Hi đ - Feeling excited to dive into this week.
I spent the weekend backpacking in Lassen. It was pretty much a dream from start to finish. I owe so many good things in my life to taking trips like this. Nature == therapy.
Hereâs our route if youâre curious! We had to pivot a bit from our original plan due to campsites closed because of bear sightingsâŠ. but with a plethora of alpine lakes to choose from it wasnât too much of an issue.
Affluent Zoom Class
Talking about this magical trip with pretty pictures transitions well into my next point, inspired by this tweet:
This anecdotally rings true for me and many of my friends, and frankly is pretty disturbing.
There is an idea in business strategy that down turns typically make the strong, stronger, and the weak, weaker, even if the aggregate outcome is that everyone suffers in the short-term.
I worry that COVID-19 is doing this on the scale of not just businesses, but human beings. Over the past few months, Iâve heard friends say things like âI donât want things to go back to ânormalââ. And I get that. My life has in many ways improved since this craziness began ~4 months ago.
For people my age, this pandemic will almost certainly be remembered as the event of our generation. The problem however, is that it isnât a shared experience the same way that 9/11 was for the prior generation.
In the same way that 9/11 brought the country togetherâŠ. I worry that COVID-19 will divide us. The affluent zoom class vs everyone else.
I love the internet as a time capsule. Jessica Livingston (The coolest Bucknell alum the university somehow ignores!) interviewing Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia in 2010.
Startup Wisdom from NPRâs Car Talk
Posit the question: Do two people who donât know what they are talking about know more or less than one person who doesnât know what heâs talking about? (Pardon the un-PC masculine pronoun, but I have found this to be, most predominately, a male phenomenon.)
So if ultimate reality, or learned ignorance, is achieved by two people, they have twice as much learned ignorance than one person, and Andyâs question is answered. Two people donât know twice as much as one person doesnât know. While your combined state of learned ignorance is often quite impressive, it is important to understand that to achieve ultimate reality a great deal of meditation and prayer is required
Personal
Assembled is hiring a Front-end engineer, as well as our first Support and Operations hire (!!). If you, or anyone you know might be a fit - email me. I am more excited about the business than ever.
I am officially in the market for a used car. Doesnât have to be in the bay area. My only criteria are decent in snow and decent gas mileage. Let me know if you know someone selling a car or have any used car buying tips!
I swear every week someone pitches me on moving to a new place and every single time I fully descend down the rabbit hole of potentially leaving SF. This week? 2 Bed / 2 Bath in Big Sky
Nokia 3310 is working out well so far :)