Engaged in a Perpetual Search for Knowledge
I love this. I am not sure if is the first to do this kind of thing, but I’m certain that it won’t be the last. This will go viral, I’m certain. As of just now, I only see 3M views on YouTube. I just shared it to my FB profile. I imagine several others have as well and several others will from there; that’s the nature of virility.
It’s a classic song and this is not your everyday remix.
As a parent, I’m always looking for new things to do with my kids.
Sure, they’d be perfectly content with going to Chuck’E’Cheese (or equiv) every time, but I need the variety and they need exposure to different activities so they learn to love exploring and trying new things and eventually find their passion.
Kidpass is only in New York right now, but they just raised $5.1 million to help expand their business and replicate the model in other major cities, starting with Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC.
Here in Orange County, I’m always searching for activities for us to do. But I feel that I’ve exhausted searches on my usual sources. I’m sure there are a lot that I don’t know about. In fact, just this week, we found one called SenderCity. It’s a rock climbing facility. This place was GREAT and it was located almost right next to Rock’n’Jump (trampoline park) that we have been to quite a number of times.
I like how Kidpass has layed out the UI so that I can browse the activities by different criteria. I especially like the ability to browse by day.
The only deterrent could be the cost, but take that with a grain of salt because I really haven’t looked at it in-depth at all. I simply make that comment upon glancing at the plans and seeing the credits needed to do a couple of the activities. That said, if it exposes to new things for 1-time (where you’d normally pay more or have to do a longer commitment), then that could be worth the premium.
I’ve been reading a lot about copywriting, persuasion, and sales strategies recently (I need to be writing about that more). It is a fascinating topic. And when I say copy, this incorporates (verbal) sales messaging. It makes me wish I had taken more philosophy and psychology classes in school.
In business and in any realm where there is competition you need to beat, it’s crucial to understand your edge. Why should the buyer select your product or your service? We live in the information age and it is almost certain that the buyer can/will research the competition (although, in simplistic transactional sales, this can be countered by techniques like limited time offers).
The copy needs to reflect this edge. Does your edge solve a pain point and/or deliver a pleasure? Your copy needs to amplify the pain and pleasure points and it needs to specifically do so around your edge.
One edge that a small company can have over a big corporation is speed. I really like John Boyd’s OODA loop. John Boyd was a F-86 Pilot and Commander in the US Airforce.
Boyd believed that when at a disadvantage, a competent pilot could still overcome that disadvantage by “Attacking the Mind” of his opponent. The OODA loop is a process that defines how we react to stimulus.
“In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries—or, better yet, get inside [the] adversary’s Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop … Such activity will make us appear ambiguous (unpredictable) thereby generate confusion and disorder among our adversaries—since our adversaries will be unable to generate mental images or pictures that agree with the menacing, as well as faster transient rhythm or patterns, they are competing against.”
Colonel Boyd trained his pilots based upon his observations of Human reaction time and as a result his pilots had a 10 to 1 kill ratio over the superior Mig-15’s.
“The key is to obscure your intentions and make them unpredictable to your opponent while you simultaneously clarify his intentions. That is, operate at a faster tempo to generate rapidly changing conditions that inhibit your opponent from adapting or reacting to those changes and that suppress or destroy his awareness. Thus, a hodgepodge of confusion and disorder occur to cause him to over- or under-react to conditions or activities that appear to be uncertain, ambiguous, or incomprehensible.”
The OODA loop has become an important concept in many areas outside of air-to-air combat (dog fighting).
Norse has a really, really cool real-time visualization of cyber attacks. It’s quite mesmerizing to watch.
Most of the attacks stem from US and China, at least in the few minutes that I watched. What’s interesting is that you see big name corporations as the Attackers. I happened to notice A LOT of Microsoft Corporation. I have no idea what that means; I’m very from being any kind of security expert. I just noticed this and thought, “hmmm”.
I’m sure this is just a fraction of what goes on out there. Which makes this pretty scary. I’ve been in software a long time and I’ve never come across or heard of code that didn’t have bugs or couldn’t be hacked.
Add to that the fact that we have assigned some of the best and brightest to find all these holes (re: Wikileaks CIA hacking tools release and NSA leaked hacking tools).
And then of course I’m always reading about how fragile, old and outdated our infrastructure is. We’re so exposed. Is a nuclear threat really the biggest threat out there?
The big 5 are Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook.
Together, they are worth almost $3-Trillion in market cap. In 2016, they had combined revenues of ~$555 billion with a ~$94 billion in profit. That is staggering.
Visual Capitalist’s Jeff Desjardins put together a really cool visual that breaks down how these behemoths are minting money.
BitCoin and Ethereum (as well as other cryptocurrencies) are on a parabolic trajectory. It’s so hard not to sell here. I mean, when you’ve 3x and 6x your investment and you see this trajectory, isn’t it prudent to take some winnings off the table?
I would say normally, taking some off the table (at least lock in the initial investment so that what’s left is “house” money). But here is my investor greed setting in, perhaps.
I truly believe that this is really only the very very beginning and HUGE gains are ahead because the blockchain technology is that revolutionary. I don’t want to get into the mindset of trading in and out because the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) if I sell will kill me more.
I don’t have a huge portion of my portfolio allocated into these, so I can afford to lose it all and still sleep at night. These really are like lottery tickets, but I like the odds here.
I’m considering diversifying and buying into some Ripple. I’ve been reading that Tezos is also an ICO to watch for. These aren’t as simple to buy, though. I mean, they aren’t hard, but I’d have to set up other wallets.
Interesting times…
Do you know who Seth Rich is? This story is going to make one heck of a movie one day, I’m sure. Or at least a season of Serial podcast by Sara Koenig.
In short, Seth Rich was a 27-year old employee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who was murdered on July 10, 2016; shot while walking home from his neighborhood bar. He was shot twice in the back. He was found conscious, but then died in the hospital.
The media reported that it was an attempted robbery. Apparently, he had bruises on his hands, knees, and face; indicating a struggle. But the really interesting fact is that nothing was taken from him. He had his watch, money, his credit cards, his phone…nothing was robbed.
The conspiracy theories are out in droves. The primary conspiracy story is that Seth Rich is the one who leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks, which led to the firing of Debbie Wasserman Shultz.
Julian Assange in an interview last August hinted that Seth Rich was the leaker, but never explicitly admitted it.
Supposedly, one of the FBI or the DC Police have his laptop, but neither is pressing forward with any investigation with it. Apparently, the DC Police didn’t even interview any of the bar staff of the venue Seth Rich was in that night.
I’m trying not to get sucked in to the lure of a great conspiracy story, but man, this one smells of something.
Then, to top it all off, Kim Dotcom, yes that guy of all people, tweets out the other day:
Seems so random…
…The story is that Kim Dotcom is seeking revenge against Hillary Clinton and Obama, as they succumbed to Hollywood power brokers and targeted Kim Dotcom in the biggest copyright infringement case in history – which included a massive illegal (and then legal) raid on his New Zealand mansion by armed officers.
Let’s see what he comes out with on Tuesday…
According to The Kaufman Foundation 2017 Startup Activity report, SF & San Jose slipped several spots. Cities such as Miami, Austin, and Los Angeles are moving up. St. Louis, Cincinnati and San Antonio are cities that jumped up the most.
Silicon Valley will always be Silicon Valley. It is la creme de la creme. But it makes perfect sense, and is good overall, for entrepreneurship to extend beyond the valley.
The greatest concentration of engineers is in the valley. The greatest concentration of venture money is in the valley. But if I’m starting a new company, I wouldn’t start it in SF; it’s just too darn expensive.
We used to live up in SF area and we have a strong network still there. But, even if we wanted to move back, it would be extremely difficult to do (while maintaining the same lifestyle). The bang for the buck is so much better outside of the valley. As a company, I think you could attract the talent with a pretty good salary (but much less than a SV rate) and better cost-of-living. A $200K salary in the bay area is perhaps $100-120K outside, but that person can get a 3-Bdrm, 2-Bath house for $250K Vs $2M.
We’ve thought about moving out of California as well because the state taxes are ridiculous. This makes Texas and Florida very appealing (we do enjoy the sun). But alas, California weather is the best. Where else can you Snowboard and Surf on the same day?
I do like the start-up activity moving south. Los Angeles is nice, but the traffic is terrible. I’d love to see more companies moving down to Irvine. It will happen, I’m certain, the appeal is too great (think SF to San Jose). If a company is really good, the talent and money will come to it.
Quanergy, Velodyne, and Luminar Technologies. They are all LiDAR technology companies.
LiDAR is how the vehicles detect what is around them. LiDAR sensors measure distances by measuring the Time of Flight (TOF) that it takes a short laser pulse to travel from the sensor to an object and back, calculating the distance from the known speed of light.
Each of those 3 companies has raised many millions in early rounds (none beyond Series B). According to James Altucher sources, they each carry a $1B+ valuation which puts them in the Unicorn classification. (I can’t link to the source because it is an insider newsletter)
James believes that Velodyne is the clear leader at this point. Velodyne raised $150M in August 2016 from investors that included Ford, Google, and Baidu. He mentions that Velodyne’s products are currently being used in 25 different self-driving programs.
Of course, as private companies, we can’t invest in these companies. But James is recommending to look at Ford as a way into Velodyne.
Of all the car companies, I do like Ford the best. They have made interesting investments and partnerships. My wife has a Ford Focus and it’s a pretty decent car.
I can’t bring myself to invest in car companies at this time, though. I’ve been reading too much about sub-prime car loans going bust, similar to how sub-prime housing went bust in 2007. Obviously, the car market isn’t nearly as big, but it’s still significant.
I’m currently short GM and that is going pretty well so far…
A legend is gone.
Cornell’s voice is one of the truly unique ones out there and his music remains a fixture in my memories growing up. Here are a few of my favs: