21st Century Thoughts

Following up on the post from a few days ago, I wanted to hit on one key point that applies to everything: Grow Your Assets. It is always about this concept. In any situation in which you are trying to improve, your goal should be to improve your base of skills, knowledge, information, etc. Let's call these your "assets." These assets are what we use to improve our situation and standing wherever we are headed. On an individual basis, the more skills and knowledge you have directly impact opportunity and ability to succeed.  Take yourself for example. These examples are all things you can do to grow "your assets": 1. Learn languages 2. Read novels daily 3. Learn an instrument 4. Learn coding 5. Acquire an advanced degree These are 5 easy examples and there are millions of more options to choose from. From a financial perspective, it is the same concept. Grow net worth, not just cash. Grow everything on your "balance sheet" without a focus on cash.  Wor...

TV advertising is broken. Think about it, there are 3 factors that have changed the landscape of advertising during tv programs: 1. Streaming options. No ad options and no commercials 2. TVO / recording and skipping. Self explanatory. 3. Phones. Every time a commercial comes on, we sit on our phones and go on Twitter.  4. TV is dying among younger generations. We watch sports (barely) and everything else is on other platforms.  No one is watching anymore which means that we need to adjust how we advertise. No one does this better than social media platforms. They immerse you and their ads are within the product. There is no clear distinction between ad or post. Both are equal in the user's eyes. We need to adjust how we look at marketing and advertising for a new generation. Companies are lagging behind and missing the trend. Give the users direct exposure without making distinctions.  One quick note: imagine your phone synced with your TV box and during commercials, it a...

The change from working for money to happiness is a quote that is spoken often but rarely lived. I personally hate it because money can bring happiness in forms of pleasure, security, and opportunity. It can buy the best vacations, tickets, health care, and products the world has to offer. More money can equal a better life but it is more complex than that. Individuals seek more than what they currently have. For example, those who are homeless are working for a job opportunity and a place to stay. Those who are poor want to be middle class, those who are middle class want to be closer to the 1%, etc. This economic cycle mobility is the key to how we look at the balance between money and obsession. The ideal group to study is the group that made their money throughout their life rather than those who inherited or got rich quick. They advanced their way up the ladder by accumulating wealth and working for opportunities / positions. They understand the importance of working for the thing...

I was with a close friend a few days ago talking about "financial scandals." Think the Enron's of the world, or the 2008 bank bailouts that saw CEO's get massive bonuses with financial relief money. Low of the low, scummy, dishonest, etc. There are not words that describe how many lives have been ruined by the concept of money throughout history. Humans will forever be seeking ways to improve their lives at whatever cost necessary.  Do I blame them? Sure, maybe a part of me judges them based on morality. But at the same time, another side of me is secretly accepting that they are brilliant. There are so many intelligent and witty individuals in this world that its naïve to think all of them act for good. We judge everyone through a movie-style lens that says its good vs evil with no grey areas. This is unrealistic for any period of history and will always be the case. Later that day, I re-watched one of my favorite movies, Spider-Man 2 by Sam Raimi. A masterpiece and ...

I recommend the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. No spoilers, but it is a financial literacy book aimed at educating readers on updated methods for achieving wealth. I usually am not a fan of these kinds of "cash grabs" but this is a genuine good read that can improve your financial situation. One change you can make immediately is how we look at situations. Those who are wealthy look at situations with how they can improve and profit rather than those who look at how they can get by. Full disclaimer: the book does not mean that those who are "poor" are homeless or lowest income possible. "Poor" refers to those who are unable to reach high levels of wealth and satisfaction due to how they handle financial literacy. Those who are wealthy look at opportunities rather than problems. This subtle change is the difference between creators and paper pushers. Creating is not easy, nor is it something that happens overnight. It is a mindset change that takes time to implem...

Thoughts I went into our office for the first time yesterday since I started nearly one year ago (I got my one year key chain too slightly early). An overlooked aspect of this whole process is the commuting and time required that is not productive. There were 3 hours a day spent on the wakeup early and shower and pack, train, walking, going to lunch and waiting to be served, heading home, and driving or walking home. These tasks are eliminated by work from home environments. It is free time available instantly. Imagine if companies allowed for those 3 hours to be mandated to studying, learning a skill, or exercise. You could radically alter and improve well-being in the same amount of time. Google did this for years with their "creativity time." They allowed others the chance to use their products and resources to create their own ideas and patent them if they wanted. This can be the model with so many jobs and should be forever.  I fully endorse work from home. You can juggl...

Ted Talks "Body language screams." This quote always stuck with me during my high school and college baseball days. It told you a lot about certain players and their mentalities without ever speaking a word to them. It was the easiest way to get benched or crossed off recruiting lists.  Then I watched 2 Minutes a Day. It discusses the psychological impacts of body language and hand gestures. It brought the quote to life and described way more in depth of how we perceive these actions. Give it a watch and apply it next time when you are with friends. It is fascinating stuff, especially for someone like me who loves politics and speaking persuasion. Sports The NFL is completely upside-down. Good teams continue to lose to teams that have no business being competitive (Bills, Bucs, Cardinals anyone?). In a year where we have 18 weeks and 14 playoff teams, it is only fitting that we have so many routine upsets this year.  Villanova lost in OT to UCLA on Friday. Italy tied 1-1 and ...

There were two interesting topics I wanted to talk about but one will wait for Monday. I settled for us being the product in a new AI world. This concept has been a sci-fi thriller for decades but always seen as "in the distant future with flying cars and alien travel." That reality is now here, or scratching the surface of it. And it has been here for a decade, if you realized it or not. The mid to late 2000's saw two products change the way we interacted with the world: social media and the touchscreen smartphone. Both of these concepts used us, the user, as the product. Social media had no product except the user posting information to other users. The touchscreen allowed us to use our fingers to control the product with apps tailored for us with information about us (photos, contacts, texts). At the time, these two remained separate from each other due to limited capabilities of the mobile phone (first iPhone had no app store, limited web functions, no 3G, etc.) Socia...

Shorter post today due to lack of time and stories.  The message remains from my post 2 weeks ago: ask your crush out. This TED talk has stuck with me and is a metaphor for all areas of your life. Any real return requires a leap of faith. Calculate your risk, gain some courage (not confidence), and go in. You won't live a life of "what-ifs," and that alone is worth the risk.

I haven't played video games in a few years now. Maybe its the age, maybe its the lack of fun, or maybe its because as a kid I never really was allowed to play a lot nor wanted to. It was never a main point of my life and I found other things to do with friends much more enticing.  I remember when apps on the iPhone were a dollar (actually $0.99) and that was a massive payment. I remember that all new video games like Call of Duty were $59.99 at release and you had to save up your money all year for the November launch. These were engrained into every kid and young adults head as a "way of being" in the video game market. Then, it all changed with mobile gaming like Clash of Clans and Fortnite. They were the early pioneers of what I see as "comparative pricing" in regards to video games. Their new model was simple; free to download and play, extra bonuses and features cost money. These features did not affect your ability to play, they just helped you advance fa...

Shorter post, Comcast was down and I do not know when it may crash again. The biggest threat to all establishment institutions today is eliminating the middle man. And yes of course, I know what you are saying, "But everything has a middle man!" Let's look at some of those below: 1. Student Loans 2. Social Media 3. Stock Trading 4. Shopping at a retail store 5. Restaurants When looking at this, everything has a middle man. It's true, there is always someone handling the transaction on your behalf. But not all middle men are the same. Does Uber really feel the same vs buying a stock on Robinhood vs getting a license from the government? (hint: one of these is an outlier). The key is how simple you make it seem. Uber makes you enter the payment, add a few personal traits, and you are off. Robinhood has brought mobile trading to 16 year old's with a Venmo account. But the DMV? Nightmare experience dealing with the process.  This is why crypto is dangerous and all oth...

  Sports The Blackhawks finally won a game after firing Jeremy Colliton. So long overdue. Regardless of what happens the rest of the year, they have now handled everything from the awful sexual abuse claims to bad coaching. Maybe the rest of the games will be watchable again. The Bears play tonight and it's clear that it looks grim. The Steelers are playing well and the Bears, well... you get the picture. The sooner the front office fires themselves and Matt Nagy is one step closer to being competitive as an organization for the first time since the 1940's and 50's. Will I watch a little bit tonight? Of course. Movies  Two very different topics today. Yesterday I watched a few serial killer documentaries and I was baffled by how many of these things exist. Full disclosure, I do not have any streaming services so seeing someone else's TV with 3 or 4 different ones exposed me to so many more shows and movies. It felt like every single option was involving a crime-drama pl...

Politics There was a video trending on Twitter yesterday about a woman who was complaining about milk prices increasing (they are) are alarming rates and that her family is scaling back a lot on food purchases. That led to the tolerant Twitter community mocking and insulting her while basically saying "don't buy as much milk." And here in lies the problem with certain political groups that now exist our in the open: a lack of civility. These same people attempted to torture and "cancel" those who didn't post a black square during the BLM rise in early June 2020. They cried, complained, and then went to the streets to destroy billions of property in communities they didn't live in because of what they felt "wasn't enough action." I would assume that it would be a better strategy to convince her why your candidate will fix those issues and improve her life. Instead of targeting Joe Manchin outside of his home, boat, or car, maybe understand t...

Advice Open any philosophical, religious, or "get rich quick" book and you will find the concept of self-reflection. The concept is easy: after a set period of time, look at yourself and see what you did right and wrong then build for the future. Do not make the same errors twice. Seems easy to do on the surface. This is often misunderstood and misused. Most look at it as a school project, seeing where "points" where lost or earned. You learn, adjust, and move on hoping to not make the same mistakes again. But this negates the most important step: its a constant process. Yes, constant. Every single day, not once in a blue moon. Not after one year or 6 months, daily. The sooner we realize the constant need for fixing and adjusting, the better the results. At the mid point and end point in your day, reflect on what you are doing and what you did. Is it suitable? Did you utilize your 24 hours correctly? Did you waste away the time that you can't get back?  Sports T...

Multiple topics to discuss so here we go: Politics Yesterday was supposed to be a bellwether for the future midterms in 2022 and for the 2024 Presidential race. If you are a Republican, you want those held today. To put it mildly, this was a bloodbath of historic proportions. Forget any 2010 Tea Party waves or the 2018 Democrat Suburban Midterm backlash against Trump, this was an onslaught. Conventional wisdom has always held that in high turnout races, Democrats win. Considering Republican wave years in 2010, 2014, and 2016 were on the lower end and 2008 and 2018 were historic turnout, many considered yesterday to be the same. They were dead wrong. The big prize is the VA Governor race. In a historic (3.3+ million vote!) turnout, Republicans won the VA House and Governorship shift with a 12 pt. shift to the right. In New Jersey, Republicans have flipped a bunch of State House seats, AG races, and (probably) lost the Governorship by just 1 pt., a 15 pt. swing to the right (again high t...

No blog, had a wake and funeral this morning. Tomorrow will be a recap of the VA Gov. race and my thoughts on crypto markets... for now, buy Catgirl Coin asap. It's still early.

The belief in the United States is the balance of political power will always be present. Throughout our history, the opposing party has never been "wiped out" so bad in an election that their party's future is destroyed. Just take a look at my lifetime: 1. Republicans won solid majorities in the early 2000's and the White House in 2004 2. Democrats won supermajorities in both chambers and the White House in 2008 3. Republicans won majorities in the House in 2010, Senate in 2014, and held all 3 in 2016 4. Democrats won back the House in 2018 and hold a narrow majority in 2020 5. Early indicators on the 2022 midterms seem to have Republicans roaring back to power in 2 of the 3 chambers This trend is not unusual. Despite the most popular Presidents in the US's history helping their party for sometimes 10-12 years (think FDR, Kennedy, Reagan), the opposing party comes back strong.  I heard the phrase "don't worry, the pendulum always sways back." But wi...