A thought: perhaps we should only invest in things that get better over time, and to ignore or disdain that which gets worse over time.
Podcast
In praise of children
The greatness of children: as time goes on, they improve. Also, as time goes on, their value to you increases, and their own personal value increases as well.
Technology
The tricky thing about technology, that is hardware gets worse over time, whereas software improves over time.
For example, iOS will continue to get better over time, whereas the hardware of the actual iPhone will get worse over time. No matter how well you take care of your iPhone, the battery will always lose its charge, and the hardware while it might be robust, will only disintegrate overtime.
Imagine a world where owning an older iPhone is cooler than having the newest one.
Imagine a future world in which we had a black paint brass iPhone. Then it could be like a film Leica MP camera that is, as the more you use it, the more of the beautiful patina and golden brass will show underneath overtime.
As many Leica M users know, there is something very cool about having a black paint Leica with lots of patina and wear and tear. Kind of like how denim enthusiasts have pride and how long they have owned the single same pair of jeans. That is, they start with raw selvage denim, and the more they use it and wear it overtime, the more comfortable it gets, and the more stylish it becomes.
Something similar with leather shoes. That is, the more you use it, the more comfortable it becomes, like breaking them in.
The pride I have in the holes in my clothing
When I lived in Vietnam, I literally owned one black T-shirt: a black merino wool Outlier.NYC T-shirt that I got for my good friend Kevin. I literally wore the same T-shirt straight for three years straight. And overtime, it accumulated holes rips and tears. but the funny thing is this: I actually learned to have pride in the holes in my clothing. That it was a marker of pride that my holes had so much wear and tear, and that is where in tear marks were self imposed, rather than purchased that way. In other words, you cannot purchase what is cool. You can only do it.
Probably the funniest thing that happened to me was one day when I was dead lifting at the gym with my black T-shirt with a massive hole in the front, a guy approached me and said “so that’s the new style now”? I chuckled and said yeah.
My mom doesn’t like holes in my clothing
Eventually I got to a point where my mom couldn’t stand it anymore, and patched them up. Initially to her dismay, there wasn’t any black thread at home, and she asked me if it was OK that she used neon yellow and orange thread instead. And I told her go for it, as I thought it would be more stylish. And I was right. Now my black Marino wool T-shirt with patches over it almost looks like a designer item. and I actually like it how that the bright orange and yellow thread displays how my T-shirt was patched, just like in kintsiguri, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with golden glue, to highlight the beauty in imperfection, and the craftsmanship of the repair.
So one thought about fashion: maybe it is best to invest in items that you could imagine using for a very very long time, and it is a personal marker proud of how long you’ve on that item and help how much you’ve used it.
A Lexus with over 400,000 miles?
Apparently in the car community, it is very cool to have bought a car brand new, and have accumulated a lot of miles on it. for example, I’ve heard stories of some car users buying a Lexus LS400 brand new, and accumulating over 400,000 miles on it. There is a certain marker of pride to have bought a car brand new, and to have accumulated all the miles yourself.
So in this way, maybe if your goal is to have pride in your car, instead of always desiring to buy the newest car, then maybe it does make sense to buy a car that you could a imagine owning or using for over 30 years.
Things that you grow more fond of over time, and things that you become less fond of overtime
Funny enough, the longer and more I use my Ricoh GR 3 camera the more I appreciate it. And this is even after my Ricoh has all these problems: for example, my Camera often has memory card issues, lens errors, and sometimes freezes. Maybe the imperfections of the camera is what lends its charm.
Also spots on my sensor —I’ve actually learned to love the sensor spots, because it is a marker of how long I’ve on the camera. Even my last Ricoh GR 2 camera, I literally used until it died. Maybe that is the best way to use a Camera, to just use it until it dies. Thus you have the one camera for as long as you can.
For example, I’m actually much more impressed by people who have held onto their Leica M9 cameras this long, instead of upgrading to the newest ones.
Why Tesla cars are so interesting to me
I don’t imagine that the overall aesthetics or the design of the Tesla cars will change much overtime. Therefore there is a sense of reassuremeant knowing that at least your Teslas body style will not go “out of style“. even the first generation Tesla S and the modern Tesla S don’t look that different, besides a cleaner front end. And I don’t imagine the Tesla model 3 to change that much overtime either.
Yet as time goes on, the Tesla cars can only get better. Maybe you could swap out your batteries for a higher mileage one. Also I imagine the auto pilot and over the air updates will improve the car. e
Even a Ricoh GR 3 camera— I am impressed that Ricoh continues to make firmware updates. This is also why a lot of Fujifilm users like the camera, because Fujifilm does a good job of updating the firmware across all their cameras, even the older ones.
In praise of Apple AirPods
Also a cool thing with Apple is that they have hidden over the air updates for their AirPods headphones. I have also noticed that as Apple continues to build out Apple Music and AppleTV, the Apple AirPods have better technology for 3-D sound, or even better technology when doing FaceTime.
The long-term genius of Apple is that when you own both the hardware and software, you can make quantum leaps in improvement. Not possible with Google android devices, or Microsoft, where the ecosystem is fragmented.
Well Apple eventually have their own social media platform?
It seems so. Right now Apple photos just has the ability to share with close friends and family. But I’m sure over time, Apple will eventually build out some sort of social media system for photographers or other créatives to connect. I think they’re just taking their sweet sweet time. Which is probably smart, because there is a last mover advantage as Peter Thiel says.
How Facebook could survive
My thought is if Facebook wants to succeed in the long term, they need to start making their own hardware phone devices. That is, literally making very very cheap Facebook phones and giving them out practically for free. otherwise they will not be able to control their platform, as the recent Apple iOS update has shown.
And what will happen in the long term? Probably some sort of digital feudalism where the poor and working class folks having free Facebook phones, with an ad-ridden existence, while as the elite and rich will have the newest $2000 iPhone, with a more beautiful experience.
Why buying cryptocurrency is smart
It seems that bitcoin, Ethereum, chain link, digibyte, dogecoin are smart choices for the long run.
Why? As time goes on, fiat currency due to inflation and declining world powers, will mean that the individual currency will lessen its value. For example, I currently see America in a state of slow decline, in which the US dollar will continue to be devalued overtime. even in its short existence, we have seen the euro decline very much in value. Even though Brexit from Britain was seen as a bad move, maybe it is actually the best way for Britain to conserve the British pound to maintain its value. Or how the Swiss are intelligent in staying neutral, and having the rich oligarchs of the world store their wealth in Swiss francs.
My soft prediction is that may be 50 years from now, it will continue to be a battle between America and the US dollar, versus China with the yuan. I think slowly but surely, all of the nations which China is investing heavily and will eventually start using the yuan as their official currency. Maybe this includes Vietnam and Africa.
And slowly but surely, America will continue to increase her foothold in other countries. For example, South Korea, the Philippines, and other US territories. and because Europe is relatively demilitarized, they will start probably becoming more friendly and open towards the US dollar.
Where cryptocurrency is interesting
Ethereum is very interesting because we should think of it like a decentralized world computer. As more people start using Ethereum and developing with it, the value of Ethereum will continue to rise.
With bitcoin, it has the strongest brand name, and is most known by people around the world. It is the Coca-Cola or the McDonald’s of the crypto world. That is, your mom and my mom have probably at least heard of it, and could pronounce it with a foreign tongue.
Digibyte is interesting to me because it has been around almost as long as bitcoin, yet it is 10 times faster than bitcoin. Digibyte is also 40 times faster than Litecoin. This is why I predict that in the long term digibyte will eventually become the preferred method for daily payments, like refilling your gasoline car, or buying an espresso. In the long term when it comes to technology, speed wins. Remember 56K versus cable Internet, and now fiber optic FiOS Internet?
People will continue to hoard their bitcoin, just like gold.
I think chain-link is incredibly interesting, because it deals with smart contracts. Contracts are what hold together society, and if you could make it smart with technology and a decentralized ledger, it will probably have deep societal impact.
I think the reason why Dogecoin is interesting is because it is essentially Elon Musk coin. Given the fact that Elon musk is currently the most interesting person on the world. And as time goes on, Elon will only become more influential and more interesting, and thus the value of Dogecoin will continue to increase, and I imagine that in the near future people use Dogecoin as a way to value Memes. I also see that sooner or later, you’ll probably be able to use dodge coin to buy a new Tesla. Or maybe even use dogecoin to take a space X trip to the Moon, provided you have enough Dogecoin.
The future of privacy
Nobody wants google to know what kind of porn they watch. What if one day it were discovered that Google Chrome incognito mode did actually in fact track what your porn watching habits were. What do you think would happen to the usage of Google Chrome after that?
Even for myself personally, I am less interested about privacy, but more interested in focus and freedom from distractions and advertisements. i’ve been a long time Google maps user, yet nowadays I see myself using Apple Maps more and more. Why is that? Google Maps starting to become overridden with advertisements, which I find aesthetically ugly and annoying. The average user seems like they don’t really care for advertisements much. But I think amongst the tech elite, we hate ads with a passion. Name any Silicon Valley techie that does not use AdBlock on their Google Chrome, or some sort of YouTube ad skip or plug-in on their browser.
Health
Something that becomes more important overtime is your health. Your physical and mental health. Your bodily physiology. It doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire driving a pink Lamborghini, if you are insanely obese and unhealthy. And obesity is not just an issue in terms of personal bodily aesthetics, but also it negatively impacts your feeling of physiological well-being and metabolic energy.
It seems that there is a cult of youth. That is, we always desire to be our younger selves. But is that actually wise? I think not. In fact, we tend to become better and more interesting the older we get. For example, re-watching the original matrix series, I am surprised by how fresh Keanu Reeves looks. He becomes much more interesting and attractive when he started the John Wick series in his 50s.
Or do you remember the most interesting man alive ads? Can you imagine a Fresh College guy in his 20s becoming the most interesting man alive? Of course not. The man needs to have some sort of character in his face, which is usually punctuated by fine lines, and gray hair.
And funny enough for myself personally, I am actually much more strong and powerful now in my 30s than my 20s. When I was in my 20s, I could barely dead lift 135 pounds. Just a few months ago my personal record for sumo deadlifts was 475 pounds. I like the idea that the older I get, the stronger and more interesting I will become. And of course the older you become, typically you have more life experiences, which also make it more interesting and wise.
An optimistic future
I am an optimist. You are the one who dictates your own personal future. If you continue to drink orange juice and munch on cookies, don’t imagine that your six pack will continue get more shredded over time. But if you continue to stay rigid with your intermittent fasting, and no carb no sugar diet, and continue to lift weights at higher intensity‘s and difficulties, of course your muscles will only get bigger and stronger. Maybe even your testosterone will continue to rise.
Your future is bright. and don’t forget you’re the one who yields the light.
ERIC