Tangential Tuesday 53: Status, Drugs, CEO DJ..
Writing this from NYC šļø. Feeling super lucky that this trip came together š¤.
Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution
This article is FASCINATING. It reminds me in some ways of Eugene Weiās Status as a Service (which by the way is still the blog post that has influenced my thinking the most in 2019).
Geeks welcome mops, at first at least. Itās the mass of mops who turn a scene into a subculture. Creation is always at least partly an act of generosity; creators want as many people to use and enjoy their creations as possible. Itās also good for the ego; it confirms that the New Thing really is exciting, and not just a geek obsession. Further, some money can usually be extracted from mopsājust enough, at this stage, that some creators can quit their day jobs and go pro.
Status Update, and How Everyone IPO'd in the 21st Century
Speaking of Eugene Wei - he recently published status updates. Itās not nearly as mind-blowing as StaaS, but itās much shorter and still pretty good.
Billions of humans IPO'd, whether we were ready for it or not, explaining why the concept of a personal "brand" became such a pervasive metaphor.
Just as the SEC regulates what public companies say, social norms regulate what a person can say on social media. PR training today begins for all of us once we get our hands on our first smartphone. It's little surprise that just as many companies now stay private for longer, many people have retreated to private messaging groups, taking their thoughts back into the shadows, while those who stay public learn to code messages in memes or language so opaque and Straussian that even political dissidents would be impressed.
š¹ DJ D-Sol (CEO of Goldman)
Shout-out to The Profile for this excellent article.
āYou know what, itās who I am, and nobody would tell me not to play golf,ā Solomon says now. āAnd why shouldnāt Iābecause Iām a CEO?ā
If you need someone to tell you you did a good job, Lemkau advised a colleague, āGo hire somebody to do that for you.ā
I donāt follow finance companies very closely - so I found this profile of the Goldman Sachs CEO particularly interesting.
One related topic Iāve been thinking about and talking to friends about is: āHow much of the finance industry is crony capitalism?ā
In tech/silicon valley, there is a tendency to bucket almost all of finance as something that is zero-sum, and not creating much value in the world.
And honestly, this view might be correct. There certainly appears to be a lot of bullshit. But the problem is, I donāt think any of these people (myself included) know enough to say what parts of our financial system actually provide value, and which donāt. Most people donāt even understand how options work. So when people tell me they think the financial industry full of crony capitalism, itās hard for me to believe they are thinking for themselves rather than just repeating the beliefs of those around themā¦
</tangent>
š¤ How a $29 Marketing Scam Turned Into a Master Class on Behavioral Economics
My friend Kushaan published this hilarious (but also so real) article this week.
Iāve easily spent more money in 2019 than any other year of my life. Of course, a lot of that is not because my consumption magically skyrocketed, but rather because my parents no longer help support me financially.
But the point is Iāve been making a lot of purchases. Some of them and necessary. But some of them almost certainly not. This article does a great job of capturing the art of convincing people to buy stuff they donāt need.
Then, I looked at their reviews. 107 reviews. Five stars across the board. I tried to submit a negative review of my own to no avail ā only positive reviews allowed by the burrito blanket overlords. I traversed the constant urgency ā 48 hour flash sale. Even though, I had bought it months ago, the site today still holds a flash sale. What gives!?
š How to Buy Drugs
I love reading true stories of random subcultures I know nothing about. The internet is crazyā¦
a student at Manchester University, needed to buy some MDMA for the weekendās big party. So he did what he had been doing for the last two years: he opened up the Tor browser to get on to the dark web, and typed in the address for Dream Market, the worldās biggest and most dependable source of illegal drugs. Nothing happened.
The early mainstream(ish) use cases of the internet have become known as the 3Ps, Porn, Pills, and Poker.
And for whatever reason, these use-cases seem to come up again when we experiment with new platforms. Buying drugs (pills) was the 1st massive use case of cryptocurrency.
And AR/VR seems to be experimenting with both poker and pornā¦
āļø 3 Minute Journal
My friend Valentin showed me this super quick journal template he created with notion. Iāve only been using it for a week, but Iāve really been enjoying it.
Having prompts and a template removes all the friction from daily journaling. In particular - I love the āShort story of a moment today:ā prompt.
Personal
Enjoying (hopefully will learn one dayā¢):
Starting to learn:
I went to see Andrew Evans perform some magic š§āāļø. It wasā¦ magical. Iām sensing a magic obsession coming.
Going to a Jeremy Zucker concert on Wednesday (!!!)
New York City is amazing.
Feeling inspired. We talked to an Electrician today where Thumbtack played a crucial part in helping him get his business off the ground š.
Thanks for reading,
Tay