Greetings from Austin, Texas where I’ll be living for the next ~4 months! Loving it here so far, this is very much my type of city.
Note: you can read all past newsletters here and subscribe here.
Five Things To Share
1. I started vlogging :).
You can watch my first two vlogs here. Feedback is welcome!
Moving To Austin & Talking About The Wandering Life! – Vlog #1
How Minimalism Makes You Happier – Vlog #2
2. Trend: Incentive Aligned Education is the Future
There are a number of very fast-growing education startups (Lambda is a notable one) that charge zero tuition fees and do an income sharing agreement instead.
The model makes a lot of sense because if you directly align the goals of a school with the student, everyone’s going to win.
As someone who strongly dislikes misalignment of the college system in the U.S., I expect that this aligned education trend will explode over the next 5-10 years.
3. How to do what you love (a fascinating essay from Paul Graham)
This is one of my favorite essays of all-time. It’s an interesting takedown of how a very high percentage of people fall into the trap of spending their lives doing work that they do not enjoy doing. It also provides a framework for finding work you enjoy.
“With such powerful forces leading us astray, it’s not surprising we find it so hard to discover what we like to work on. Most people are doomed in childhood by accepting the axiom that work = pain. Those who escape this are nearly all lured onto the rocks by prestige or money. How many even discover something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand, perhaps, out of billions.”
4. China, The NBA, & South Park – A quick breakdown of the craziness
If you haven’t been following what’s happening between China and the U.S. right now, you should. It has major implications for the future of international relations, censorship, and much more.
The short story is that South Park did an expose about how Hollywood is selling its soul by catering its content to not offend China (and in the process, South Park got banned from China). Here’s the episode.
At the same time, the NBA’s multi-billion relationship with China is in jeopardy after the GM of the Houston Rockets tweeted support of Hong Kong. It’s a crazy saga that’s worth reading about.
5. Quote: Reid Hoffman
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn
This quote is printed out and on my wall because it’s one of the most important principles of how I build businesses, start newsletters, and (now) vlog! 🙂 Related, if you haven’t read The Lean Startup, this is a must-read.
Thanks for reading mis amigos! Until next week!
Sincerely,
Cam
PS You can follow other updates from me on Instagram.