Birthday Gifts
Last week I turned 28. I recently discovered that my health insurance allows me to get 30 free massages a year from my chiropractor's office. So on the morning of my birthday, I decided to take them up on that. I had been to the office before. My doctor, Samuel Tarrant, was a spry older man. He told me to take care of myself because he was over 50, and felt great. He looked like he was in late 30s and would bounce off the walls and ask me about my week and check in on me—basically everything you'd want from a doctor. But when I visited the office that morning, I was greeted by another doctor, a younger woman.
"Where's Dr. T?" I asked. Her expression went blank. "He passed away," she said, emotionless from a month's worth of grieving. "Hit and run. He was my buddy, and it's honestly been really tough around here lately." Dr. Tarrant was visiting his sister in N.J. when a driver struck him exiting the bus. He died a few days later. The guy who hit him had his license suspended multiple times before. I'm not going to act like I was particularly close to the doctor I only saw occasionally. But to hear about the death of a perfectly healthy man on the morning of your birthday granted me (and, in turn, I hope you) some perspective. I know you didn't know Dr. T, but if you'd like to do something good and are feeling charitable, his family is asking for donations to the Fender Music Foundation. When you donate, there's a little space where you can write Dr. Tarrant's name.
And now, the links.
Chris Rock once said "Shaquille O'Neal is rich. But the man who signs his checks is wealthy. Well, Larry Ellison is freakin' wealthy. Dude just purchased an entire island with 3,200 residents. How's that work? Well, it's complicated.
As editor of 99U, it's my job to find actionable advice from successful people. But lately I've grown fatigued with the odd hero worship that happens in lazy, click baity, lifehacky articles like "8 lessons to be learned from insert-famous-person-here." Thus, my latest: The Narrative Fallacy: Why You Shouldn't Copy Steve Jobs.
"The 1%" isn't some intractable group of pseudo-royalty that will never be breached by us mere peons. Surprisingly, 12% of the population will find themselves in the top 1% for at least a year and a 73% of us will spend a year in the top 20%. That's straight from the IRS. So lets stop acting like this is an "us vs. them" thing. Related: 27% of first time home buyers receive help form their parents. That's lower than I expected.
The Guardian starts accepting "members" as a revenue stream. Events are the way forward for monetizing content.
Today in absolutely ridiculous essays: Writer leaves town. Writer returns, discovers a new sports bar on her street. Writer writes: "I was horrified ... because the bro element had invaded my neighborhood." That faint crashing sound you hear is me flipping a table.
James Victore is one of my favorite people and I'd even watch him if he were just reading ingredients from a box of cereal. But for now, we'll settle with his analysis of signs throughout Queens and Brooklyn.
Building a community online through content is much easier when you have comments enabled on your articles. But there's a budding movement to remove comments from the web all together. A look at some sites reveals the dregs of humanity in the comments section (hi YouTube!). My take? Thoughtful content and a narrow niche are the elements that create great discussion. If you're a "general interest" site or are just pumping out clickbait, no comments. But if two lines from me in a newsletter doesn't satisfy your desire to learn every freakin' thing you possibly could about comments, API has you covered.
On the internet, fame is something that happens to you. So what happens when the internet famous stop being a person and start becoming a symbol? Jason Kottke, explores being internet famous and how common dynamics change the moment we have a "public." Related: The business of hating Kanye West. What we choose to "get outraged about" says a lot about ourselves. (h/t Sasha VanHoven)
Startups are hard. Business is hard. And rarely is someone in the trenches willing to give us real talk about how hard it can all be. You should read Rand Fishkin's gripping essay on having depression as the CEO of Moz.
We romanticize the small company that makes a physical good. We often marvel that only a few people can run a business making iPad cases. Or jewelery. Or furniture. But often there's a entire ecosystem that supports businesses like these. Why do we always forget about the factory workers?
You're awesome,
--Sean
P.S. 99U Conference ticketing is now open. It's 4/29-5/1 in NYC. You should apply.
"Where's Dr. T?" I asked. Her expression went blank. "He passed away," she said, emotionless from a month's worth of grieving. "Hit and run. He was my buddy, and it's honestly been really tough around here lately." Dr. Tarrant was visiting his sister in N.J. when a driver struck him exiting the bus. He died a few days later. The guy who hit him had his license suspended multiple times before. I'm not going to act like I was particularly close to the doctor I only saw occasionally. But to hear about the death of a perfectly healthy man on the morning of your birthday granted me (and, in turn, I hope you) some perspective. I know you didn't know Dr. T, but if you'd like to do something good and are feeling charitable, his family is asking for donations to the Fender Music Foundation. When you donate, there's a little space where you can write Dr. Tarrant's name.
And now, the links.
Chris Rock once said "Shaquille O'Neal is rich. But the man who signs his checks is wealthy. Well, Larry Ellison is freakin' wealthy. Dude just purchased an entire island with 3,200 residents. How's that work? Well, it's complicated.
As editor of 99U, it's my job to find actionable advice from successful people. But lately I've grown fatigued with the odd hero worship that happens in lazy, click baity, lifehacky articles like "8 lessons to be learned from insert-famous-person-here." Thus, my latest: The Narrative Fallacy: Why You Shouldn't Copy Steve Jobs.
"The 1%" isn't some intractable group of pseudo-royalty that will never be breached by us mere peons. Surprisingly, 12% of the population will find themselves in the top 1% for at least a year and a 73% of us will spend a year in the top 20%. That's straight from the IRS. So lets stop acting like this is an "us vs. them" thing. Related: 27% of first time home buyers receive help form their parents. That's lower than I expected.
The Guardian starts accepting "members" as a revenue stream. Events are the way forward for monetizing content.
Today in absolutely ridiculous essays: Writer leaves town. Writer returns, discovers a new sports bar on her street. Writer writes: "I was horrified ... because the bro element had invaded my neighborhood." That faint crashing sound you hear is me flipping a table.
James Victore is one of my favorite people and I'd even watch him if he were just reading ingredients from a box of cereal. But for now, we'll settle with his analysis of signs throughout Queens and Brooklyn.
Building a community online through content is much easier when you have comments enabled on your articles. But there's a budding movement to remove comments from the web all together. A look at some sites reveals the dregs of humanity in the comments section (hi YouTube!). My take? Thoughtful content and a narrow niche are the elements that create great discussion. If you're a "general interest" site or are just pumping out clickbait, no comments. But if two lines from me in a newsletter doesn't satisfy your desire to learn every freakin' thing you possibly could about comments, API has you covered.
On the internet, fame is something that happens to you. So what happens when the internet famous stop being a person and start becoming a symbol? Jason Kottke, explores being internet famous and how common dynamics change the moment we have a "public." Related: The business of hating Kanye West. What we choose to "get outraged about" says a lot about ourselves. (h/t Sasha VanHoven)
Startups are hard. Business is hard. And rarely is someone in the trenches willing to give us real talk about how hard it can all be. You should read Rand Fishkin's gripping essay on having depression as the CEO of Moz.
We romanticize the small company that makes a physical good. We often marvel that only a few people can run a business making iPad cases. Or jewelery. Or furniture. But often there's a entire ecosystem that supports businesses like these. Why do we always forget about the factory workers?
You're awesome,
--Sean
P.S. 99U Conference ticketing is now open. It's 4/29-5/1 in NYC. You should apply.
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