Hey Everyone,
I hope you all enjoyed a nice holiday this week. We’re down to the last few days of the year, with a new decade fast approaching. This is the perfect time to assess the past year and set new goals for 2020. It’s easy to set ambitious goals and then shelve them throughout the year as difficulties arise, so I like to be transparent about my goals and share them with others to hold myself accountable. One of my more ambitious goals for this upcoming year is to grow The Chomp to 1,000 subscribers. A great way to establish your goals is to conduct an annual life review—more on how to successfully get started below. With that, let’s dive into it.
Quick Bites
What's Amazon's market share? 35% or 5%?: Amazon has recently faced increased pressure as a result of antitrust and monopoly related backlash towards tech companies. Many fear that the company has grown too large and is stifling competition in various sectors. However, many of these folks haven’t analyzed the numbers that make up the beast that is Amazon. In this post, Benedict Evans peels back the layers and sheds light on what Amazon’s actual market share across segments is likely to be. (9 min)
Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will: Do strict physical laws determine the fate of the universe, or do the laws of nature allow for randomness? This is a question that has inspired centuries of philosophical debates. This interesting article from The Scientific American highlights a new experiment using quasars—brilliant beacons of light powered by supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies—which demonstrates that randomness is possible in the cosmos. (6 min)
The $100 Billion Reason Not to Return Gifts This Holiday Season: The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for returns, with $100B of gifts expected to be returned this year between Thanksgiving and New Year. Before reading this article, I never realized the cost and environmental impact associated with returns. Give this article a look and you’ll likely think twice before returning any gifts you received this year. (5 min)
Deeper Dives
How to Conduct an Annual Life Review That Will Catapult You into the New Year: To wrap up 2019 I’ve committed to completing an annual life review. This isn’t necessarily a fun exercise, but it’s extremely valuable and is a worthwhile endeavor. I did some research on templates to use and settled on the above from Steve Schlafman, a Partner and Executive Coach at Primary VC. The exercise takes a few hours to complete, which I recommended breaking up into a few chunks of uninterrupted time. (10 min)
This is Why Your Holiday Travel is Awful: For anyone who’s traveled through Penn Station, it’s painfully obvious that it’s one of the worst transit hubs in the world. This is a fascinating look into the history of Penn Station and the politics surrounding the three-decade-long attempt to modernize it. More than that, it’s also an insightful commentary on the current state of infrastructure advancement in the US. (43 min)
My Semester With the Snowflakes: At age 52, Navy Seal veteran and Purple Heart recipient James Hatch decided to attend Yale to earn his college degree. His eye-opening account of his first semester is a stark rebuke to the preconceived notions many of us have about the ‘snowflakes’ who attend Yale and other Ivy League schools. (12 min)
Media
The Last Dance: The Untold Story of Michael Jordan and the Bulls (Trailer): This week, ESPN released the trailer for one of their most anticipated documentary series ever. The Last Dance will be a 10-part look into the 1990’s Chicago Bulls who won an unprecedented six titles in eight years. I absolutely can’t wait to watch this when it premieres this upcoming
June.
Tweet of the Week
Song of the Week
Apple Music Link
Books
Currently Reading
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life (William Finnegan)
Recently Read
Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber (Mike Isaac): This is a fascinating look into the comeuppance of Uber and the fall of its Founder, Travis Kalanick. I had high expectations for this book, and it didn’t disappoint. Anyone who has followed Uber’s history will thoroughly enjoy this. (4/5)
Iron Gold: Red Rising Series #4 (Pierce Brown): I finally got around to starting the next book in the Red Rising Series—after finishing the 3rd at the end of 2017—and I regret waiting so long. For those unfamiliar with the series, I highly recommend it to any Sci-Fi fans. It’s a more expansive and enthralling R-rated version of The Hunger Games. (5/5)
Parting Thoughts
This Week in History
On December 25th, 1914, German troops engaged in WWI ceased firing their weapons and started singing Christmas carols. In what became known as the ‘Christmas Truce’, soldiers on both sides of the conflict emerged from the trenches and shared gestures of goodwill. The soldiers exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings, sang carols and songs, and reportedly played a friendly game of soccer. (Source)
"Beasts avoid the dangers which they see, and when they have escaped them are free from care; but we men torment ourselves over that which is to come as well as over that which is past." – Seneca
If any of you decide to conduct an annual life review, feel free to reach out with any thoughts or questions on the process. If you found something interesting, don’t be shy in forwarding it along to a friend. Happy New Year and best wishes for a prosperous start to 2020.
-Cody