🌎 Links

How do consumers really feel about the metaverse?
Plot twist... most people, including marketing dorks even know what it is, let alone how it could impact the future. More importantly, everything associated with the metaverse is seriously corny. Putting goggles on your face will NEVER be cool. Ever. We haven't even mentioned NFTs – according to the survey 69 percent of respondents stated they hated NFTs and only 12 percent said they fully knew what NFTs were.

What’s the real argument in favor of Musk buying Twitter?
Twitter and I go way back. I have fond memories of texting my tweets to #40404 to let the world know what I was doing. Twitter was the first stock I ever purchased and it's the only stock I've consistently purchased since 2013. I believe in Twitter. I tweet about Twitter often. All that to say... I would be in full support of an Elon takeover. He's an avid user and understands the product potential. He would drive innovation. He has an incredible platform and is able to build communities around his products. Maybe I'm way off here, but as someone who has watched Twitter stagnate over the last 10 years, I think Elon could be the best thing to happen to Twitter.  

Speaking of Elon! Here's a 70-minute interview he did yesterday with TED in which he sets out his vision for the future 

"The thing that does make sleeping difficult; I really try to work as much as possible, to the edge of sanity basically. Tesla is getting to the point where every high quality minute of thinking is a $1 million dollar impact on Tesla, which is insane."

The "Pity Me!" Personal Essay – a recent trend in writing brings us a whole lot of dramatics and zero perspective

"These essays aren’t about traumatic experiences but in a culture “infatuated with victimhood,” as Seghal put it, we seem to have created a climate where even stories which aren’t particularly sad or serious are spun as if they are. The only stories worth telling are the serious and sad ones, this culture suggests, and so everyone is encouraged to tell their story in as serious and sad a way as possible. The infatuation with being put upon also has a way of neatly dividing the world up into victims and abusers. In such a world the appeal of self-identifying as a victim is obvious..."

What 'Severance' Gets Right About Infantilizing Office Perks
"The eggbar is coveted as fuck" is one of the best lines ever delivered. But seriously, commuting 2-hours a day to be in an office is difficult sell at this point.

The dots will connect

People know good work when they see it. Everything takes care of itself when the work is good. You don't have to prove good work. You show it. Good work doesn't require any explanation – you don't have to champion it or defend it. Good work speaks for itself. And when it does speak to people, don't interrupt. You don't need to talk about it much – the work does the work for you.

And if your work is really good, you can spend less time doing all the other stuff — meetings, people, politics, numbers, management — the stuff that actually gets in the way of the work.

But there is a flip side to all of this.

You will never feel all that satisfied.

You will only see imperfections. Things that could have been done better. Details you missed. Changes you want to make.

And even when the work is improving, you will never actually think it's all that good. And this will drive you to feel a certain way. A sort of madness that you can only quiet by working on the next thing and with the idea that you are getting closer to something that will feel fulfilling and final. But it never comes. And so this cycle keeps repeating — over and over — and you have to constantly remind yourself that it is all part of it. That there is no destination.

You have to trust that the dots will connect.

🎶 Radiohead – Karma Police (Live on Letterman, 1997)

🌎 Links

ATTENTION: Don't be alarmed by the noise your computer makes when you insert the don.earth disc... it's just initiating a connection so that you can easily access internet hyperlinks:

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E E E E E E E EEEEEeeeeee

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BEDULUDOLEDULUDOLEEPEEPEEP
R R R R R R R R R R R R R
UMMMMMMMMMMMM

Dyson's noise-canceling headphones blow filtered air at your face

The device is called the Dyson Zone, and it's a set of noise-canceling, air-purifying headphones. It comes with a detachable visor for the bottom half of the wearer’s face that looks, to put it mildly, odd. That vizor actually blows filtered air to your nose, mouth and chin, sort of like a portable fan dedicated to the lower portion of your face.

Bravo Needs an Adderall Reckoning
In his memoir Pillow Talk: What’s Wrong With My Sewing (no time to discuss that title, moving on), Craig Conover of Bravo’s Southern Charm writes about how an addiction to Adderall got so bad, he couldn’t film the show without it.

Early Web Design Helped a Generation Express Themselves Online. How Do We Capture That Feeling Again?
This is the question I've been asking myself with this blog... how do we capture the feeling of early Web 2.0? It was limiting, but at the same time so vibrant and alive! 

Kottke adds Severance to the list of his"Unskippable Intros Hall of Fame" (opening title sequences that you don't want to skip) – Succession (that music!), Stranger Things (again, that music!), Halt and Catch Fire, The Wire, The Simpsons (gotta catch that couch gag), Transparent, Six Feet Under, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, and The Muppet Show. I would add Westworld and Madmen to this mix.

Why People Are Acting So Weird
Crime, “unruly passenger” incidents, and other types of strange behavior have all soared recently. Why?

Elon Musk buys $2.9bn stake in Twitter to become biggest shareholder
Platform’s shares jump after news that Tesla and SpaceX boss holds 9.2% stake.

🎶 Goo Goo Dolls – Name (Live on Letterman, 1995)

❇️ Advanced Pattern Recognition

Diet Coke is having a moment.

Not sure what it means.

Stay tuned.

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is not the real world. 

After spending a week there, you can be tricked into thinking $2M for an 1100 square foot fixer-upper is a STEAL and you should do ABSOLUTELY whatever you need to do to move.

Sell everything, downsize and MOVE RIGHT NOW... because this is it. This is THE PLACE! 

We would NEVER go on vacation because we'll always BE ON VACATION! 

Don't you get it? We need to be HERE, NOW. That's what Ram Dass meant the whole time – he meant WE need to move to Santa Barbara! 

Let's look at some houses. F@#! it, call the Airbnb host and see if they'll sell us this house! 

No, they won't? Fine, let's go see some open houses! 

Wow, these are super small huh? Who cares! We're in Santa Barbara! 

...What do you mean you have to offer at least 15-20% over asking to have a shot at the 2 MILLION DOLLAR FIXER-UPPER? 15% of 2 million dollars is more money than we paid for our ENTIRE FIRST HOME... shit. 

Pack it up, we gotta go back to the snow desert. 

Saas Pro Shops Trucker Cap

🐠 SaaS 🐠 Pro 🐠 Shops 🐠 Trucker 🐠 Hat! 

72 Hours in Vegas

I spent the last 3-nights in Vegas. 72 hours is my absolute max – anything longer seems truly insane. The energy here has always been weird. But a post-COVID Vegas is even weirder. Darker. 

The entire strip feels like you are living within a social media feed that you didn't subscribe to. An endless scroll of advertisements for pleasures you DON'T want. Click nothing. Ever. But even if you don't click, the content just keeps getting served. It's so disorienting.

Bliss

By the end of my 3-days, I had convinced myself that the entire city was one big simulation and that the majority of the people on the strip were merely non-player characters (NPCs) in the game. 

I determined that the simulation must have started somewhere between 2005-2008 because Pauly D from Jersey Shore is a headlining DJ. Chris Angel is still a thing. Taxi Cabs are far easier than getting an Uber. And restaurants are somehow able to serve "steaks" for $5.99. COVID obviously never happened here. 

In other Jersey Shore news... Pauly D's close friend Vinnie is now stripping at Chippendales. Caabs are here!!!

🌎 Links

Saint Peter's Becomes The First 15 Seed To Make The Elite 8, Watch The Moment They Sealed The Deal
The celebration is better than the ending of the game, especially that wild 3 by Ivey.

Youth Sports Made Me a Shopaholic
This dad energy really connects me – I can't wait to spend hours in Sports Authority looking at basketball shoes, baseball gloves, and tennis racquets. 

Airline CEOs call for end to federal mask mandate in letter to Biden
The executives say the mask requirement should not be extended beyond April 18, when it is set to expire

Kids Are Learning History From Video Games Now
More students are being exposed to historical narratives through gameplay

Confessions of an Information Hoarder
What happens to our brains when we have an infinite memory?