Ratlinks: June 2019 - Issue #6
Why I quit social media | Aziz Ansari Live in Brooklyn | Tale from a Wall Street Legend
Welcome back and Happy Memorial Day.
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, the kick-off of summer driving season and a weekend that I once ruined with my birth.
I would like to extend a thank all of our Military readers for their service. As well as wish a happy 96th Birthday to Former U.S. Secretary of State and potential RatLinks reader, Henry Kissinger (May 27, 1923).
Preamble
This month I removed social media from my life.
To clarify. I still have my accounts but deleted the apps off my phone.
Why you ask?
Evan, I loved your stories! It made me think you were always on vacation. (I wasn’t unless you stalked my account and saw a bunch of years travels compressed into a short timeline)
Evan if you do things and don’t post about it, are you still doing things? (Yes)
Management guru, Peter Drucker once said “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
As a result, I set an in-app alert which measured that I was spending about 30 minutes a day on Instagram.
While 30 minutes a day sounds innocuous.
Time has a tendency to compound:
30 minutes a day,
becomes 3.5 hours a week.
3.5 hours a week,
turns into 14 hours a month.
14 hours a month,
equates to 7 days a year.
By this math, in 2018, I roughly spent a full week on Instagram. I was on pace to do the same in 2019.
Stepping back I wondered what good did this provide me. So I shut it off.
The first day I found myself mindlessly unlocking my phone and attempting to open a non existent app.
By day three, my phone dependence dissipated. Rather than using my phone to fill an idle pause in my day, I began to focus on being present and notice my surroundings .
Soon the background noise fades and focus returns.
By paying attention to what you pay attention to. You begin to listen more, pick up on what you might have missed, and better piece things together.
Then like magic you are getting more done.
List out and then measure distractions in your life. Then work to limit these distractions. Then you too can become a better more focused and productive version of yourself.
Please note: if you see something funny on the internet feel free to text or email it to me. I still like memes.
Book Recommendation
This month I read Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. Chris is a former FBI hostage negotiator and teaches the art of negotiating from a practical perspective. I would suggest the audio version of this book. The first chapter is a real life version of the movie the Inside Man.
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
A former international hostage negotiator for the FBI offers a new, field-tested approach to high-stakes negotiations—whether in the boardroom or at home.
As always, you can see all the books I am reading here.
Podcast Worth Highlighting
Google Podcasts - Invest Like the Best - Josh Wolfe – The Tech Imperative - [Invest Like the Best, EP.130] -PODCASTS.GOOGLE.COM
Josh Wolfe is a leading venture capitalist at Lux Capital and a fantastic forward thinker. If you don’t have the time to listen to the entire podcast listen to these highlights:
10:22 – The concept of ill-liquidity
14:53 – Thoughts on the types of companies going public
16:41 – Most innovative business models - TurboChef example
Article of Interest
My wife and I joke about the difficulties of life in the mid 1990s. Hardships like, leaving a friend a message about tonight’s plans on their answering machine. Only to have that person respond the next day, saying its a shame she would have loved to get together, but was not home to retrieve the message.
This article is written by Caity Weaver, born 1990, about living life for a week like it was 1994.
1994 Was a Prison of My Own Making -NYTIMES.COM
We tend to recall the past not on its own merits but in terms of what it lacked in retrospect. Virtually the entire period of planetary existence is lumped into the condescending unit “before Christ.”
A few choice selections:
Fun part
The author relies solely on a 1994 Zagat guide to make restaurant reservations.
“The majority of numbers just rang forever, although one call was answered with the confusing but chipper greeting “Hello, ‘Live’!” I had dialed a Chilean restaurant from 1994, and had reached an employee of “Live with Kelly and Ryan” at her desk.
Interesting section
The author forgets her notebook with the address for a meeting:
Apart from my initially cacophonous inner monologue, plus an hourslong stretch while looking for the phone booths when I could not stop thinking about the 1950 Lionel Hampton rendition of “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus,” my mind was dead quiet for the majority of 1994. I wasn’t bored. I was just thinking in a very straightforward way about whatever I happened to be doing at that moment.
Out of this silence, out of some long-since-condemned corner of my hippocampus, the address surfaced. I was startled. I’d assumed my memory was an oubliette. All this time it was actually a sunken living room with built-in custom storage?
Comedy Review
Aziz Ansari: Road to Nowhere Tour
Brooklyn Academy of Music
5/18/19 10:30 PM
A masterful performance by the “Master of None”
Before the curtain rose, the ever present cameramen forced almost all discussion towards what streaming network will air this special. Any attempt to debate this point were cut short as Aziz took the stage. Before even welcoming the crowd he said “These cameras are filming for Netflix. YOU may be featured in the special unless YOU are a shitty audience.”
For roughly an hour and a half, Aziz performed a diverse routine touching on a myriad of difficult topics. Working through racism, local dialectics to his prior specials not aging well, especially bits about R. Kelly and even touching on Alzheimer’s. Yes he covers his #metoo controversy as well.
Aziz is a deft impressionist and armchair cultural psychologist. Going into great depth to highlight that every generation goes through their own shit, but finds a way to work through it. Aziz’s ability to draw laughs while also making the audience realize their own behavior is not always perfect is elevated to a near art form.
A big part of the show (and this issue) is about power of being present. During the show no one had access to their phones. Upon entering the venue every person surrendered their phones into a locked bag.
The venue’s lounge housed designated cell phone area. The equivalent to a modern day smoking lounge. Where an attendant would unlock your bag allowing you to access your phone. We have really progressed since 1994.
Tale From A Legend of Wall Street
I was at a local wall street watering hole when a wall street legend came in, sat down and laid this gem of a tale on us.
I am retelling this to you not just because it is a good story. This story is a gift to you. Feel free to replace any and all of the characters and retell it as your own.
To keep the story quasi-anonymous we will refer to this gentleman as Mr. Smith. There is no time table on this story, based on details it likely happened in the mid-1970s.
One afternoon, Mr. Smith finishes a round golf.
At the end of any round he normally has multiple drinks, but upon finishing his first drink he feels ill. After a few days of being unable to drink, he gets concerned and goes to a doctor.
“I ran a blood test and I think you have hepatitis. We need to figure out which type of hepatitis you have - Type A or B.”
“When was the last time you ate shellfish?” the doctor says
I am allergic to shrimp.” Mr Smith replied
“If that is the case I am going to rule out Hep A which is usually caused by shellfish” says the doctor
“Mr Smith I have a serious question. Are you spending time with hookers?”
“I may not be the most upstanding guy, but no I am not.” Mr Smith responds
The doctor then asks again “Are you sure you aren’t spending time with hookers? That’s how Hep B is usually contracted”
“No.” Mr. Smith again responds
“Well you have Hep B for which there is no cure. Over time the virus will weaken and you will feel better.
However, you have another issue. You can’t let your wife know you have Hep B because of the whole hooker thing.”
What happened next, would today be deemed a gross violation of HIPPA laws. Yet, HIPPA didn’t exist at the time.
How do I know HIPPA didn’t exist?
Maybe, because this whole episode occurred before Hep C was even discovered (1989).
The doctor tells Mr. Smith to go home and tell his wife that he has Hep A. He will then call Mrs. Smith to say that she and the kids need to come in for an immunization. When they come in I will explain to them “Daddy has Hep A” give them some sort of fugazi injection and send them on their way.
A few weeks later Mr. Smith is strung up at home sick in bed. To pass time he watches quiz shows, that way if he falls asleep midway he can wake up and resume watching without feeling like he missed anything.
After dozing off, Mr Smith wakes up in the middle of an episode of TattleTales where Sammy Davis Jr is on a panel with a Hollywood starlet. Mr. Smith says out loud to no one, “I need to call her, we had some fun a few weeks ago.”
At this point the host, who based on my cursory research is likely to be none other than Bob Barker, says to the Starlet “how are things” to which she replies:
Been better. I’m finally getting over that dang hepatitis.
Thanks for reading.
Until Next Month.