The Connection Newsletter 43 - It’s all that

The Connection Newsletter 43 - It’s all that

February 18, 2019

Hello!

This is edition #43 of

The Connection

, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here.

Last weekend I was in San Francisco and then at a

. Carlo bought me these

, and I strongly recommend them if you throw small or big events.

I’m spending the next few days in Los Angeles and grappling with how much I miss this city.

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Make sure to hit "Display Images" above to see puppy pics. 

It sounds like Disney is making all the right strategic bets in the upcoming streaming war, but celebrating any early success is premature at best and laughable at worst. Three reasons why:

One: take the 600K downloads of the ESPN+ app Bob Iger points to as a leading indicator of success. What’s left out is the context: those were free trial downloads as part of a promotion to get people to watch the super fight between UFC Bantamweight Champ TJ Dillashaw vs. Olympic medalist and UFC Flyweight Champ, Henry Cejudo.

Two: the execution of that promotion was bobbled. I tried downloading the ESPN+ app across multiple devices and wasn’t able to do so. Twitter confirmed I was not the only one. Ultimately, I watched the fight on a live stream.

Three: poor viewing experience on ESPN+. Too many commercial breaks, a parental guidance warning every 5 minutes… This is a mixed martial arts contest, we expect there to be violence. It’s nearly worth paying for pay-per-view just to avoid all the BS.

Ultimately, Disney certainly has the library to compete with Netflix, especially as the Fox deal concludes. However, it remains TBD whether a deep library is going to be enough to compete against Netflix’s head start in a world of personalization and distribution, and when they’ve already created the most seamless streaming experience out there (that incumbents like Hulu and Amazon Video can’t even touch). Bridging that gap isn’t impossible, but it’ll certainly be difficult.

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Bookmark this article if you’re interested in ever publishing (self or traditional) a book. Paul Jarvis covered everything he did from completing the manuscript to the release of the book.

He talked about how he made sure the book launch was aligned to his Company of One ethos -- this idea that growth does not equal success (for example, he chose not to use social media to promote the book).

I just bought the book on Audible and am looking forward to listening.

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Basically, you can take anything Morgan Housel writes to the bank. This one is no exception and rings true not just about business but also the hundreds of personal decisions we make every day.

It reminded me of a quote from the book, The River, by Gary Paulsen. The River was the sequel to its more famous predecessor, The Hatchet. In it, the protagonist, Brian, looks back at his old perspective on life and sums it up like this:

“He was not always right, and other people were not always wrong.”

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Two restaurant profiles this week: first, the

.

More impressive than André Prince Jeffries’s success is her blase attitude to the (literally) hundreds of imitators: People are going to copy, and the best course of action is to first be uniquely you, and second, be the best.

Second,

. I remember enjoying my meal at South Beverly Grill but had no idea the chain had this kind of cult following (h/t Andrew):

“I finally had the chance to ask Brian Biel in person if there’s some secret formula behind Hillstone’s powerful allure—besides trying to avoid

press, of course. Is it the napkins with buttonholes, just in case you need to affix one to your shirt like a spaghetti-eating character in Goodfellas? Is it the fact that every location has a single ­Mauviel copper pot that it uses to toss the just-fried fries with kosher salt in? Or is it the fact that you’ll never have to fix a wobbly table because they’re all drilled into the floor, thereby eliminating the single biggest annoyance in the history of dining? Dammit, Brian, what is it? Spill Hillstone’s secrets! “That’s the secret, Andrew,” he said matter-of-factly while eating a spinach

and chicken Waldorf salad. “It’s all that.”

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. The subject of student debt continues to be a divisive and heartbreaking one:

Jen’s words reminded me of something

Frotman had told me — that we often think the only people suffering under student debt are those who have defaulted on their loans,

or have fallen behind on payments. “But that’s not true,” he said. “You have people who had to get a degree, had to get a graduate degree to stay in their job. They have no savings. They have no retirement. They’re not putting away any money for their kids to go to school. And the cycle just keeps perpetuating itself.”

Thanks for reading!

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