Oil Tanks, Compound Effects & "Time To Build"
Happy Friday, Y’all!
Hope it’s been a great week. Filled with walks around your neighborhood. And catching up on the latest Netflix show that everyone’s talking about.
Here are the five things I chewed on this week. I hope one or two of them are interesting to you…
It’s Time to Build
Marc Andreesson (a top VC) published an article that is probably his most prominent, since his “Why Software is Eating the World” piece. His latest article caused a polarized reaction. I, for one, found it highly inspiring.
When the producers of HBO’s “Westworld” wanted to portray the American city of the future, they didn’t film in Seattle or Los Angeles or Austin — they went to Singapore. We should have gleaming skyscrapers and spectacular living environments in all our best cities at levels way beyond what we have now; where are they?
Our nation and our civilization were built on production, on building… There is only one way to honor their legacy and to create the future we want for our own children and grandchildren, and that’s to build.
If there’s one link you click/read this week, it’s this one:
All Roads Lead to ~Rome~ Paul Graham
I’ve gone down a lot of rabbit trails this week. And many of them, somehow, lead back to Paul Graham. Articles, videos, and even phone conversations. I can’t express enough, his wisdom on startups.
Here are the two essays that I enjoyed the most:
How to get Startup Ideas (excerpt below)
Live in the future, then build what's missing.
How to Twitter
Hilariously, a couple buddies and I are trying to “learn how to use Twitter”. And I came across a YouTube “Webinar” with a clickbait-y name: “How to Crush it on Twitter”. It turned out to be super helpful in thinking about marketing in general. Ie: Who is your audience? What are you saying? Why are you consuming/producing content in the first place?
Probably not worth watching the whole thing, tbh. But if you do, scroll to 1-hour in, and listen to their discussion about this slide:
Oil, Tanks
Section from Robinhood; title is mine ;)
In 2008, oil hit a record high of $140 a barrel — it has hovered not too far from an average of $70 ever since. That is, until the corona-conomy came for its head.
(Monday), the price of a barrel plunged from about $17 to less than $1. Oil officially gained 99 Cents Store status. Then... things got worse.
Oil plunged below zero and went negative for the first time ever. The price of the futures contract for West Texas Crude fell to negative $38 a barrel.
The Compound Effect
The concept of compounding effects is a fascinating one. It’s hard to grasp. And harder to take advantage of. Humans want short-term gratification. And not willing to sacrifice upside in the short-term, for higher upside in the longer-term. It is a risk.
But remember: Patience is a Virtue.
Last week I said to get better, you should observe the greats in your respective field. I had someone reply with an amazing “pushback”.
I cannot agree more with their stance, so figured I’d share:
Catch y’all next week!
And in the meantime, check out where your state falls on the Rt tracking.
Cheers,
Brendan J Short
Love the emails. Great job!