I know, it’s a bit late today. Was cleaning my desk and the home office this morning. I think I’ve done a good job. 😀
The world has had 3,565,120 cases with 2,164,032 still active. This is the only chart that I’m really looking at for Australia. Specifically, the number of active cases which is at 878.
Looking at Victoria, we only have 88 active cases.
With new cases so low, don’t you find it strange that the government is putting a return to business as usual dependent on people downloading an app that requires you to have your phone screen on and the app in focus for it to work? Apple has not released a change to allow bluetooth in that way yet. So, when you have an example of someone who doesn’t understand technology making decisions about technology, and there’s flaws to what they are saying. Then there are only two possible conclusions to make. Either that person is either stupid, or malicious. Scary when it’s both…
Also I noticed sensationalism popping up in mainstream media. MASSIVE RISE in cases in Victoria, and i looked at the numbers and it was 13 new cases. Wow, not really massive, especially when I’m watching France. So it goes back to diversifying your news source and applying critical thinking. I heard someone say it’s easier for young people because this is the default thing they do, but harder for older people.
When you read or hear people who said “it’s China’s fault” and “China lied to us”. Ask yourself this, since when does the national security of western nation depend on a communist regime telling the truth? Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify“ not, “trust and not verify”, when the Russians told them that they were reducing their nuclear stockpile.
Last week Western Australia was the first to ease restrictions. We can use that as a model of what it could potentially look like in Victoria when restriction ease. Outing no more than 2 people has been relaxed to no more than 10 people. Which includes both indoors and outdoors. BBQ are ok as long as it’s no more than 10 people. Boot camp, move from 1 on 1 to now 10 people limit. Gym and playground are still closed. Restaurant is take away only still. Cinemas / bars / nightclubs are still closed. No church, no library. Camping and hiking are ok now, however camp sites limit to those with no other accommodation options. Wedding are now at 10 people. Fishing, tennis, and golf are ok. Soccer at the park with friends is ok, as long as no contact, and the limit of it being a 5vs5 game (how does that work, do police keep a lookout, blow a whistle and go red card you touched that guy- JAIL!). School is back on there!. Not exactly the back to normal everyone would be hoping for, but from my perspective it is perfect – Kids back at school, but still working from home. Potentially camping and climbing again, just need the gym open again. Did anyone else notice in last week’s Investment Q&A, that Joe is thinking about making our current arrangement more normal even once restrictions are lifted? I gain 10 hours of my week back for not travelling.
The dystopian society with slaughter bots is coming!
An ad from your local government about the virus, and this one about the economic machine
Don’t forget to support your local restaurant otherwise they are so…
Markets and Economics.
Here’s an interesting thought exercise after watching this which questions why the early release of super. Is the dole not enough to live on? Are people too in debt and can’t afford to service their debt? Why didn’t the money come from the government itself? If that is true is the release of super to save the banking system because they are too big to fail due to the large amount of real estate debt? Also the current lockdown has exposed all kinds of supply chain issues in Australia.
I found this conversion between Peter Brandt, Founder of Factor LLC interesting and made me rethink some of the things I’ve been looking at in price charts.
Andreessen Horowitz has launched a 515mil Crypto Fund II.
BTC is trading at 8911 USD. Halving even in about 8 days.
Otherwise no other real commentary here.
Others Stuff
Anyway continuing the theme of giving you my source, I might as well give you other things I use. You know how the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, sell a man a fish and make a million bucks.”, well I haven’t worked out how to sell it to you….yet.
I know, I know someone’s going to say but that’s not how the saying goes. Well…it is today!
Anyway here’s the things I use in various categories. No I didn’t type this list for you specifically, but I did modify it to remove some language and other things that I naturally do.
Books.
Here’s a list of books that I’ve loved, that I’ve read cover to cover. I’ve only really been reading since my 4 year old was born and that was after some prodding from a role model in my life. There’s three ways to do it, Physical books, kindle, or audio from audible. I do all 3, but a large majority would be audio as i’m an audio visual person. You will find more wealth of knowledge in books than getting a qualification. The topic of qualification being useless is something that Paul Graham of Y Combinator also agrees with.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind By Yuval Noah Harari. – I read this book on kindle, then had to buy the physical and read it again. It’s my number 1 recommended book, after you read it, your view of humans and society forever changes. It helps you to understand who we are as monkeys and how we ended up at the top of the apex species when we are not the strongest, fastest animal in the world, nor do we have claws or sharp teeth. It also helps you to understand the world we have built
The Fourth Turning – This book in order to understand the crisis we are going through.
Disunited Nation by Peter Zeihan- This book to understand the countries that will possibly come out on top after the crisis will be the US, Japan, France, Turkey and Argentina.
Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson – This book to understand the future is remote work.
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt- This is an easy book to read to help you understand how economics really works. It gets you started in the Austrian economics way of thinking instead of what some of you have been taught.
Permanent Record – Edward Snowden book, on his life and why he leaked that the government is spying on everyone.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – One of my all time favourite scifi fiction books.
Forever Fluent by Gabriel Wyner – If you’re learning a language, i found the tips in this book helpful.
Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths- I resonated with this book, because you are taking computer algorithms and applying it to various aspects of your life.
The hard thing about hard things
The Bitcoin Standard – If you want to understand bitcoin this is probably not the book, the book is 80% about understanding money, what hard money is. And 20% what bitcoin is. It’s the book that I recommend to people who have been misled on how to view money.
Never Split the Difference – This is the only person you should learn negotiation from, he was former head hostage negotiator for the FBI. Don’t attend negotiation courses from people who can’t negotiate themselves out of a paper bag, just learn from the very best in the world, who will tell you that WIN-WIN situation is a stupid idea. Example – if i have a pair of shoes, and your job is to negotiate for my pair of shoes, then win win situation is where i get the left shoe and you get the right shoe, and therefore we both get a shoe. See how stupid that is.
Finite and Infinite Games By James P Carse – Life is a huge game that we’re all playing the question is are you playing a Finite game or an infinite game.
Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle – This is the leadership handbook from Bill Campell who was considered the coach to all the well known people in Silicon Valley. There is a lot to learn in this book.
Brief Answer to the big questions by Stephen hawking – I think this was his last book before he died, so i read it for that reason. It answers some questions I had, but now I have tonnes more.
Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world – He wasn’t just a guy who went around chopping off heads.
Can’t Hurt Me by David Groggins – He the only guy in history to complete the training for the Navy SEAL, Army Rangers, and Air force tactical air controller. And he ran on broken legs!!
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson – I own a dogged eared copy that i couldn’t put down.
Waking Up By Sam Harris. – This is the guide to spirituality without all the religious aspect, looking at it from a neuroscience
Principles – By Ray Dalio, gives you insight on the culture of Bridgewater, and their idea-meritocracy – an environment where you can openly have a disagreement with anyone including the executive team. Where every single meeting is recorded for anyone in the company to watch (except for extremely private health related matters)
Astrophysics for people in a hurry By Neil deGrasse Tyson- Give you a good basis of understanding astrophysics.
The life-changing magic of tidying up By Marie Kondo – After reading this book we got rid of a bunch of things and clutter in our lives, feels so much lighter.
This is marketing By Seth Godin – One of my favourite marketing books. Seth is the thought leader of marketing.
The courage to be disliked by Fumitake Koga, Ichiro Kishimi – The title of this book is deceptive, since I recommended it to my sister last year, and she was like I don’t care if people like me or not. But that’s not what the book is about, it goes into the theory of a prominent psychologist Alfred Adler, and how you can free yourself from the limitation placed on us by ourselves and those around us.
The subtle Art of not giving a f’ck – This book starts off well, and was entertaining at the start, but you get the message pretty quickly and not necessary to read the whole thing.
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink – Leadership is something that is bestowed upon you by the people. Management is something that’s bestowed upon you by the organisation. Jocko Willink is Former Navy SEAL, commander of SEAL Team 3’s Task Unit Bruiser. That moment in the debrief when he asked who’s fault was it that there was friendly fire and one person was dead. That is what leadership is.
The dichotomy of leadership By Jocko Willink – If you liked Extreme ownership then you will like this book, it’s basically just an extension.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson – His obsession with the small details. One of my fav biographies.
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance- one of my other favourite biographies. The man is a wizard. He taught himself rocket science from reading books. I think Elon is one of the people of our times that will change the world.
When Breath becomes air – Very emotional book about how short life is.
21 Lesson for the 21st Century – 3rd book that I’ve read by Yuval Noah Harari.
Cosmos – By Carl Sagan. If you don’t know Carl Sagan, watch the pale blue dot
Surely You’re Joking Mr Feyneman – From Richard Feyneman one of the great theoretical physicists of our time. I liked how he was picking everyone’s locks when he was in their office. I remember the story of how he was in investigation to the challenger shuttle disaster, and he came into the meeting and simply dropped an o-ring in some cold water and said that’s the problem.
A Brief History of Time – By Steven Hawking – One of the great thinkers of our time. What is space? What is time? How did the universe start? What will happen when it end?
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – understanding hindsight bias, and difference between conditional and unconditional probability.
Pitch Anything – The book you need to read if you ever need to stand up and sell something.
The Inevitable – Software is going to eat the world. It is a thing that I believe, and i’m not the only one.
Homo Deus – If you liked sapiens then this is the next book he wrote that goes into where he thinks we are going as a species.
The 5 Second Rule – If you procrastinate, basically this book tells you to count backwards from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And then just do it.
The Brain – The story of you by David Eagleman – Interesting book by a neuroscientist that asks an interesting question – Who are you, what is reality, how do you make decisions?
The Obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday- The premise is simple, don’t waste your energy on things you can’t change, and focus on things that you can change.
Ego is the enemy by Ryan Holiday- Everyone has an ego, and you may not know it, but it’s holding you back. So your objective is to overcome it.
The ONE thing – The lesson was prioritise your life to just ONE thing that will make an impact.
Linchpin – Are You Indispensable by Seth Godin – There use to be two group of people in the work place, management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These are the people who figure out what to do when there is no rule book, they are delighted and challenge their peers and customers. Work out the shortcuts, the hacks, find new ways. To the point they become an art and cannot be turned into process. They are the game changers in organisations, and are often seen as key person risk. Your job is to be that person.
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance By Josh Waitzkin – follow josh well thought out principal to learning.
Gut By Giulia Enders – It’s about your second brain, your gut. And how it affects different things in our lives. The omg moment comes when she’s talking about this creature that lives in the sea, floats about, then plants itself in a location, and then proceeds to eat their brain and continues to live. What the..?!
Leap First: Creating Work that Matters by Seth Godin.
Zero to One By Peter Thiel – Innovation happens when we do something completely different. When we move the world forward by building something completely different. It’s a
Man’s Search for Meaning By Viktor E. Frankl- This book documents Viktor’s life in the Nazi concentration camp. The lesson I learnt was that we can choose our attitude, we can choose our own way.
The Power of Now By Eckhart Tolle – I have read this one multiple times years ago. It must have been time I journeyed into this mindfulness and meditation
Starting Strength By Mark Rippetoe – This is the bible of barbell strength training at the gym, it has detailed explanation of all the mechanics behind all the big lifts. Normally if someone comes trains with me at the gym then you will be doing my modified version of this. Only because i find teaching someone how to power clean when they have never been to the gym before is hard. Follow this and you have a better program than a majority of the personal trainers at the gym.
Kettlebell Simple & Sinister – by Pavel Tsatsouline – This guy is the bible of kettlebell. Also because he’s russian and and i like that he calls people – comrade.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less By Greg McKeown – The disciplined pursuit of less. Ignore the advice of other people who don’t know you well. Get rid of the noise, just execute on the thing that will make a big impact for you. That’s the advice of this book.
Mobile Apps
I know some people found the rain parrot helpful, here are some other apps I have that people might not know about.
Signal – This is the most secure form of communication you can get on the phone. Ditch the facebook products and get on this. Probably a challenge as i know mostly people with IT backgrounds are on this.
Rain Parrot – very accurate rain prediction down to the minute.
WillyWeather – For all your weather needs. Wind speed forecasting is very handy to work out if I have head wind on the way down to or on the way back.
Pocket Cast – Cost a few dollars but tonnes better than the default podcast app. Who on earth listens to radio in the car anymore.
Waze – Gives more accurate direction than google maps. Warns of speed camera, potholes, road works accidents, and lets you know what your speed compared to the current speed limit (very handy in France since speed limit signs are very rare)
FireFox Focus – You are only allowed 1 tab. Helps keep you focused. Otherwise I use Brave when I need multi-tab browsing.
Outlook – Email client of choice on the phone. I don’t use the default.
Authy – For 2 factor authentication, you should be turning 2FA on for your emails and social media at the very least.
Audible – For the consumption of audio books
BitWarden – Password manger of choice, because it’s open source. Free if you don’t need the advanced features.
Twitter – The better social media of the mix.
Feedly – News agreegator, where I can get a headline view of what’s being talked about in news sites of topics I’m interested in.
Waking Up – My go to meditation app. The lessons are awesome. (Not religious, Sam Harris is the most anti-religion person, next to Christopher Hitchens)
CoinCap – Price tracking of cryptocurrency
Evernote – This is my go to digital notebook, where I keep notes. It comes with an extension for your browser, that allows you to quickly clip interesting things that you read. I have a notebook for places to eat, recipes to make, hacks, parenting, health, fitness, career, money, marketing, electronics, philosophy, personal development. And my list of notebooks ages on and on and on.
NordVPN – My goto VPN at the moment.
TradingView – my watchlist sync to my phone! How awesome is that!
Vic Field Guide – From the Melbourne museum. For all those times when you see a bird or insect and wonder what bird that is, you will find it in here.
PhotoScan – Great app from google that lets you digitalise your physical photos. I also use it to scan documents.
Speedtest – I use this to see what speed I’m getting on the connection I’m on.
Google Translate – You can use the camera feature to translate through your camera. Came in handy in Germany. They just need to built this into a contact lens.
TeamViewer- I use to remote control one of my pc from my phone.
Trello – I use this to organise various list, more than meistertask.
Podcast
Who on earth listens to radio in the car anymore in 2020. Australian radio is such junk. Instead If you are not on top of podcast then it’s something you should get on to now. Just pick your fav topic. Pick a podcast from someone who dominates their field, or that you find entertaining. I’m subscribed to 65 podcasts when I go to count just now. Here’s a few that I like.
The Portal – Erik Weinstin
Sean Caroll’s Mindscape
Naval
LTB Network
Future Thinkers
A16Z
Invest Like the Best
Jocko Podcast
After On
The Pomp Podcast
The Joe Rogan Experience
The Tim Ferriss Show
Programs
Brave Browser – My Default go to web browser.
PhotoMove – Allows me to quickly organise all my photos into folders of year, month, day. I use it to backup photos from the phone to our network drive.
Notepad++ – It’s like notepad, but allows for tabs. Where I keep random notes, or to compare two sets of text to find the difference quickly.
Greenshot – This is heaps better than the snippy tool. It’s free, it’s open source, and best of all it allows me to quickly add a big red arrow to screenshots!
Visual Studio Code – My goto editor for writing code.
PDFSam Basic – You know all those times you ask me to do something to PDF files, this is what i use, unfortunately you can’t get it on the work pc.
Audacity – My goto program for audio editing.
Scrivener – My goto program for writing long pieces. It’s what book writers use to help organise their books. 10x better than MS word once you’ve learnt how to use it.
HandBrake – Used for conversion of video file formats.
Teamviewer – Allows me to remotely connect to my computer.
MobaXterm – My goto program to log into my linux box.
Pulseway – You need it installed so that then you can turn your pc off remotely.
VLC – Media file player than I always install. Better than what comes on Windows.
Adobe Lightroom – This is what I use to organise my photos and make edits. Can usually get away of 99% of photo edits in here without having to fire up photoshop.
Camtasia – Goto program for video editing.
Hope that you will find something in there useful and lead you down a path to find something else useful. I’m always interested in learning about interesting things you’ve found.
Thanks for reading