21st Century Thoughts

Going to attempt to write a book in 30 days. Not saying it will be great but I think I have an idea to how to make it happen. 1,667 words a day for 30 days is very doable. Blogs will continue to since I want these to be snapshots in time. I am honestly writing to be able to say "I am a novelist" in social settings. Let's see where it goes and get it published.

Does the world actually change? Or do we just go through a recycling of historic events? The events concerning Russia and the Ukraine prove that years may pass but human behavior remains primitive. We as humans rarely change. Our habits, our goals, our complaints, all revert back over time. Technology may improve and social standards adjust but the core behavior never changes.  On a more happy note, I watched a great TedEx episode talking about finding your passion in 10 minutes. Fill out these pillars below and connect them to find your passion: 1. Your dreams and goals as a kid 2. Your best quality or trait 3. Your friends' actions traits 4. What makes you excited or "giddy" 5. How you look at what you love After connecting, the inside of your shape is your passion or driver. We all have something driving us to get up each day. It is a matter of finding that passion and keeping it at the forefront. 

Spend trillions, shut down restaurants, collect limited taxes, destroy the economy. Then when inflation is high and assets are over-inflated, create a foreign crisis and blame it on that hoping to unify everyone and take their mind off of the awful conditions domestically. That does not work anymore. The country is too divided with a struggling economy and negative outlook to pretend to make people care deeply about other issues. Putin, an evil man, is playing our government like a marionette everyday. We are aware of it. 81 million voted for Biden to stop it. Yeah... Moral of the story is hold your assets and keep buying. The foreign crisis playbook is overplayed and should not divert our attention from rampant inflation, low labor force participation rates, crime surging, illegal crossings up on our border, a drug crisis, and a pandemic. Strong leaders would be able to get us out of this. We do not have one and the world is more dangerous for it. Hold, Hold, Hold and do not fall for ...

If a vase falls and breaks into 100 pieces, we all agree that it is broken. If you glue it back together, is it fixed or still broken? The cracks will always remain as a reminder to what happened but the functionality has returned. The same concept can be applied to a garden. A garden and nature symbolize growth and new beginnings, but they also show what plants died there before. A reminder of the past despite new life. Interesting perspective to start the day. 

Look at ARK and the market... it doesn't matter. "Optimal Portfolios" worked 40 years ago, not now. Pick your blue-chips and cryptos and hope it becomes a meme stock to make some extra cash. There is no reason to hold 50 stocks anymore. It is a waste of capital.

Busy day so today is a simple question: what is happiness for you? For most people? Do we have the same idea of happiness?

The best and worst feature of the online age is speed. The ability to get news as it happens is incredible and avoids having to wait until the TV news cast is on or the next day paper. It helps avoid issues where crime is occurring, turns our attention to important events, and shares positivity in our daily life. But it has turned into a force for disruption and separation. Every argument on social media is not based in logic but rather who can reply quick and effective in 160 characters. It has ruined public discourse, ruined the ability to sit down and debate, and ruined attention spans. The concept has made our collective critical thinking "dumber."  Our politicians are now judged on their online presence. Our arguments are based on witty comments. And it reflects in our current state of education in this country.

I watched my mom struggle to change her United flight after a 1 hour call with their customer service. The other person lived outside of the US and had no idea about the policy to change it. Here begs the question: older people struggled and continue to struggle with technology change. They did not grow up with any of it so the change is major. But yet again, we did not grow up with smartphones and how did we learn? Will we be this way one day? My mom can do this all online in 5-10 minutes but refuse to change how they did things in the 1980's. For me, this is a metaphor for everything. To become rich, you have to think outside of how you have your entire life. Calculated change is needed for advancement. 

I want to format this correctly with highs and lows because I am lazy. These things all stood out to me in one way or another. Highs: - Close score. The last 5 minutes mattered in determining a winner. Good for advertisers. - Cryto dominated the talk. It is the future and the biggest stage in TV saw it headline the show. - Any Sopranos appearance makes me happy. - No masks. Not one in sight. November should be a blood bath if parents do not forgot how miserable politicians have made our lives for 2 years. Yesterday was hypocrisy to the max.  - Good graphics, commentary, weather. The scene behind it all was perfect and it made LA not feel like an overcrowded, homeless, and dirty city for 4 hours (blame the politicians). Lows: - The Bengals sucked. Honestly, they were not the 2nd best team. I could think of 3 teams that would have been a better matchup (Bucs, Bills, 49er's) on the big stage. The Rams let them have it and the Bengals still lost. Brutal. - For the first time, I felt li...

Interesting concept of "quitting" that is true for all forms of habits. It takes 2 weeks before your brain gets accustomed to something. This means if you want to quit smoking, you need 2 weeks to fully start to change and it gets much easier. Learn a skill? 2 weeks. Diet correctly? 2 weeks before you are truly engaged in it. I would love to know the "why" behind this. Why can we not switch quicker? What prevents it from happening? If a company was engulfed in a scandal, you could stop buying products immediately. Why are our brains different? What changes when we choose not to shop at a store vs quitting smoking. Dopamine is a heck of a drug that is present when we play video games, eat certain foods, or talk with certain people. So why are habits different to break?

Hope you didn't sell as most of my portfolio is back to 80-90% of its all time high. Give it 6 months and I will soar to new highs. I am fully convinced every market downturn is manufactured to transfer more assets from the poor to the rich. The rich never sell (why would they?) and prey on those who buy into the panic scares. Same thing happening with Crypto. Buy the dips please. Also an interesting note that I can not explain: Apple's pricing with iPads. I know for years they have wanted to phase out iPads yet they continue to sell even as the tablet market shrinks. So why price them at the same price as a Mac? Is this effective and how well does each sell at this price? I do not have access to their analytics but would love to see a breakdown of these along with the why...

Not much business news that I wanted to highlight but "The Science" is now dropping all mask mandates in blue states. Maybe they see the wave growing but its too late. Have fun in November! Let's get through this week. Cold weather and work but brighter days await.

Interesting article about Tinder dropping "age-based pricing." If you were of a certain age, features cost more compared to those who were younger, despite functionality being the exact same. Unethical? Sure, especially since it is being done in secret. If they were open about it, it would be perfectly legal as far as I am concerned (think Senior pricing and discounts to certain groups of people such as military).  How many companies do you think do this? I bet a ton that you do not even realize are. All analytics based to maximize their profits. Another reason to get off of social media based apps while you still can as this community is toxic.

"Misinformation" seems to be the trend of the past 5 years. "Fact-Checkers" have become the normal all over social media when discussing an article from any medium. It is nauseating. Spoiler: there are no fact checkers, only propagandists. If the media was fair, we wouldn't need articles to be "fact-checked" every day. But because we have one side dominate traditional media, the country is divided on what to trust given traditional media is biased. This is not a "right-wing talking point" either, it is a fact. Given the rise of figures such as Joe Rogan, people want news and answers. They want to know things are better than they are. But that doesn't sell newspaper copies both virtually and in print. In the age of social media, we can see instantly what happened. The news can not longer deceptively edit to fit their agenda. It is pure, unfiltered media. Good. As trust in media declines and ratings continue to bottom out, what is next for ...

It never changes for weather, person, or country. We all get it. Whenever you are feeling down, remember you, Bill Gates, Ghandi, and Elon Musk all have the same time in their arsenal. What will you do with yours? Go get something done.

Why stress over promotions and titles? If you chase a paycheck, sure. Make your time count more. Money should be a byproduct of what you do, not the driver. This is the exact reason people are unhappy around the world. Its a scary cycle to follow. Forced to school for 18 years > get a job where you are underpaid > chase promotions to pay off bills > always fall short of where you can be and be miserable. That cycle is deadly and toxic. Escape it. Create something. Or get off the phone and live your life.

The Midwest getting crushed with snow and rain for 40 straight hours is typical for morale during Groundhog day. Just say 6 more weeks and save making the poor animal come out of his home... The market is rebounding... slightly? More just Apple really... but that will be our future for a short while. Rates rising, liquidity down. Blue-chip profits since the only splurging people take part in will be on products that matter long term (technology). I always hated economics for this reason. The concepts were dumb. I know this isn't a well-thought out argument, but I can not word it different. They assumed rational behavior when humans are irrational. Every theory can be disproved by the past 2 years of COVID. Stimulus checks were not invested, spending on luxury items did not decrease, and we did not substitute our food choices for cheaper options. Money was flying into the economy thanks to the FED and every theory is wrong. Supply / Demand may be the only concept I agree with. All e...