Dropping Gold

By 1971, U.S. debt had simply grown too high. Just $11 billion in gold backed $24 billion in dollars. That August, French President Pompidou sent a battleship to New York City to collect his nation’s gold holdings from the Federal Reserve, and the British asked the U.S. to prepare $3 billion worth of gold held in Fort Knox for withdrawal. In a televised speech on August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon told the American people that the U.S. would no longer redeem dollars for gold as part of a plan that included wage and price freezes and an import surcharge in an attempt to save the economy.

When Exit?

When you have portfolio companies that are category creators, category leaders, who are well managed, and growing 50% per year or more and delivering 20-30% pre-tax margins (or more), and who have no existential threats to their market leadership, you might want to hang on to them for a bit. They may be just getting going on the valuation creation thing. More here.

I think Uber doesn’t know which way to go (no pun intended). It has an identity crisis on its hands: it provides value over traditional alternatives, but with tech-company overheads. But it doesn’t deserve tech-company valuations because it’s not as scalable — it’s tied to operating in the physical world, with physical constraints.

When thinking about Uber’s sustainability, there will be an equilibrium where higher prices cater to a narrower market.

A related question is – has any tech company ever scaled down their engineering team (after primary development was complete) and focused on profitability, to wean themselves off investor cash?

Martin Rees, a British astronomer, maintains that six numbers in particular govern our universe, and that if any of these values were changed even very slightly, things could not be as they are. For example, for the universe to exist as it does requires that hydrogen be converted to helium in a precise but comparatively stately manner—specifically, in a way that converts seven one-thousandths of its mass to energy. Lower that value very slightly—from 0.007 percent to 0.006 percent, say—and no transformation could take place: the universe would consist of hydrogen and nothing else. Raise the value very slightly—to 0.008 percent—and bonding would be so wildly prolific that the hydrogen would long since have been exhausted. In either case, with the slightest tweaking of the numbers the universe as we know and need it would not be here.

Insert Deep Quote Here

I hope you aren’t held back because of a number. And that you don’t rush into things because it feels like time is slipping by. I hope you do what’s right for you. Hold on. Slow down. And breathe in. Your age is your age. But more importantly, your life is your life. Don’t change your journey so that it matches someone else’s. We need to walk different paths so the whole world can be explored. Revel in the differences. And enjoy where you are, in this moment.

The singular for spaghetti is spaghetto

…sounds like a troubled side of town in Italy.

Before Smartphones

Some lines from this brilliant Substack post.

…I did not take photos of myself, was not filtered, and had no idea what I looked like as a bunny rabbit, puppy, or unicorn.

…I had no idea how many steps I’d walked or stairs I’d climbed…

…I read cereal boxes while eating breakfast and shampoo bottles while sitting on the toilet…

…Quizzes were just for students and I did not know which ice cream flavor matched my personality, who should play my BFF in a movie of my life…

Racing Glaciers

Bubble gum music usually boosts artists into stardom, it’s catchy, engineered to hit the dopamine spots.

Indie bands hit different though.

Advice is a form of nostalgia. It’s someone’s attempt to synthesise their experiences, not an accurate statement about how the world works.

Water is Life

These hydropanels use the power of the sun to extract an endless volume of clean drinking water from the air.