Sunday Reads And Listens - It Is The Best Time Ever To Be A Creative

Good Sunday morning…

Ellen and I have been in Steamboat Springs visiting friends of ours (thanks Bruce and Jill) for a few days. It is a magnificent place.

We saw no elk or bears but we are headed to try some kayak Rainbow fishing after I finish this post.

I am driving South over the Continental Divide later this afternoon to Aspen for a few days of cycling. I will cycling up the Continental Divide on Wednesday.

There were lot’s of great reads and listens this week.

I’ll start with two from my friend Trung Phan:

Why Is Linkedin So Cringe? (The short answer is the business model and algo) - related is why we invested recently in Ribbon which I write about this week.

Trung’s deep dive on Trader Joe’s - The Anti Grocer - is also a fun read.

Ellen and I watched Netflix’s new series on The Sackler Family called Painkiller. We enjoyed it. It was reminder that our own Government is very responsible itself for the epidemic/crisis that continues. No surprise that Rudy Giuliani and our bought and paid for Congress have been instrumental.

That brings me to the ‘degenerate economy’ which I have been writing about the past year. Americans have bet more than $245 BILLION on sporting events since restrictions were lifted by SCOTUS in 2018 (Phil Mickelson accounts for $1 billion of that). I am no judge and jury but I know a hot trend when I see one and this is a tidal wave of money and problems. The US is already ahead of the UK which has had legal betting and all the problems associated with it for twenty years. In the US, online sports betting has already surpassed online casino betting…

In some good news…Sam Bankman Fried had his bail revoked because he is a putz, fraudster who thinks he’s above the law while luckily living at his parents home awaiting trial. Speaking of putz’s, regular crier on CNBCq Bill Ackman had this to say about San Bankman after he was caught late last year..

That crazy whacky Bill Ackman…

Please remember this when you watch CNBCq (I do not) when they roll this asshole out each time the ‘market is in turmoil’. You know…because it’s entertainment when they are wrong and their own genius when they are right.

One more today…

I am a big fan of Mr. Beast content on YouTube.

This recent one of him and his team/friends spending 7 days stranded at sea (edited to 18 minutes) was excellent.

I am fascinated by his ability to create compelling content time after time. Way back in 2006 I had my five minutes of fame when my Company and show ‘Wallstrip’ was acquired by CBS. Today, I can’t even find the 400 plus shows on YouTube - I think CBS must have had them all pulled recently… which is so aggravating.

While I try hard not to look back, lately I wonder about some of my personal strategy decisions that I have made since that I would do over. All my time tweeting would have been much better spent building up a YouTube audience, something I have doing more of late. While I do not like looking at myself or hearing my voice on camera, it is fun to do and I am definitely going to get more creative with unique financial content and storytelling in the next 10 years on YouTube.

Another business outcome that has me thinking about personal bad strategy decisions is Dave Portnoy’s buyback of BarStool sports. I was a huge fan of Dave when he went rogue financial Davey Day Trader during Covid. Dave sold most of his company just before it exploded to the very smart and talented Chernin Group and though he still made a fortune selling the company to Penn, he now gets a do over with his company under his total control. In the early days of Stocktwits I bet big (time and energy) on Stocktwits TV a blog/email network and something I never pushed hard enough - a Stocktwits ‘after dark’ anything goes kind of place on the internet related to investing and markets. Today’s tools would have made all this so much easier and it is fun to see others do this very well but luckily we are still in the early days of this as it relates to investing, stocks, markets.

Long story short…it is the best time ever to be a creative.

Have a great Sunday.