Circle Three 57 / Kodachrome
Rushing to a meeting Friday morning, but glad I took the 10 seconds to slow down and take this. If you squint, you can see 36-ft-tall William Penn up there.
See you all in September!
Contents:
brain bites: Psychology & Health
brain bites: Business & Investing
brain bites: Technology
Lyric: Kodachrome
brain bites: psychology & health
Communities as We Know Them Are Changing. At work and at home, our sense of belonging is different. Here’s two pieces that will get you thinking, especially if you’re feeling ambivalent about that much-hyped remote work setup. I’ll save my ramblings for a full blog post, but I love organic synergy — almost as much as I like putting two entirely overused words together. So here’s some thoughts on forming new communities
A few months back, Kai wrote:
“The safest place to live in Australia is where you have a sense of community, because at the end of the day it’s about the way we help each other. … We ought to focus more on committing to and investing in the places we inhabit. For younger generations like mine, this may mean honing our credentials not as global jet setters but as good neighbours.”
Just this week, Dror Poleg wrote about the new social and spiritual void from spending less time in the office.
“Office-dwellers did not just work for large organizations; they belonged to them. The corporation and its physical embodiment, the office, were where people connected and found meaning.”
“[the transition away from individualism] seems to be a backlash against the notion that your job, office, or even your country is the only source of meaning, agency, and security.”
“As fewer people work in offices, I expect more of them to embrace new types of communities and probably invent a new religion or two.”
Reinforcing Feedback Loop. A tool for better thinking. Exponential change is perpetuated by technology. And this kind of change is everywhere — compound interest, network effects, TikTok algos, you name it. In these loops, the outputs become inputs, thereby amplifying the next output. For example, TikTok tracks data to feed more personalized content, giving them more data and the cycle continues.
At FirstWatch, we’ve been focusing energy on how to consciously create these loops for business, but also how to identify when (and how) these reinforcing loops might be created for crypto networks. Helpful website to simply frame these psychological frameworks.
Thinking Hard Makes Us Tired. Seems obvious? I read this article from Nature about new research that exposes how the effects of cognitive fatigue might influence our decisions the rest of the day. After long, tedious tasks our brain is more inclined to opt for the short-term, quick reward. Helpful to know the science behind the feeling to be able to prepare in advance for it.
brain bites: business & investing
Drukenmiller on the State of Macro. A long thread from June. Legendary investor Staley Druckenmiller offered his stance on the world, inflation, and markets. Here’s a TL;DR in three takeaways:
This time is different. He has never in 45 years seen a combination of factors with no historical precedent (8% inflation into weakening economy with bond yields at 3%). And says a soft landing is unlikely.
Sizing is Key. Most of the investing equation comes down to sizing bets. Rather than spreading allocations thin, he constantly reevaluates a small number of convictions.
Invest then Investigate. Competition has lowered timelines. Druckenmiller advises to go with intuition, then do analysis and double down or cut the investment.
brain bites: technology
Helium: The Network of Networks. Helium is objectively one of crypto’s greatest success stories. It answers the question “what’s a use-case for crypto?” and is branching into new product categories. So if you don’t know about Helium, take a look.
The company uses token incentives to operate what is now the largest Internet-of-Things network in the world. IoT devices surpassed non-IoT devices in 2020.
Nova Labs, Helium’s parent company, is entering the next chapter of growth. Helium will need to move quickly to keep its leading position, but as Mario Gabriele asks:
What infrastructure could the world build following Helium’s model? What new networks could crypto create?
Lyric: Kodachrome by Paul Simon
I learned two things from this song: (1) Paul Simon was obsessed with photography, and (2) the song is a registered trademark of the Kodak company.
To me, Kodachrome is inspiring as a coming-of-age song about dreams and memories, sung in response to societal pressure to let those things go. And ICYMI, I try to listen to the song as much as I can stand while I make each weekly edition of C3.
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away