1 | Curation, Google Search, What Game Are You playing? + Media
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"
Welcome aboard, thanks for embarking on this journey with me! đ
Curation in a World of Creation
âď¸ When it comes to ideas/information in this interconnected world, most people are a mix of various ratios of: creators, curators, amplifiers, appreciators, and cheerleaders.
âLibertyRPF, Edition #88
I personally donât think Iâm very creative or extroverted enough to put my work (and self) out there to be judged by the court of public opinion. Instead, I think my edge lies in curation. Not to say I canât create, amplify, appreciate or cheer something(one) on, but I think my unique mix allows curation to rise above the rest.
Every second terabytes of data is created. 24/7 cable news and the internet has ushered in an era of always connectedness. So much noise is being created, how do we find the signal?
The person that turns the most rocksâwins.
âPeter Lynch
How do we turn over the most rocks? Speed x time. But you only get faster by spending the time flipping rocks and examining them. As you learn and build a framework to recognize the familiar patterns youâre seeing, you start going through the rocks quicker.
While I believe the ability to process quickly whatâs BS and what matters is something a good curator should have. Iâm still finetuning my BS detector and isolating the key points. Luckily, we live in a world where many people have honed this craft and are gracious enough to share their insights in the public sphere.
Ultimately, this should evolve (as I get experience!) into a curation of things I find interesting and helpful. Please go easy on me. đ
Google Search
Do typos count too? I wonder what the demographics look like on that 15%âŚ
One of my first internships dealt with SEO. The company was essentially an affiliate marketing firm that recommended personal finance products and would receive revenue upon sign-up.
I was blown away. Today, Google is an inseparable tool that more or less everyone knows how to use. Even so, are you using it to your full capability? I certainly wasnât (and still arenât today). It almost seems like magic how we can put any question we think of and (usually) get the correct answer in less than a second.
Yet, learning to Google something isnât everyoneâs first instinct (at least anecdotally). If we learned to look for information quicker and more effectively, how many accidents could be avoided?
Anyone have any tips and tricks to better use Google Search?
Also, from various A|B tests, itâs surprising the number of people who donât recognize when a link is an ad⌠The number increases significantly with age.
Some tips and tricks from a quick search.
What Game Are You Playing?
I think the market is both a game and a Game, i.e., both sport, frolic, fun, and play, and a subject for continuously measurable options. If it is a game, then we can relieve ourselves of some of the heavy and possibly crippling emotions that individuals carry into investing, because in a game the winning of the stake¡ is clearly defined. Anything else becomes irrelevant. Is this so startling? "Eighty percent of investors are not really out to make money," says one leading Wall Streeter. Investors not out to make money? It seems almost like a contradiction in terms. What are they doing then?
âGeorge Goodman (aka Adam Smith), The Money Game
What game are you playing? Every game has their rules and objectives. If you keep trying to play someone elseâs game, youâll never win at your own game. Even worse, if you play a game without knowing the rules, you can get destroyed!
All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there.
âCharlie Munger
Find a game that fits your skills, where the rules work in your favor. You probably canât beat Michael Jordan in basketball, but you have a chance in a different game.
If your goal is to beat someone else, there will always be someone else. Play a game where you have an edge and the objective is a goal you set, not your neighbor.
You see it in the wealth management business, where a good advisor will learn your situation and goals and invest based on those factors. Beating the market is nice, but if those great returns require concentration and the accompanying volatility, would you be able to sleep at night?
Clickbait Media
How many other people clicked it or even skimmed past it, storing it in the memory as another justification to buy crypto? Iâve seen institutional investing decisions made on similar levels of conviction.
âI do. I think itâs reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio,â Cook told Andrew Ross Sorkin in an interview that aired Tuesday. âIâm not giving anyone investment advice by the way.â
Cook said that he had been interested in cryptocurrency âfor a whileâ and that he had been researching the topic.
Itâs very reasonable for a tech CEO of one of the most valuable companies in the world to be interested in crypto and own it as part of a diversification strategy (potentially suggested by his financial advisor).
Although factual, the title gives a passing reader reason to assume Apple may buy crypto soon. The words themselves have no malice, but the implications to people who wonât read further may have an impact. This is just one of many titles that get pushed out everyday across as many platforms. Yet, history rhymes and weâve been here before.
Mass produced newspapers were once considered bleeding edge technology. As it matured, business strategy pointed towards using sensationalist stories to capture eyeballs and dollars. Known as âyellow journalismâ, the sensationalism drove America to what many cite as the cause of the Spanish-American War.
Ultimately, the public got fed up with fake news, leading to the establishment of a code of ethics that remains the norm today. However, with the advent of a new age of information fueled by technology, we find ourselves back in a similar position to our predecessors.
Donât hate the player, hate the game.
Iâm generally optimistic that as a society weâll reject the current state as something that just is. Platforms like Substack give me confidence that people much smarter than me are looking for change, to make a difference.
Read more on âyellow journalismâ
Bonus Round
Watch Arcane on Netflix if you havenât yet.
The 11th League of Legends World Championship just finished recently. If you listen to some of the interviews the player gave during the tournamentâthe way they see and play the game is very similar to trading.
Every second they have to consider the risk vs. reward of each action, their actionâs effect on the system and how the system responds, and control their emotional state. Iâm sure there are more parallels, but itâs an interesting scene.
Now weâre in the off season, some drama happenedâŚ
One of the most valuable eSport franchises in the world, TSM didnât make this annual world championship for the 3rd time in 4 years. Former pro player Doublelift (star of final episode of 7 Days Out Netflix), cites cultural issues stemming from CEO, Andy Dinh (aka Reginald), a former pro player himself.
Leadership matters. The problem lies in the fact Reginald is stuck to his beliefs that he knows best. The scene has evolved so rapidly, yet he still thinks he has the same level of knowledge as pro players who devote 12+ hours a day to the game. Because of his ego, he tries to win arguments over considering all facts and making an optimal decision.
Where did this ego come from? Reginald dropped out of high school at 17 to pursue eSports before it was even a thing in the West. Having built such a successful franchise at a young age when the world told him no would give credence to anyoneâs belief in themselves. But can those same decision-making abilities scale with the team?
Now valued at $410 million in their latest fundraising round. TSM has become an enterprise with multiple teams, streamers, and product lines in multiple games. The team has always been great with media exposure, showcasing player personalities, but the era where they dominated the competitive League scene seems to be fading.
As a fan for almost a decade now, I hope he can put aside his ego and make the optimal decision when situations call for it.
Really cool topics to continue thinking about!
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