Most of you know by now that Datorama (the software company where I work) was recently acquired by Salesforce. The exact value of the deal was not disclosed, but the internet will peg it somewhere between $800 and $850 million. Whatever the exact amount, it’s a pretty remarkable outcome after only 6 years in business. I joined about 3.5 years ago and feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to partake.

I’ve been thinking about this milestone for the last few weeks and thought I’d share a few musings.

It’s all about the people

This is a huge cliche. But the thing about cliches is that they become cliches because they’re true. There are two specific things about the people at Datorama that come to mind when I say “it’s all about the people.”

First, it’s so much fun to work with A players. It’s easy to grind and work late nights when you’re in the trenches with A players. You know, without question, that they are giving just as much, if not more. You never have to worry about their level of preparation. Their competence, desire, passion, and commitment are sure things.

Second, A players stick together. Of the first 100 people (I was around #40), I’d estimate that higher than 50% previously worked with one of the founders or early employees at a previous company or spent time together in the Israel Defense Forces. Because real A players are so hard to find, you keep them close once you find them. I can safely say that if our founders start another company together in the future, I’d have to seriously consider joining them for round 2.

Frugality

Our founders and management team are incredibly frugal. We never spent much on advertising or sponsoring events. The snacks in our office don’t compete with other Silicon Valley kitchens. We’ve always subleased out empty seats in our offices, that is, when we weren’t sublease tenants ourselves. We maintain strong unit economics. We hire responsibly.

Startups are hard

I think the frugality has something to do with a recognition about how hard it is to do what we did. We count our lucky stars every day for having come as far as we’ve come, and we are by no means guaranteed continued success. As such, financial responsibility is a must.

Further, 0 to however many millions in 6 years is 🍌! But it didn’t always feel like that on the inside. We had quarters when revenue targets were missed. We had periods of increasing churn. We lost tons of deals.

Even many crazy unicorns out there don’t have purely “up and to the right” stories. Slack was founded via a pivot from a failed gaming company. Airbnb came from the founders needing extra cash to pay rent. When they launched out SXSW, they got 2 bookings. Then they apparently lived on cereal while being turned down by a series of investors, before finally being accepted into Y Combinator.

Basically every single startup will face challenging times. It’s part of the journey.

Tailwinds

Because things are so hard, I find that it’s best to pick companies with tailwinds. I found out about Datorama via a chance email from a recruiter. Complete luck. But when I met with the VP of sales and saw the platform, I immediately recognized tailwinds.

The ways to advertise online are too numerous to count. There’s an investment bank called Luma Partners that releases a market map of all of the different companies involved in digital advertising. The map went from about 100 logos 8 years ago to having over 7,000 companies now. Thus the challenge facing people trying to reach an audience online has gotten exponentially harder. Thus, I felt fairly confident that the need for a platform to deal with all of the resulting data would increase over time, and at a pretty healthy clip.

Additionally, many of the early customers were some of the largest and most complex advertising organizations on the planet.

So if you’re planning to take a bet on an early stage company, looking for tailwinds seems prudent.

The why

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there needs to be a why if you’re planning to give so much of yourself for something. And I’m not talking about the highfalutin “what impact am I having on the world” type of why. That’s all good and well, but I’m talking about the more pragmatic type of why. For me, it comes down to two things.

I’m a fan of learning. And there’s no better place to learn than a high growth technology company. As a team and an individual, you’re constantly forced outside your comfort zone and it’s learn & adapt or die.

Further, I hope to build and lead an important technology company of my own in the not too distant future (the wheels may or may not be in motion as we speak). So I am being a sponge to everything happening around me and what it takes to scale a company, hire incredible people, iterate quickly, and the like.

So that’s all I have for you. And to be clear, all the credit goes to our founding team and all the thanks to our customers for placing their trust in us. But hopefully you’ll find these thoughts somewhat helpful.

Business & Money

Here’s the S&P over the last 5 years.

It’s up 71.56% over that span. That time frame happens to be roughly the same amount of time that I’ve been actively investing in public equities. And while my returns are significantly higher than that, I wanted to post that picture as a reminder to myself that I’m not smart or special.

You can see what I mean if you look at the following picture that shows the performance of the market during your teens and twenties from 2 different vantage points: if you were born in 1950 vs 1970.

I’m eager to say how things shake out when we hit some real volatility.

Human Progress

There are certain companies that have grown to become core parts of our communication infrastructure. To be specific, I’m thinking about Fedex, UPS, and other mail carriers.

Similarly, on the internet, there are certain companies that have grown to become core parts of our digital communication infrastructure. Here I’m thinking about social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

In the first example, carriers have some responsibility for what’s sent in the mail. They have certain safeguards and protocols in place to screen for explosives, narcotics, and other nefarious items.

In the second, we have a scenario where the platforms try to abstain from taking responsibility for what’s sent via their platforms.

Would we allow for mail carriers to say, “we are not responsible for what’s sent; we just provide delivery services.”

I’m not sure that would hold water.

Philosophy

People spend so much time trying to think about how they can make a difference. They ask,

“What can I do that really matters? How can I have an impact?”

But I worry that often times people don’t think about the impact that they actually have.

Every time you smile at someone or hold the door for a pregnant mother. Every time you give up your seat for the elderly man on the subway or give an unexpected compliment to the barista at Starbucks. Or the flip side, when you throw a wrapper on the ground or yell at someone for cutting you off.

What you do every day and how you live has an impact. I think people just need to decide what type of impact they want to have on the world and the people around them.

My Latest Discovery

I’m really pumped to watch General Magic!

Business & Money

My team recently lost a deal at work to a competitor. The frustrating part is that the prospect falls square in the center of our ideal customer profile. We have a ton of case studies that speak to why our technology is specifically built for this type of customer and how other similar companies have been successful. But it didn’t matter. We were told that the decision solely came down to price.
We do not compete on price. And that’s for good reason. To lower our price would be to devalue the platform and service we provide. And that’s particularly true when the point of comparison is apples to oranges.

Further, we came to the table very late in the evaluation, so it’s unclear whether we were truly being considered, or if we were being used for leverage in a negotiation.

So it’s easy to say that there’s not much we could have done in this situation. But the easy way out doesn’t provide much learning. And it’s a bit intellectually dishonest.

When I shop for undershirts, I generally buy Hanes because they are the cheapest. There are usually other options from Polo Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, but we’re talking undershirts. It doesn’t matter the brand because they serve a very utilitarian purpose. Just catch sweat and keep me comfortable.

When I buy jeans, I tend to pay up. Cheap ones rip and don’t fit well. So the value of more expensive brands has been proven to me on multiple occasions, and thus warrant more investment.

So to say that we lost on price is to say that we did not do a good enough job at communicating the value and differentiation of our software. I’ll be spending some time this week with the team to pull this one apart, dissect our process step-by-step, and try to see what there is to be learned. Perhaps there’s some small stone to be turned that might help us in a future situation.

Human Progress

You’ve likely seen the following series of charts before:

It represents a long-running research study conducted by the Pew Research Center that shows the distance between the median Democratic voter and the median Republican voter.

Here’s a time-lapse version:

In 94′ and 04′ you see something akin to a bell curve or normal distribution with a ton of overlap between the Republican and Democratic electorate.

In 17′ you see two distinct peaks, what’s known as a bimodal distribution.

The interesting thing to point out here is the total area of the different colors. Red is purely Republican, Blue is Democrat, and purple area represents the overlap.

When you have the normal distribution, the overlapping purple area is larger than the aggregate of the red area + blue area. That allows for relatively centrist politics.

But when the purple area is smaller than the aggregate of red + blue, a centrist politician cannot win a nomination or an election.

In 2016 we whipsawed to the far right, and perhaps we swing to the other extreme in 2020. But neither result seems ideal.
And the scary part is, because the center cannot hold, this divide is likely to continue getting wider and wider as we swing back and forth from one extreme to the other.

I’m not sure I want to see how this movie ends.

Philosophy

If you’ve ever spent a good amount of time in New York City, you’ve likely seen those long lines of young school children walking on the sidewalk. Kids need to burn energy, so I imagine these kids are heading to parks and/or playgrounds for recess.

What I love about this site is that all of the kids are usually paired up and holding hands. So you get little white kids, black kids, Spanish kids, Indian kids, Asian kids, and kids of all colors and creeds holding hands making their way through the craziness that is a New York City sidewalk (I’m not sure that I want this experience for my kids, but that’s a topic for another day).

Where else in the world do you get that? I’m sure that are a few other places, but I’m convinced that this experience must be incredibly formative for these kids.

What if everyone in your office walked to lunch together holding hands? Might you feel differently about the weird IT guy or the quiet office admin?

I think that something about human contact brings you closer to other people. It’s one reason I’m a huge fan of high-fives and fist bumps in the office to celebrate small wins.

My Latest Discovery

I usually try to surface something interesting or useful in this section. However, this week I watched such a terrible movie, that I must warn you so that you don’t meet the same fate. Whatever you do, DO NOT watch Netflix’s “How It Ends.”

Business & Money

I loved this shot from the earth official Instagram page.

It reminded me a bit of what I do when we hire new salespeople. Shortly after they’re hired, I’ll pass them a deal that is 60% of the way closed. I’ve already identified the customer need, ensured that budget is available, and have all of the right people involved in the conversation. All that’s left do is execute the final 40% and get ink on paper.

After each meeting, we’ll debrief on what went well, what could have been improved, and other ways we might have handled particular things.

The new seller writes the follow-up email, but we sit down and review together before sending to the prospect.

It’s not quite as dramatic as what the Cheetah does with her cub, but I think it’s a similar idea.

There’s much to be learned from mother nature.

Human Progress

Something interesting is happening. Employees at Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft have launched a petition to discourage their companies from bidding on Pentagon contracts.

“We are tech industry employees concerned about the lack of accountability, accuracy, and safety in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in offensive capabilities of the U.S. Military. Many of us signing this petition are faced with ethical decisions in the design and development of technology on a daily basis. We cannot ignore the moral responsibility of our work. We believe that tech companies should not be in the business of war, and that we as tech workers must adopt binding ethical standards for the use of AI that will let us build the world we believe in.”

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for employee activism and for taking ethical/moral stands. But I think it’s important to point a couple things out.

First off, tech is pervasive. It’s not simply an industry, but rather it is quickly becoming the underpinning of every industry. The large tech companies technically sophisticated, flush with cash, and vacuums for the world’s best talent. To think that those resources and capabilities should not be extended to government an defense seems a bit naive.

And combine that with the fact that technological supremacy is a two horse race, with China closing fast. The Chinese government not only has the full support of its leading technology companies, you might even say it controls them. So withholding our best tech from Washington in a country founded on human rights and civil liberties seems to fly in the face of the moral argument being made in the first place. How much will morals and ethics be worth when China leads the world militarily, technologically, and economically?

Perhaps we’ll find out.

Philosophy

Anjunadeep is a deep house record label and one of my favorites. There were in NYC this past weekend for a show at the Brooklyn Mirage. The excitement and anticipation that I had been building up over the last few months were palpable. And yet, my expectations were blown away by the reality of the night.

A good friend who is far more eloquent than I am put it this way…

“I think I had a top 3 NYC evening last night. Something special happened at the show.

The eve started off amazing, exactly how you would think. Sun setting. City skyline. Lot’s of beautiful women. It was a hot night, but there was a cool breeze and the music was perfect.

Then as the crowd started to heat up, right around it’s most momentous point at 1 AM, a rainstorm came in. Slowly at first. But it came and it came in strong. They didn’t shut down. Instead they curated the music to the intensity of the rain. Everyone soaking wet, finally cooled from the water and dancing their lives away in the storm for maybe 30 minutes or so. Soaked to the core. It was wild!”

Definitely one for the ages and it won’t soon be forgotten.

My Latest Discovery

I started at Datorama 3.5 years ago when we were 40 people. We’re now closing on 350. Perhaps one day I’ll be saying the same about my own company.

In any case, I’ve been making my way through the “blitzscaling” series on YouTube to see what I can learn. If you’re interested in what’s involved with rapidly scaling technology companies, it seems like a pretty good resource.

Business & Money

There’s this saying in life that goes “perception is reality.” It basically reflects the idea that truth is often less important than perceived truth.

However, in investing that’s not the case. You might say it’s all about finding gaps between perception and reality. If you can find an asset where the intrinsic value is higher than the value prescribed by the market, you have an opportunity to profit from that gap.

If you think of it this way, there are really only 2 strategies for making money.

You can be better than other people at assessing reality. Or you can be good at spotting goofy perception.

Human Progress

You know that phrase “keeping up with the Joneses”? It describes the tendency for people to use the socioeconomic position of one’s neighbors to measure their own success.

I think the incarnation of the phrase has changed over time. Back in the day, I believe it was about buying houses and cars in response to those bought by other people in the neighborhood.

Now, you hear that millennials are more included to by experiences, as opposed to expensive things. So keeping up with the Joneses is all about going to nice restaurants or traveling to expensive destinations (and of course posting everything to social media).

But there’s an important difference between the old and the new. Houses and cars have some residual value, while experiences do not.

Philosophy

I was reading an article earlier this week when I came across a word that sounded cool, but I didn’t know the meaning. The word was “mendacity.”

The gut reaction was to open another tab and look up the word on Google. But I caught myself before the query results showed up and quickly switched tabs back to the article.

Before we were all trained to turn to Google with every question, we had to use good old context clues to ascertain the meaning of words. Here’s the sentence the word appeared in:

“I just can’t abide the mendacity and the pleasant little lies and the outright raccoonery that I perceive as infesting the investment world.”

The article was about how many investors behave like sheep with a herd mentality, following the whims of financial media outlets. So, coming back to mendacity, I read it to mean lunacy or outright stupidity that conforms with the crowd.

When I looked up the word, Merriam Webster pointed me to “mendacious,” which means “given to or characterized by deception or falsehood or divergence from absolute truth.”

I wasn’t absolutely correct, but not too far off. And I understood the meaning of the sentence just fine. Plus, there’s the added benefit of the mental exercise of figuring something out. You’re far more likely to remember something that you’ve worked out yourself rather than just being given the answer.

My Latest Discovery

Many people automatically associate partying with drinking or other illicit substances. They think of late nights and weird subcultures. But that’s not always the case.

A friend recently invited me to Daybreaker, which is an early morning dance movement in 22 cities across the US. They host occasional 7 am parties where you meet tons of interesting people while dancing to the sunrise. It’s a pretty unbelievable experience!

At the beginning of this trip, I thought I might take my reflections from the journey, and try to retrofit them into the normal 4-part structure of VIC. It’s now clear that that would not do the trip, myself, or you readers justice. So we’ll approach things like this instead…

Looking back 📖

It’s said that Australia was founded as a penal colony. So when the British ran out of space in their jails for prisoners, they shipped them off to Australia. And while all signs point to that being mostly true, it seems to skew the motivation of the British a bit.

To put things in a temporal context, Australia was colonized immediately following the American revolution. So it seems likely that the British were looking for other strategic prospects. And to that end, workers were needed to build roads, bridges, and other infrastructure to allow industry to come in. And quite conveniently, the prisons back home happened to reach capacity at the same time. Lol

Our first stop on our trip was Sydney. It feels surprisingly like an American city. Tons of white english speakers walking around. Some Asian and Indian people. And a few (very few in this case) blacks sprinkled in.

What surprised me is that the feeling of colonization remains present. Perhaps America isn’t much different, but I’m just used to it. In any case, you have the faces of English queens on the fiat currency. Australia participates in the Commonwealth Games, which seems to be the Olympics for the former British Commonwealth. I guess you might say that the Commonwealth dates back to the mid 20th century with decolonization and increasing self-governance, but there doesn’t seem to be anything comparable to an American Revolution (I need to do some more reading here). Please jump in if you happen to be Australian or are knowledgeable on the subject.

Feeling small 👶🏿

The vastness of the ocean has a way of making a human being feel very small. When you’re on a boat and only see water in all directions, it’s rather humbling. The relentless crashing of the waves was a thing long before humanity. And will continue long afterward.

Mountain ranges have a similar effect. These are the Blue Mountains about an hour west of Sydney.

The beauty of rock formations astounds me. Here’s Bondi Beach in Sydney.

As you can see, the rock is very porous and water fills the small holes. In other places, the rock has smooth flowing white portions juxtaposed with jagged grey areas.

Mosquitos as meditation 💡

The Daintree Rainforest is exquisite.

It also has an exquisite number of mosquitos. I must have gotten 50 or 60 bites in a few hours, despite blankets of repellent. But they offered a great opportunity to practice 2 aspects of mediation.

First, mediation talks about staying present and in the moment. It turns out 50-60 mosquito bites is a great catalyst for this. You’re forced to stay with the pain and discomfort of countless insects drinking your blood in unison. It’s more painful than I would have assumed.

But that said, it’s not so painful that it should be all consuming. There was a period of time where I stopped listening to the guide and was completely flustered by my own scratching and swatting. But when I stopped swatting and focused on what the guide was saying, it turned out that I had a choice as to how much the bites could control my mindset. It turned out that the things I learned about the rainforest and the Gugu-Yalanji aboriginal people was far more interesting and compelling than thinking about the mosquitos.

The Outback 🌵

After Sydney, we traveled to Ayer’s Rock, which is located in the southern part of the Northern Territory. The area is hot, arid, and expansive.

During our time there, we saw the “Field of Light” installation. It’s made of 50,000 lights and over 230 miles of fiber optic cables.

It’s a pretty breathtaking display, and the star-filled sky makes it all the better.

That said, I can’t help but feel like the exhibit is a bit intrusive. This land is purportedly sacred to the indigenous peoples and it feels a bit strange to have a multimillion dollar art installation slapped down in the middle of it. But I’m not sure. Biologically speaking, we are animals like any other animal on the planet, and so it could be said that we come from nature or the natural world. And our inventions, art installations included, come from us. So by that transitive property, one might say that our inventions are also of nature.

“Support our indigenous trainees on the road to success!”

That was a sign in a cafe staffed by indigenous peoples training in hospitality not far from Ayer’s Rock. This one really didn’t sit well with me.

First off, it’s clear who wrote that. And they definitely WERE NOT indigenous. Secondly, the tone is incredibly derogatory. The road to success? You mean working at this cafe for a menial wage serving primarily white tourists? Third, the air of superiority is incredible. As if the indigenous people are being done some massive favor. Finally, while the cafe and restaurant wait staff were often indigenous, who do you think owned the land and the resort? Who was calling the shots? Such a farce!

But then again, who’s to say what someone else’s definition of success looks like. Perhaps success equals maintaining some connection with the land of your ancestors and an opportunity to feed your family.

Kayaking 🚣

You really don’t have much control while kayaking on the ocean. You can paddle or not paddle. Perhaps increase the length or velocity of your strokes. Perhaps just paddle to one side to turn the vessel. But that’s about it. The rest is up to the ocean. You have competing current, apex predators like crocodiles and great white sharks, smaller ones like the Irukandji jellyfish that pose an equal threat, tropical storm systems can show up with a moments notice.

Everyday life is much the same. You can choose to work hard and surround yourself with good people. You can eat well and spend your time wisely. But when you really think about it, luck and chance play an outsized role in how things ultimately play out.

Self-importance 👑

On that same thread, many of us feel very substantial and important (I surely do). But in reality, none of us matter that much.

It’s good to be reminded of that fact. And this trip was one such reminder. I sent a grand total of zero work emails. And at the start of the trip I had this strange idea that I was so critical to everything I do at the office. But in reality, everything kept right on humming in my absence. Perhaps a thing or two got delayed. Maybe a meeting went differently than I would have conducted it. But nothing burned down and no one was killed. Everything is just fine.

Bath time 🛀

Showers are great, but taking a bath is appreciated. Especially for couples. You have two people completely exposed and vulnerable to one another in relatively tight quarters. As a result, you have very little room for the psychological barriers we often erect between each other, even between lovers. So we spent 60 minutes with a bottle of wine, bath salts, and hearts on sleeves. We discussed managing up and down at work, male egos, dealing with psychological trauma head-on, our favorite authors, time management, long-term goals, and many other things. It was, perhaps, the most prized 60 minutes of the entire trip.

(We’ve also decided on a bathtub model for our future home 😉)

Silence 🤭

In many moments, we’re inclined to offer our own thoughts, perspectives, and opinions. But I often found myself remarkably silent while traveling in Australia. The immensity of the ocean. The quiet of the desert. The wonder in observing the Great Barrier Reef. The diversity and adaptability in the rainforest. All inspired profound silence. Perhaps because words just felt inadequate. It’s interesting how our many preoccupations are normally so good at holding our attention, but nature has a way of breaking that.

Business & Money

I’m thankful for this bull market. We’re currently enjoying one of the longest economic expansions in the post-war era.
I’m thankful for equity markets. As an individual, markets allow you to do your own research and due diligence on massive companies, small companies, companies across industries and geographies. And when you’ve decided where the opportunities are, markets allow you to place whatever sized bet is comfortable for you with a real chance to improve your lot in the world.
I’m thankful for compound interest. Like Einstein said, “compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”
I’m also thankful for crypto markets. Not because bitcoin is up over 800% for the year or Ethereum up 1000% (not complaining), but because of what the blockchain means for the future of the decentralized internet. It means you won’t have to manage username & password combinations across tons of sites and applications. It means frictionless payments and money transfer will be a real thing. It means we’ll have a store of wealth that lies outside of government controls and geographic restrictions. It means a few large companies won’t control your online identity. It means these things and so many more.
I’m thankful for marketplace business models that have brought lower prices, greater transparency, and more liquidity to so many verticals including transportation, travel, publishing, e-commerce, lending, and so many more.

Human Progress

I’m thankful that technology continues to deliver answers to some of our most vexing questions.
In an era when net neutrality seems in jeopardy, I’m thankful for companies like Tucows (TCX) and Pilot fiber for providing alternatives to the last mile monopolies (disclosure, I hold shares in TCX).
In an era of more frequent super storms, I’m thankful for mesh networks bringing connectivity to Puerto Ricans and others who have lost traditional cellular connectivity.
I’m thankful that genetic testing costs a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and not $1 million.
I’m thankful that genetic disorders like Down Syndrome, Tay-Sachs Disease, and Sickle Cell Anemia will be things of the past due to gene editing techniques.
I’m thankful that plant-based proteins and lab-designed meat might eradicate the wholesale slaughter of animals and factory farming. Similar to the way we think of slavery, genocide, fascism, and torture as demonstrable injustices that we’d rather delete from history, I believe the mass incarceration and destruction of farm animals might take a similar position in the history books for future generations.
I’m thankful for countries like China that are leading the charge to demand a sustainable energy future. Following their lead, renewable energy will continue to grow and displace carbon-based energy sources.
I’m thankful that the Trump white house has failed to enact many of their promises from the campaign trail. They stand no chance, in the long term, against free trade, globalization, and basic respect for other humans (women, immigrants, Muslims, etc).
I’m thankful that cars will soon drive themselves and I will be able to make productive use of time stuck in Thanksgiving traffic.
I’m thankful that there is a new religion on the block: the church of artificial intelligence. (jk, not thankful for this)
I’m thankful that robots can do backflips.

Philosophy

I’m thankful for the phrase “agree to disagree.” In a world of growing polarities, this might be the most important phrase in circulation. It’s an understanding that you can approach an opposing viewpoint without the expectation that you will necessarily change your mind. Simultaneously, however, it is also the expectation that you will approach that conversation with an open mind and a genuine desire to grow your understanding of the other side.
It is a genuine acceptance of your own ignorance to the perspectives of others. It’s admitting that you may not be aware of all of the facts and that your own experience in the world is that of just one individual in a sea of others.
It’s admitting that the more you learn about a subject, the more you realize just how much you don’t know.

My Latest Discovery

Lastly, but certainly not least, I’m thankful for discovering this newsletter as a channel to grow the depth of my relationship with all of you beautiful readers.
Thank you for sending me emails every week to share your thoughts on various topics (though I wish you would use the comments section ;).
Thank you for sending me recommendations and interesting pieces of content as you discover them.
Thank you for forwarding the newsletter to other incredible people and helping to grow the community. VIC would simply be shouting into the void without you.

It’s A Wrap!

Oh wait, I forgot one thing.
I’m thankful that Philly sports are back on the map! Let’s gooooooooo!

Business & Money

I recently went on a business trip to visit a client and discuss ways to expand the relationship.
On the business side, it was about 5 hours in total of meetings wherein we accomplished a lot.
On the relationship side, we enjoyed a boat cruise and a night on the town. It was a blast.
It goes without saying, but I’ll say it here anyways. Business is a truly human affair. The human element involves the psychologies of incredibly diverse individuals, all with wide ranging goals (personal & professional), emotional states, and idiosyncratic personalities. What people are willing to share when you’re sitting across from them is vastly different than what they’re willing to share on a conference call. What you learn about some one after having a few drinks or during an Uber ride, is vastly different than what you learn from their LinkedIn profile or their latest blog post.
If you really want to build an enduring partnership (as supposed to a vendor-client relationship) that adds real value for both sides, you have to spend time with people getting to know them.

Human Progress

I’m worried about the progress of international diplomacy. As a (perhaps THE) global superpower, we’re used to making calculated and strategic decisions on how we interact with other nations. Regardless of your political persuasion, I believe it’s fair to say that we’ve always had generally competent people in the oval office, surrounded by other generally smart and competent people in other top positions. And generally, decisions have been made by consulting the top people in their relevant domain (e.g. generals for defense related issues, the fed for financial issues, etc).
All of this is in contrast to where we sit today. The guy in the top spot has an itchy Twitter finger and consultants no one before saying he’ll rain “fire and fury” on another country. Are you kidding me? The entire point of democracy and the apparatus of government is to make decisions by committee and force lots of smart people to collaborate with our collective benefit as their chief aim.

Philosophy

What happens at the intersection of logic/reason and emotion?
Too much emotion, and logic/reason never has a chance.
But too much logic/reason, you’re emotionally blind to other people’s perspectives.
Basically, you’re left walking a tight rope with incredibly powerful and unrelenting crosswinds.
I tend to err on the side of logic/reason, but as you’d imagine, I’m tipping to one side. I need to work on my balance.

My Latest Discovery

Ok, this is an older discovery, but it truly changed my life. Did you know that you can shake your iPhone to undo/redo typing? Like literally shake it. Game changer.

Business & Money

The monopolies of yesteryear were scary behemoths. They gained their power by putting a stranglehold on one or many points in the value chain. They controlled infrastructure (a la AT&T with phone wires), supply (a la Carnegie with US Steel), and retail/distribution (a la Luxottica with glasses).
Within a business environment as such, it’s fairly easy to calculate the costs incurred by society. These companies are famous for price gauging, limiting supply and other nefarious means to pad their coffers.
Today’s internet monopolies though are very different for a couple key reasons.
First, these are largely monopolies by self-selection. By that I mean that consumers actually have a choice of multiple options, but the choose the monopolist due to a superior experience. You could choose to strictly use SnapChat, but if Facebook offer the same features and all of your Friends are already on Facebook, why make the switch? No reason to build a brand new social graph. You could choose to use a search engine other than Google, but Google is better. They have far more data from more searches, which allows them to better optimize the experience. Thus, people choose Google.
Second, these monopolies happen to offer free products. So it’s much harder to calculate and implicit cost to society of their monopolistic position.
So, due to free products and self-selection, antitrust legislation has a tougher time sinking its teeth into today’s internet giants.
All that said, what might make sense here is to think about monopsony vs monopoly power. If you think about Facebook and Google as Monopsonies in relation to content producers, here things are clearly out of whack. Musicians, publishers, blogger, video producers, writers… all of these parties have one game in town if they want distribution. Thus their profitability can be seriously constrained when they have no choice but to distribute via these massive digital platforms.
I think regulators may need to spend more time focusing upstream towards suppliers instead of downstream toward consumers to get a clear picture of what’s happening.

Human Progress

I have no idea how many pictures are posted to social media sites every day, but I know it’s a lot. When many people may NOT know, however, is how much metadata you’re uploading along with the picture. You probably know some of the basics: location (GPS coordinates), date, and time. Not so scary right? But how about these: phone make, phone model, wireless carrier. Ok, slightly more creepy, but still not too worrisome. What really starts to freak me out is thinking about each photo in the context of every other photo. For example, if you compare GPS coordinates of all of the phones within a city, you start to develop a sense of which phones are going to which places, and thus placing people in groups. You’re much more likely to be Chinese if you are always in Chinatown. Now this data becomes valuable for advertising purposes. What about how fast your location is changing relative to other people. With speed, acceleration, and deceleration, perhaps this could have implications for your insurance premiums. What if you are a homosexual in a Muslim majority country. If you are frequenting a location known to be a gay bar, this might impact your employment status or social standing.
Next time you go to post, keep in mind that you’re uploading a lot more than just a photo.

Philosophy

A few weeks ago my fiance was on a short vacation to visit a friend that just had a baby. While we were catching up one night via FaceTime, she switched the camera angle to show be the baby. While adorable, he was in the middle of a temper tantrum.
“I think he’s tired,” I heard from his mom in the background. She swooped in to take him off to rest.
Why is it that babies always get the benefit of the doubt? Whenever they act up, we immediately assume they’re tired, hungry, or need a diaper change (which is usually the case). But at some point, while they mature, we stop giving them the benefit of the doubt and just assume they have ulterior motives. I guess growing up removes the innocence.
Once we become adults, all bets are off. You’re simply a rude/mean/(insert adjective here) if you are nasty to other people. And with good reason. As an adult, you’re expected to be able to be respectful regardless of your internal state.
But the funny thing is, not much changes in adulthood. Fatigue and hunger still cause people to act in ways that they otherwise wouldn’t.
So the next time you get bumped in the subway or someone cuts you off on the road and yells some obscene phrase, just remember, they’re probably tired or hungry. Try giving them the benefit of the doubt.

My Latest Discovery

If you own an Amazon Alexa enabled device (Dot, Echo), then you probably know about “Shower Thoughts”. It’s an Alexa skill that offers of witty bite-sized morsels that one might ponder while taking a shower. On Saturday I was at a friends place when he decided to test it out.
“Alexa, play random shower thoughts!”
“In the age of Google, knowing the right questions to ask become far more important than knowing the answers.”
I thought that was rather profound.