Hello!

This is edition #77 of

The Connection

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

My friend Michael Alexis keeps a running list of life lessons, the way others might keep a list of half-baked business ideas or ex-lovers. He started compiling this list 3 years ago. 

The entire list is worth a deep read. Here’s one I’ve been thinking about a lot: 

“I am constantly blown away by how little I know.

If you roll back to any “six months ago”, I thought I knew a lot, but in hindsight I’m surprised I was even functional. 

I expect this cycle to continue indefinitely into the future.”

I find this inextricably true in my life as well. I’m confused about how I got anything done six months ago. That’s doubly true if we rewind to a full year. 

Here are the three most high-leverage changes I’ve made in the last six months. They are high-leverage because these changes have influenced every part of my life:

1. I sleep 7-8 hours a night.* 

I don’t know how I functioned on 5-hours of sleep for the last 11 years.

There are fewer “butt in seat” working hours, but: 

• Writing has gotten clearer, better, faster

• Working out has become more focused and consistent

• I’m owning bigger and more complex parts for Reforge, and I’m more confident in my execution

I’ve heard the fabled benefits of sleep for years (you’ll live longer! get sick less! clearer skin!) but never quite figured how to make it work. Here’s the routine that finally unlocked it for me:  

• An hour before bedtime (9pm), no more screens: computer is closed and downstairs. Phone is on Do Not Disturb and away.

• Take my shower.

• Eat and read.

• Stretch and foam roll. 

• Sleep in a cold room and wear a sleep mask. 

*Sometimes Oliver decides it’s not going to be a 7-8 hour night.

  2. I deleted Instagram. 

Oddly, this was as big of a change as the sleep thing for me. I was hardcore on the IG train. 

Instagram was where I went for a “little break”. It was the app I immediately opened after putting Oliver to bed. It was the last thing I looked at before going to sleep.

Then one day I realized this non-stop feed into the filtered lives of other people was fundamentally making me an unhappier person. 

After that, it was pretty simple to quit cold turkey.  

3. “I owe my family the best version of myself.”

Why do we try harder with complete strangers than we do with the people we love? 

When we’re tired, we’ll pull it together to make small talk or at least force a smile with the co-worker, the barista, a customer.

Yet at the same point of exhaustion, we can’t be bothered to make an effort with the people we love. We lose our patience. We make snide remarks.

I’ve been guilty of this my entire life, and it’s completely backwards.

I owe my family the best version of myself.

Simple hack to remember this: I call it a “door trigger.” Everytime I step through the door of my home, I say to myself: “I am so lucky to have my family and they deserve the best version of me… the happiest, most optimistic, kindest version of myself.” 

Then I become that person. 

Hiatus

In the vein of continued personal development and family, I’m taking my scheduled break from this newsletter. I’ll use the time to reflect, spend time with family, and rest. 

The Connection

will resume Monday, January 13, 2020. I’m excited to continue to share articles about the streaming wars, the evolution of influencer culture, the battle for food delivery, and more. 

I’m also picking back up blogging in 2020 after taking a year-long hiatus, and have a few other projects I’m excited to share. 

For state-side

Connection

readers, have a terrific Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy this final list of interesting articles. Thank you for sticking around on this list, I'm very grateful that you're here

See you in the new year.

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Technology & Culture 

👀 

There are a myriad of companies collecting your data to determine your “consumer score.”

 This was made very apparent to me when I signed up for a new credit card -- and was told I was not eligible for the introductory bonus promotion. I’m a proponent for convenience > security, but think general literacy around how your data is used is important, too. 

👫 

The Art of Losing Friends

. For all the real (and perceived) cancer that social media has brought on us, author Laura Lippmann points out the equally real benefits of staying loosely connected via the internet. Favorite quote:

“Despite all the damage they’ve wrought, despite Cambridge Analytica and Fake News and the indifference to the rape/death threats made against women and people of color, Facebook and Twitter have their merits. They’ve kept me sane.”

💣 

“We ignore injury to our daughters in exchange for the promise of economic growth.”

I look forward to Scott Galloway’s

No Mercy/No Malice

column every week. This one was a barn burnerl.  

📕 

The new Burn Book

. Group Finstas (aka fake Instagram accounts) is the new way of anonymous shitposting and trolling. Another signal that your users will find uses for your software in ways you never imagined, e.g.

Google docs to pass notes

. 

🧀 

The Facebook Scam and Subscription Trap

. This million $ scam is just one data point in a much larger story about the power of Facebook marketing (it works) and what happens when bad actors (ever-present) exploit the rules. Is Facebook responsible? Is the federal government (which has a history of hamstringing consumer protection agencies) responsible? Or is the consumer ultimately responsible, if they were gullible enough to be lured by Willie Nelson-sponsored CBD cream? 

📼 

Judd Apatow thinks people care about his “timing.”

  Netflix is testing a variable speed feature, so you can watch shows at up to 1.5x speed. Director Judd Apatow

he

“will fight this and will win”

and Netflix should

“leave [movies/shows] as they were intended to be seen.”

Unfortunately for Apatow, this is a similar argument made against $1 songs on iTunes, the VCR, showing movies on television, mixtapes, and skipping to the end of a book. 

Business

💵

The Millennial Lifestyle Is About to Get More Expensive

. A terrific primer on positive unit economics, aka why Blue Apron is trading at $7.52 (from a YTD high of $23.85). Many of today’s “hottest” technology companies operate with negative unit economics: Uber, WeWork, Lyft, Peloton, Wag, Freshly, etc. If/when the VC funded subsidies stop, these services which fuel our lifestyle will get much more expensive. 

🔏 

What happens when media companies go zombie

. “Zombie” media companies are created when a media conglomerate guts a publication and then turns it into a content farm. Favorite quote:

“A reader can access a whole zombie content library: Deadspin, SI, Newsweek, Playboy, LA Weekly, U.S. News & World Report, The Hill, and newspapers like The Denver Post all exist in varying states of catatonia. The Los Angeles Times and Texas Monthly narrowly missed joining the list.”

As these publications die, people will go elsewhere for good content -- back to independent blogs or “micro publishing platforms” like Instagram or nascent social media platforms. Eventually, these independents and platforms attract ad dollars, the media conglomerates buy those up, and the cycle starts again. It is sad. It is inevitable. Marketers ruin everything. 

🐭 

Disney the (Linear) Marketing Powerhouse

. No, Disney doesn’t have the same tech proficiency as Netflix. But what they lack in frictionless technology or growth loops, they make up with linear marketing might, positive brand, and a powerful word-of-mouth loop. 

Random 

📝 

Document your life lessons

. I mentioned this article above. Great life lessons and aphorisms to think about from Michael Alexis. More importantly, I think it’s a great exercise to think about the frameworks you use to make the decisions that got you where you are today, so that you can then recalibrate deliberately. You can do it in a list like this, or thinking about decisions as

bets

, a la Ray Dalio (I prefer writing blog posts). 

💎 

Make your iPhone work FOR you (not against you)

. Don’t let the length of this article dissuade you from diving in. The 80/20 rule is golden here: you’ll get 80% of the value by following the first 20% of the recommendations. This was insanely useful in changing my iPhone habits and reducing the amount of time mindlessly scrolling and wasting time. Note: Wasting time is NOT time spent on leisure. Wasting time is getting sucked into apps or a bad habit without making a conscious decision to do so.

🤷‍♂️ 

There’s a Hollywood assistant revolt happening

. Many mixed emotions about this. On one hand, the assistant route is terrific training ground to learn the ins and outs of Hollywood. On the other hand, it sucks, so good on them. 

🙋‍♀️ 

Could Taylor Swift Re-Record All Her Old Songs? Should She?

The tl;dr - yes she can, once she’s legally able to do so (it depends on what was written into her contract). Should she? The only downside appears to be time and money. And bad news for Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta: she appears HIGHLY motivated, with plenty of money of money to burn. 

Thanks for reading!

Last thing: Is there anything I can help you with?

 If there's any way I can help out, please let me know. Or if we just haven't chatted in a while, I'd love to hear from you. Just reply directly to this email. 

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