3 | Hayden Capital Q3 Letter + More Media

I started this project aiming for 2x a week, but not even 2 weeks in I missed the goal I set for myself.

Sure, I can blame a bunch of different factors, but at the end of the day, I could’ve made the time, and that’s on me.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It is what it is. Starting any process is tough, no point in beating myself over it—I’ll strive for better.

“What’s in the box?

Pain.

I watched Dune in theaters this past weekend and it was amazing. Expectations going in were quite high already given the rave reviews I've heard, but the pacing and soundtrack somehow outperformed the high bar.

Typically, I’m not a huge fan of long movies, as it’s so hard to get that pacing right and allocating time to the right details. Dune hit all the right points making a relatively lengthy movie feel short.

I insisted that we will never go inside the spaceships. Dune is really a project that was, for me, focusing entirely on Arrakis and the Fremen planet, and focusing on the ecosystem of the planet. It's a story that is very grounded. It's not a story about space-travelling. It's so [much] more beautiful when we don't see.

—Denis Villeneuve

I’m so glad he did that as space travel is ultimately just transport, but the dramatic landscapes were surreal. You could feel the scale of every scene and how inconsequential humans are. Despite all the technology, nature reigns supreme.

Excited for the next part—hopefully I can read the book by the time the next one comes out.

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Hayden Capital Q3 Letter

Fred Liu of Hayden Capital has been a prolific writer since starting his firm. You don’t have to always agree with him, but he always has interesting things to say.

Seemingly like everyone else on Earth, I watched Squid Game this quarter. In fact, over 111 million households joined me in watching the show within a few weeks of its release, making it Netflix’s biggest series of all time. But what’s even more surprising, is its global appeal – it was the top Netflix show across 90 different countries, despite being entirely in Korean (a country of just ~52 million people).

So how the heck did this happen? And would this have been imaginable even 20 years ago, in an American-centric pop culture world?

It used to be that US content was the only game in town. With one of the largest, most affluent populations, and also the birthplace of the film & tv industry, most content was (justifiably so) produced for US consumers in previous decades – and citizens of other countries didn’t have many other options if they wanted entertainment. This (along with other forms of US Pop culture, like music), led to the idolization of American culture, and helped promote America’s “soft power” worldwide.

However, that’s changing with the internet and technology. Nowadays, anyone can produce content with a decent smartphone and some free editing software. It used to be that getting your content in front of an audience required a studio’s backing, getting scarce airtime on TV or in cinemas, and marketing dollars to advertise. However, Netflix, Youtube, and TikTok have made this previous “scarce resource” of distribution a meritocracy via algorithmic discovery.

Nowadays, the scarce resource is on the quality of content itself (with discovery algorithms, collective views, and audience ratings helping to filter through this flood of content).

Technology has broken down social and cultural barriers by getting to know all the cool things they may do. As tech has allowed us to do things more easily and cheaper than ever before, more content (from all corners of the world) is being created at ever increasing rates.

All this content ultimately reaches us for consumption through curators, whether it’s Netflix or Youtube’s algorithm or the editor/producer for The New York Times/Fox News. It can allow us to find better content that’s more suited to our tastes, but where does that taste come from? I’ve discovered many new interests thanks to Youtube, but will that always be a positive thing?

Further implications of technology and curation:

First off, companies who can “speak the same language” as these communities, will find it easier to expand into new countries, compared to brands from previous generations. Since these internet cultures transcend borders, there will always be citizens of these “online countries” wherever they launch.

This is the first time I’ve seen it put in a business context, but I always hold this to ring true. I’ve been able to connect with people all around the world thanks to video games where we have a shared culture and language. We weren’t always able to speak each others’ languages well, but the shared medium transcended that.

These companies that are able to hone in on the shared experiences or create a shared experience (think Supreme or any high fashion brand) will find success in this “metaverse” era.

Link to entire letter: Lots more good stuff including some recent investment theses.

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The New York Times Rollercoaster

Recently listened to the Acquired Podcast on New York Times.

Random Facts from the show:

• One of the five founding members of the Republican Party was the co-founder of The New York Times

• The New York Times Company pioneered tiered class structures when they went public in 1969

• Times Square is named after the New York Times

• The ball drop was installed in Times Square in 1907 for the new year in 1908 by New York Times

• The stock ticker outside the buildings in Times Square was implemented by them

These are some fun facts, but the New York Times has gone through a lot in the last 170 years. Although we may remember the recent spat of trouble its had post-financial crisis, there’s been a couple times before where it faced ruin, yet it survived to continue as one of the most storied media companies in the world.

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Bonus Round

For all those celebrating the American Thanksgiving, here’s a turkey recipe I plan on using. It’s almost reminiscent of Peking Duck with how they separate the skin from the meat during the prep process.

Never have I had such a moist and flavorful turkey with such crispy skin. Definitely give this a try and you won’t have to figure out what to do with your turkey leftovers.