Emergence
Hey, itās been whileā¦
šļø Hereās whatās up right now:
š§ Listening to:According to my iTunes history, the past few weeks have had me in a nostalgic mood, because thereās been lot of sElf, Elliott Smith, and Shiina Ringo in there. As far as new music goes, Iāve been digging the new Fox Capture Plan album. I also made a playlist to remind me of my trip to New Orleans (see below) and the fantastic live music I got to enjoy.
š Reading: I didnāt do a ton of reading last month, but I enjoyed Nolyn(the first in a new sub-series in Michael Sullivanās Riyria universe), The Goblin Emperor (a ācourt intrigueā political story), and Stop Listening to the Customer (marketingā¦ about exactly what it sounds like).
š„ Taido: Since I was traveling, I didnāt have the opportunity to train very much, but I did get to spend some time working with all our teacher in the US, and visited our new Taido dojo in Atlanta a few days before it was ready to open up to students. I also spent a couple of hours training on my Taido birthday š (See the pics and video on Instagram).
š§ Learning: One of the best ways to learn about new technologies and modes of commerce is simply to jump in and start participating, so I had a friend walk me through NFTs and made my first purchase. After a few weeks, I turned around and sold it for a 7x-ish return, which was nice š (If youāre curious, I briefly owned one of these.) Iām hesitant to go fully down the NFT-flipping rabbit hole, but I canāy deny the appeal of quick profits. Itās very much like gambling right now, and the best returns come from making connections with people who will give you early access to drops that have enough social capital behind them to drive demand. However, the technology does have some real and interesting use cases, like this one my friend Niraj is building.
š Freedom! After two weeks of quarantine post-travel, Iām officially free toā¦ take walks and drink coffee at cafes. One of the benefits of being an incredibly boring person is that I donāt really leave home, so itās not much of a bother. However, Tokyoās āstate of emergencyā is finally basically lifted, which means that bars and restaurants are reopening to full hours, and people are starting to come out and interact and enjoy life more.
š§° Things Iām finding useful:
š¦ My friend Shiloh is an artist, and Iāve finally managed to get some of her ceramics. Yay! (Pics on ye oldeā IG)
š Iāve worn the same pair or wayfarers for almost ten years now, but in New Orleans, I got to hang out with one of the founders of Nectar, and got a sweet pair of Baby Bathwater / Nectar shades that Iāve been wearing for a few weeks now (this is the model Iāve got). Nectar started out in ATL, and they use recycled plastics in their frames, which seem really well-made.
š Still enjoying my Whoop and hoping my 4.0 gets here soon so I can get moooooore data. Itās been useful for planning how much energy to put into training vs recovering on any particular day, and Iām seriously considering doing some experiments with GMB clients using the Whoop data next year.
As you can see, Iāve done jack shit so far todayā¦
āļø Travel (is a thing again!)
š„ Went to New Orleans for Baby Bathwater, which was four days of food, drinks, and good times with some of the smartest and most interesting people I know. Learned a lot and made new friends, and didnāt sleep very much at allā¦
š Before and after NoLa, I spent some time in Atlanta, hanging out with my parents and some old friends, which is always lovely.
š Whatās new with you?
If we havenāt talked recently, Iād love a reply. Tell me whatās up.
If we have talked recently, thanks!
OK, thatās it.
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