RATLINKS: BITS AND PIECES
The problem is all inside your head, she said to me
the answer is easy if you take it logically
¡Bienvenido al verano!
Thank you to everyone who took inspiration from last month’s RATLINKS: MASTER AND COMMANDER and began their journey to learn a new skill.
If you haven’t started your path to mastery don’t sweat it
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago or today. — Chinese Proverb
The overwhelming response from last month’s loyal readers was to develop artistic talents.
Remember - anything can be art. Just pick a medium and follow your heart.
still crazy after all these years
With the 21st century now in its third decade, demographics are becoming more complicated. Millennials, individuals born 1981-1996, are now dividing into two cohorts, young and old.
Old millennials are more likely to be settling down, starting a family, and telling the world about it on Instagram.
Young millennials are more likely to code, crush white claws and send nudes via Snapchat.
Recently the bifurcation of millennials created quite the kerfuffle. A medium post about geriatric millennials, people born between 1981-1985 led to a deluge of harassment across the internet.
While the term geriatric millennial may be triggering, it seems these people may be best positioned to lead teams that will thrive in the new hybrid workplace.
Geriatric millennials are valuable because they have a varied skill set to refer to — one that lets them cater to the needs of people with different degrees of understanding of (and patience for) the digital world. — Erica Dahwan
MARE OF FLAVORTOWN
As a respected geriatric millenial, I was afforded the opportunity to dine with two mares in one week. First was dinner with Francis Suarez, the current mayor of Miami and VC heartthrob, followed by a bbq-fest hosted by none other than the mayor of Flavortown, Guy Fieri.
At an intimate dinner, Mayor Suarez discussed his governing philosophy, his ongoing goal to make Miami a tech hub, and how he works to unite people across the three political parties: democrats, republicans, and mayors.
Guy Fieri's style is to show not tell, and that is why he remains one of America’s favorite mayors. Appearing on stage at yet another campaign stop, Guy brought the heat while flanked by security, mainly his son Hunter. Then rolling out to sign hats, kiss babies, and wave to his adoring fans.
No wonder Guy is more beloved than ever! Remaining Flavortown’s longest-serving mayor, stepping in to replace Mayor McCheese, after his much-publicized embezzlement incident involving the hamburgler.
FOR ART’S SAKE
Eli Broad, an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur and one of the greatest contemporary art collectors passed away last month at age 87. Broad built two Fortune 500 companies from scratch, home builder Kaufman & Broad, now known as KB Home, a home-construction colossus, and SunAmerica which sold to AIG for $18 billion in 1997.
Eli Broad described his style as the “Art of Being Unreasonable”
Being unreasonable, he said, was the key to his success, because he had huge ambitions, the confidence to “ignore people who said I couldn’t do it” and the discipline to avoid wasting time on lengthy debates.
One example was his last name, originally spelled Brod and pronounced like the slang term for a woman. This opened the young Eli to incessant teasing that quickly grew tiresome, so in junior high, he added an “a” to his last name and told people “Broad, rhymes with ‘road.’” While Some of the name-callings continued, “…it didn’t really sting anymore. I had changed myself.”
Mr. Broad argued that being unreasonable didn’t mean being irrational and was occasionally willing to learn from his critics. Throughout his life, he took on many challenges including reshaping the landscape of Los Angeles and helping build LACMA, LA’s contemporary art museum, and The Broad, which houses his vast personal collection.
“Ask yourself two questions before you take on a risk: What do I have to lose? And what’s the worst that can happen?” — Eli Broad
no I would not give you false hope on this strange and mournful day
The practical reality is that any present-tense version of the world is unstable. What we currently consider to be true—both objectively and subjectively—is habitually provisional. — Chuck Klosterman
2021 has proven that anything can happen just for the sake of happening. UFOs have been proven to exist and the world yawned. However, the mere mention of cryptocurrency begins a spirited debate.
To level-set, a currency is designed to serve three functions:
Medium of exchange
Unit of account
Store of value
Crypto began in earnest in early 2009, when a person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto released a white paper entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are modern-day abstractions of money that provide a new technical underpinning through a ledger system known as the blockchain.
At present Bitcoin is referred to as a “currency”, but only serves two purposes, a unit of account and a store of value, one whose price has been rapidly rising. Making it difficult and potentially unwise to use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. Yet that doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. Bitcoin is currently trading at a value of roughly $35,000 starting the year at $29,000 and touching an all-time high in April at $64,829.
While Bitcoin has been one of the best investments this decade. It is not the best-performing asset this year. That asset is a cryptocurrency, but a different coin, one with a picture of a dog on it known as Dogecoin has returned 6,700% year to date.
Dogecoin rocketed this year due to celebrity endorsements from celebrity hype from the likes of Snoop Dogg and a phenomenon known as The Lindy Effect.
The Lindy Effect is a theory by which the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things, like a technology or an idea, is proportional to their current age.
— Nassim Taleb
Dogecoin was created in 2013 and is 8 in doge years. As a geriatric crypto, this one-time joke coin is now freely tradeable on almost every crypto trading platform. Allowing for doge to be available to any buyer serious or not. Interest in Doge peaked in early May when Elon Musk aka the “dogefather” hosted SNL because in 2021 a tech CEO hosting a late-night comedy variety show should move markets.
Rather than add credibility SNL was the equivalent of doge jumping the shark. Investors began to move into a new coin, one called Shiba Inu, which is a derivation of dogecoin, a joke coin of a joke coin.
While Shiba Inu may be a joke it held real value, allowing for one of the largest donations in history.
Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of the crypto network Ethereum, donated more than $1 billion worth of Shiba Inu to a relief fund to combat the spread of Covid-19 in India. Mr. Buterin came into his Shiba Inu holding in a fairly unorthodox manner. The coin’s creators gave it to him, sending half the supply they created to a wallet controlled by Mr. Buterin. Mr. Buterin then sent some 50.7 trillion Shiba Inu coin to an account associated with the India Covid-Crypto Relief Fund.
the nearer your destination the more you're slip-sliding away
As the year continues one constant remains - things will happen. Many of these events will be out of your control, confusing, or illogical. It is worth stopping to reflect as success often leads businesses and individuals to fail to notice change or to adapt to it, and so, eventually, to falter.1
Once you’ve internalized the concept that you can’t prove anything in absolute terms, life becomes all the more about odds, choices, and trade-offs. In a world without provable truths, the only way to refine the probabilities that remain is through greater knowledge and understanding. — Secretary Robert Rubin
There is a direct connection between happiness and the amount of personal control we attain. One piece of advice is to never make decisions on your best day, and never make your decisions on your worst day. Make all your decisions on medium days.2
The only place people find fulfillment is within themselves. And too often, that’s the last place they look.3