According to Howard Marks the Co-chairman of Oaktree Capital, the question isn’t when will we all be back at work, the right question you should be asking is when you are going to be getting back on a packed train. Because if you find the answer to that question, then you will have the time frame of when things will get close to resembling how it was. Not everyone drives to work, not everyone rides to work . (The whole conversation is worth listening to.)
The world has edged higher, with now 2,630,095 still active. With 313,747 dead. Here in Australia, active cases continue to remain stable.
Victoria specifically has also remained stable compared to last week at 123 active cases, compared with 125 from last week. Hopefully no one has felt the need to do a maccus run last week!
Twitter has just allowed all employees to work at home permanently. The conversation around this is interesting. Also Canada did a study about remote work, and that it should be encouraged on a government level for all to help with inequality as those who usually cannot telecommute are lower income earners and hence unable to reap the lifestyle and financial benefits.
Someone needs to give the social media manager from Doncaster Council a raise, excellent communication skills
Unfortunately for us in Australia, we no longer have the right to protest, we are slowly giving up our civil liberty to authoritarianism. Even when you walk with your kids, not just in Melbourne. Same is happening in Canada. It’s just like communist china, but without all the cool kung fu moves.
Don’t forget to spend some time to appreciate having the kids at home. By the time they are 18, you would have used up about 90% of the time you will have with them. Same goes with our parents we’ve already all spent 90% of the time we will ever spend with them.
The source code for Australian contact tracking app has been released and has been torn apart by everyone who has any development skills. They forgot to include Tasmania in their list of states. How embarrassing. The server side code hasn’t been released unfortunately, so we can’t review that. Also let’s not forget that it still doesn’t work as advertised still. However the deputy chief medical officer says the app is fully functional because they have all the states on board, just because some old guy has a bunch of other old guys onboard doesn’t make it magically start working on a technology point of view.
Feb 2021 Avalon airshow cancelled, Tour de France delayed until 29th August 2020. (In the meantime, see if you can get hold of Rising from Ashes if you haven’t seen it.), Dota 2 Internationals due to be held in Stockholm Sweden delayed indefinitely. Still can’t believe the biggest event in e-sports couldn’t be online only esp most of the prize pool (34mil USD last year) is partly crowdfunded
Here’s what it looks like if you fly into HK today, and have to wait 8+ hours for your COVID-19 test results to come back.
Haircut soon?
Markets and Economics
Remember, if the economy goes bad in the coming months the fault is of the consumers that refuse to go further into debt and spend spend spend, not of the politicians that made wealth creation illegal
Nothing much to update this week. News and technology detox. (should try it, leave your phone in the bathroom when you go to bed for a start) Markets haven’t made any meaningful move to take note.
What is the one investment all of these investors have in common?
Paul Tudor Jones
Marc Lasry
Bill Miller
Mike Novogratz
Raoul Pal
Chamath Palihapitiya
Peter Thiel
BTC
Currently at around 9700 USD. Getting close to that magical 10k again. Twitter exploded when JK Rowling asked about Bitcoin and even Elon Musk replied.
Other Stuff
As Mark Twain said It’s not what you don’t know that gets you in trouble, it’s what you know for certain that just ain’t so. So, as we begin to slowly emerge from the crisis, there will be ample opportunity to retool and adjust one’s skill set. It will be about challenging your beliefs, it’s about hearing different perspectives and most importantly having a deep sense of self awareness. i.e understanding who you are, your base frame of reference, your personality, your own cognitive biases. Don’t let others mould you into something you are not. Focus on your strengths and don’t worry about your weaknesses. Tiger Woods strength was his swing, and that’s what he focused on, and is known for. Can you imagine if he took advice and focused all his attention on his putt
How do you get self awareness?
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Get some people who know you very well, make them comfortable to tell you the truth about who you are. That you won’t get offended. And then just listen
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Take a bunch of tests (Astrology for the intellectuals really)
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Myers briggs – Test is free on this site, and seems to have helped some people who i use to work with and come asking for advice. Link might not work on your work laptop, something is getting blocked on the work VPN. So try on your phone if you are interested. I first did it close to 20 years ago, and it hasn’t changed.
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DiSC profile – this is the version i did years ago, and yes it cost money, but you end up with a personalised PDF. Honestly it’s really quite similar to the Clarity 4D, I didn’t get any new insight from my clarity 4D, as it pretty much matches my DiSC profile. I’m sure you can find a free version on google
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Strength Finders profile, I must have done this one close to 15 years ago. Not sure how it works now, as it used to be a book with a code that you enter online to complete the test. But the results have kept with me all these years and guides me on how I operate.
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And I don’t mind sharing my results. I’m an INTJ or the architect on myer briggs, a High D on DiSC, 88%, and my top 5 strength on strength finder are
Activator – shoot first ask qsn later. Ready, Fire, Aim. Move fast and break things. If you thought about it, I probably already did it not really caring how things are received.
Strategist – Someone who goes through scenario and ask what if this, and what if that. I’m always planning next moves.
Futurist – I conjure up ideas of what the future holds.
Relator – I enjoy spending time with a small group of close friends rather than a large party. If i don’t talk to you much, it’s because i haven’t found a connection to you.
Significance.- I will make a big impact and I also inspire and lift those around me.
Stay ahead of the curve. Opportunity favors the prepared mind.
Since it’s Monday, I think the Monday motivation video from Gary Vaynerchuk CEO of VaynerMedia is appropriate. #$% you Monday, I’m going to make you Saturday. Hence I’m having a break today. Going to enjoy the fog among the trees.