One Quote:

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." - Maya Angelou

We all deserve to thrive.

Live today with a little bit more passion, compassion, humor, and style.

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One Framework:

Locals vs. Tourists

I originally came across a simple version of the "Locals vs. Tourists" framework from my friend Shaan Puri, who referenced it in a group chat during a brief collapse in crypto markets in 2021.

In any arena, there are two categories of people:

• Tourists: Seasonal visitors who come and go. Usually come with the good weather and leave when it turns bad.
• Locals: Residents who are here to stay. Understand that the seasons will change and are prepared for all types of weather.

This general framing can apply to a variety of scenarios:

• Investing: Before you make an investment, it's worth thinking about whether you're a tourist or a local in that specific area. There's nothing fundamentally wrong about making an investment if you're a tourist, but you have to recognize you're a tourist upfront so that you can make appropriate decisions in the future if the weather does start to change. On the other end of the spectrum, Warren Buffett would advocate for being a local in every market in which you invest.
• Business: Evaluate your team and organization with this framework in mind. Who are the tourists that are here for the ride while it's smooth and fun? Who are the locals who will be here to grind it out when the water gets choppy? Teams of locals will generally win.
• Relationships: You can accurately place most of your relationships across these two categories. "Tourists" are the ones who are just along for the ride when it’s convenient or valuable—they'll disappear when it's not. "Locals" are those who are there when the weather turns and you have nothing to offer in return.

This leads to a natural follow-up question: How does one become a local?

While there is no fixed recipe, here's my three-part guidance:

1. Explore, Don't Tour: A tour follows pre-set routes through a location, established by others. But becoming a local requires developing a depth of understanding of a given arena that you can't achieve through those fixed paths. This only comes from exploring. Exploring means metaphorically walking the streets and alleys, roaming, and talking to people. I think about that a lot when I am learning a new topic. A course can only take you so far, you have to follow your inspiration and curiosity to go deep. This allows you to carve new paths to understand the ins-and-outs and form new perspectives on the terrain.
2. Page 2 Learning: I have this concept I call Page 2 Learning. Think of Page 1 as the first page on Google or the front page of the newspaper. Page 1 is what's readily available to the masses and generally where most people start and stop their learning on a topic. Everyone who wants to know something about a given arena reads Page 1—so there’s no alpha there. To develop depth and dynamic understanding, you have to go deeper—to Page 2 and beyond.
3. Analogize: Always take newly-learned information and place it within the context of your existing maps. Make direct or indirect comparisons and connections between the new and existing information. This forced mingling of ideas and information will help it stick and compound.

One very important final thought to leave you with: never become a Stubborn Local. A Stubborn Local keeps telling himself that the weather is seasonal and will get better, ignoring evidence that something has fundamentally changed. The Stubborn Local brushes off rising water levels, fleeing tourists, and fleeing locals. He eventually finds himself underwater and drowns.

Takeaway: Being a local does not mean ignoring new data or evidence. Embrace all new information and constantly update your maps. Never become a Stubborn Local.

One Tweet:

This video infographic of the most popular websites (measured by monthly visits) from 1993 to the present is pretty mesmerizing.

A few reactions (from watching it approximately 137 times):

• Amazon enters in March 1998 and is on it until November 2018. For all the noise around the collapse in Amazon's stock price during the dot-com crash in the early 2000s, the actual value that the company was creating continued to scale. Focus on value, not valuation.
• Google is an absolute juggernaut. Google and YouTube (owned by Google) combine to hold the majority of the visits of the entire top-10. Makes me want to go buy more Google stock (not financial advice).
• The search business is massive. Google, Baidu, Yandex, and Yahoo are all primarily search businesses that sit in the top-10.
• Don't ever sleep on Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook and Instagram have enormous reach and a huge portion of the world still runs on WhatsApp (not shown on the chart).

Definitely worth watching how this changes in the years ahead! Any predictions?

One Article:

The Reviver: A Profile of Steve Gleason​

This is the moving story of an unlikely friendship between two writers and ex-NFL player Steve Gleason, who for the last 11 years has courageously, stoically battled ALS.

Two of my favorite lines:

• "Despite his suffering, Steve has never stopped exploring the nature of his mind. He is not a bystander at the shoreline of consciousness, but a big wave surfer."
• "Resilience is the skill we can all develop, strengthen, and implement to move through and beyond painful or traumatic experiences. People may disagree, but I think this is a spiritual tool, which results from our practice of expanding our soul, awareness, or consciousness as we’re here being human."

A beautiful piece that's worth your time over a coffee this weekend.

Note: ALS is a condition that is near and dear to my heart. A few years ago, one of my closest friends and college baseball teammates, Stephen Piscotty, lost his mother to ALS. Last year, my aunt was diagnosed and has experienced a rapid decline. I will be donating to Team Gleason (an organization dedicated to empowering people with ALS to live purposeful lives) in their honor. If you're interested in learning more, see here.

One Podcast:

Breathing Upgrade: Get It Right & Catch Some Serious Air

I've become very interested in the science of breathing and the outsized impact that it has on all facets of life. This was a great listen on the topic.

The key takeaways from my notes:

• Breathing through your mouth forces your lungs to effectively become an external organ. You expose them to everything from your environment, including pollution, toxins, allergens, etc. Your nose is biologically engineered to act as a filter to all of those things. Always breathe through your nose.
• Most of us need to breathe more deeply, slowly, and deliberately than we are today. By doing so, we will improve other areas of our health and life.
• Tactical Exercise: A few times a day, try to take only 6 breaths in a minute (5 seconds in, 5 seconds out). This will start to train you to breathe more efficiently.

I just bought James Nestor's book to go deeper and will plan to share any new learnings as I have them.

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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