A writer that knows he will soon die looks back on the things he is grateful for.
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- The primary reason we’re seeing all this disruption in the job market is because we’ve been part of a mass delusion about the very nature of work.
- We told ourselves that millions of corporate workforce jobs—that pay good salaries, have good benefits, and allow you to save for retirement—were somehow a natural feature of the universe.
- In fact, that entire paradigm was just a temporary feature of our civilization, caused by builders and creators not being able to do the work required by themselves. And that’s going away.
- But it’s ok.
- Most of the jobs sucked anyway, and they took up most of the daily waking hours we were supposed to be spending with family and friends.
- Plus even if this transition happens really fast, it still won’t be overnight. Big things take a while.
- And most importantly—what waits for us on the other side is a better way to live. A more human way to live—where we identify as individuals rather than corporate workers and exchange value and meaning as part of a new human-centered economy.
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“A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths are a statistic.” The reason that tragedies stick with us is because every tragedy represents a story, and stories resonate with us. Stories are undervalued in our world today. As the speed of information continues to accelerate, we rush to “get to the point. We want to lead with numbers, exchange prose for bulleted lists, and replace nuance with formulas. But people aren’t algorithms. We are irrational, emotional, imperfect creatures, and stories are the best medium we have for communicating ideas across our irrationalities, emotions, and imperfections.
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Before we conclude that manifestation (the law of attraction) is a waste of time, or worse, we should note that the studies above tend to look only at manifestation in which a person envisions just an outcome they want. But a person can also envision the process of working toward improvement—and this turns out to have scientifically measurable and different effects. If you believe happiness is not under your control, you generally won’t do the work to get happier; if you believe happiness comes from your personal choices and behaviors, you will probably make an effort to improve your well-being. In other words, manifesting happiness as a destination to which you might gain access is futile, but understanding happiness as a direction based on your habits can work wonders.
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Great newsletter from Lyn Alden walking through the reasons why we will continue to have enormous structural government deficits moving forward and the implications on the global economy and financial assets.
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Ten small actions to improving life today.
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Nobody knows whether stocks will be up or down tomorrow. Occasionally some newsworthy development is the clear driver of stock market movement, but usually daily market watchers are studying randomness, putting themselves at risk of missing the forest through the trees. Price movement always comes before the narrative. Reality is much more complex.
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OnlyFans now generates $6.3 billion in annual gross revenues, up from $300 million five years earlier. A reason for OnlyFans success is its high revenue share rate (with its content creators) – 80% – which far exceeds that which a creator might get as a performer working for a production company or other agency. OnlyFans creators collected $5.3 billion in 2023, a 19% increase year-over-year. Many OnlyFans creators now treat sites such as Reddit, Imgur, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter as “front doors” for OnlyFans customer acquisition. OnlyFans has paid its two owners $1.1 billion in dividends since 2019, with $472 million paid in 2023 alone.
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While NBA team valuations have soared, revenues have not kept pace–and in the case of at least one of those teams, its EBITDA actually went backwards during the prior tenure. The bulk of the value created in recent years has come as the result of revenue multiple expansion. NBA teams no longer trade at 5-7x revenue, like they did a decade ago. They’re now commanding 10-14x the top line. That may make it increasingly difficult for smart money to justify buying/buying into clubs in the years ahead, at least if they’re underwriting the investment solely on the expectation of growing revenues.
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It’s incredible how few people have air conditioning outside the United States. Only 10% of Europeans have it!

Driving a heavy car makes it much less likely that you will die in an accident, but much more likely the person in the other car will die.
