcoin’s bull run.
- Well, it’s down over 11% since this time last week.
- It hit resistance at the all-time high from Dec 2017. Bulls say this is a good thing. Only time will tell.
- And if you are looking for exposure to BTC, I recommend Dollar Cost Averaging some small amount each month, even an amount that you’re comfortable losing altogether.