Moon Walk-ie Talkies, Self-Driving Teslas & Digital Diet Update #4
What I Learned at School this Week
Hey y’all!
Sometimes I don’t know what to say in this opening section.
So this week, I’ll just leave you with a photo of the stack of books I’m picking through these days and we’ll dive right into a few of the things I learned this week, that I thought were worth sharing.
Cellular Goes to the Moon
Nokia selected by NASA to build first ever cellular network on the Moon
It’s pretty wild to think that we are starting to utilize other planets for our own good. I wonder what will happen when aliens see what we’re doing and put an end to our escapades once and for all.
Our maybe they’ll be stoked.
Who knows.
Nokia has announced further details after being named by NASA as a partner to advance “Tipping Point” technologies for the Moon, deploying the first LTE/4G communications system in space and helping pave the way towards sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.
Speaking of going to the moon…
BTC Hits $13K
Who knows the full reason why it happened. Not dissimilar from public markets in that we may as well be watching a game of craps in Vegas.
However, at least part of the price increase was (likely) due to the announcement this week that PayPal (and subsidiary, Venmo) will start accepting bitcoin.
Square allowed cryptocurrencies back in 2018. And just last week, Square also purchased $50M of bitcoin directly.
Tesla Goes Fully Autonomous
This week, Tesla released a new software update to a select group of users, that allows Tesla drivers to put their car into “Full Self-Driving.” There has been some pushback of whether we’re ready for completely autonomous cars. But Elon’s goal is to have all Tesla’s with the capability by the end of 2020.
This video showcases the new release. It’s crazy. Impressive. And funny.
Welcome to the future:
Pleasing “Future Me”
This past week, I’ve developed a little ‘hack’ that’s seemed to work, so far.
It’s pretty simple. And I thought it was worth sharing very quickly.
Any time I am making a decision, even a small decision, and run into the “I know I probably shouldn’t, but I really want to” conundrum, I pause and picture myself in the next day and ask myself: “what decision would ‘future me’ look back on and be pleased about?”
Whatever the answer is (the answer is usually: go to bed, or don’t have another {thing}), I can much more easily do/not do that thing. I forgo instant gratification for long-term happiness (see: The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment). And it’s me who I’m pleasing. No one else. So I’m not following someone else’s rules, which makes it a much easier “rule” to follow.
So this week, when you want to reach for that second {cookie}, or when you’re considering if you should let Netflix autoplay that next 45-minute episode instead of going to bed, ask yourself: “what decision will ‘future me’ be glad I made?”
Don’t do it for anyone else, other than yourself. Well, your future-self.
Digital Diet Update #4
I’m starting to find a bit of a rhythm. As with all habits, the more you do it, the easier they become.
I had five goals with my Digital Diet.
Number four on the list was getting into Flow State more. I’ve found that, realistically, I can only get into a true flow state once or maybe twice a day. I usually use the Pomodoro technique. And some days I never get into Flow.
Flow State is what I’m continuing to focus on as I keep out distractions… Being void of “junk food” in my brain does not mean that filling that void with “healthy greens” is easy. But that’s what I’m aiming for.
Brain.fm has been a super fun, and eerily effective way, to get me into Flow.
I’ll leave you with a quote I’ve been pondering this week…
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
-Bill Gates
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Thanks for reading another week. Your eyes keep my fingers going each Friday.
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Nothin but love,
Brendan J Short