📡 Nothing feels better than scratching that itch
Pulse #138 — the curiosity itch; things we learn; and people we learn from.
Hi friends 👋
If you’re a regular, you’ll see some changes. Hopefully, you’ll like them. But, tbh, I don’t think this is the end of it. I’ll try to make Quick Tips a regular section of your weekly Pulse. I myself always find these little tips & tricks pretty useful.
Furthermore, although not new, I’ve updated our Spotify playlist a little; feel free to add your favourite songs. let’s see what we listen to…
Last week, I mentioned a Clubhouse room we ran on “things we learned from Naval Ravikant” last week; what I didn’t mention was why we did that — besides the fact that the three of us have learned a lot from Naval.
The other two guys, both named Ali, run a weekly Clubhouse room in a collaborative style, so people come to the stage for a few minutes talking about a thing/person/idea/podcast/etc. that they have learned that week…
It works as an idea creation and content curation quality filter. People and things mentioned in that room go into a Google doc for the audience to refer to later in the week when trying to feed their curiosity.
Hands down, it’s one of the best rooms I regularly attend in Clubhouse. I’ve got to know these amazing people who read/listen to these other amazing people. For someone who enjoys learning but sometimes is stuck in their own filter bubble, this is the perfect environment to scratch that curiosity itch. Somewhere I can learn about some amazing ideas, content creators (subjects people talk about in the room), and curators (people who talk in the room).
In addition to the connection building and finding a network of interesting tastes, this helps me find higher quality content a lot easier. Instead of going after unknown unknowns, I’m introduced to some super interesting unknowns and can dig deeper.
This is the power of [good] curation — what used to be the editor, the media company, the gatekeeper.
This is another example of their importance in the attention economy during the information overload era. They save you time by providing more value per unit of time.
Although you can argue that this can also create a bubble if the people you’re following [their curations] are constantly feeding you the same sort of information, the fact is that there’s no way around that unless you’re aware of the possibility of getting stuck in a bubble and actively trying to break out every once in a while — just to get a taste of the outside world; or educating yourself.
So, back to why we ran a Naval focused room
Naval and his ideas came up more than a few times, and as the three of us and some others found his ideas interesting, we thought we’d give Naval and his ideas their own session, so we discussed them at length; mainly his famous “how to get rich (without getting lucky)” Twitter thread.
And why does it matter?
Another name that came up a few time was Balaji — that’s Balaji S. Srinivasan — the somewhat controversial (in terms of his ideas and angles) entrepreneur and angel investor.
After Balaji’s name and ideas were mentioned a couple of times by people I felt I could relate with (in terms of their content-consumption interests), I thought to myself, “okay, this is someone I need to look into; more….”
To be honest, I had heard his name and had some ideas about who he was (mainly as the cofounder of earn.com [where I earned my first pieces of Bitcoin] and the CTO of Coinbase [where I bought my first ETH]), but the talks in our Clubhouse room triggered the digging and consumption of Balaji’s ideas… and the result was 🤯
Listening to him on Tim Ferriss Show & My First Million podcast was super interesting, and I highly recommend them. But it’s not just about what he talks about; for me, the way he thinks is even more interesting. When he talks, it’s like the ideas are hyperlinked. I mean, there’s SO much you can learn from him [well, at least get hints from]. This is something I definitely will have to learn a lot more about.
And what was my point?
Well, my point wasn’t really a single point.
There are some awesome rooms in Clubhouse. It is time-consuming, yes, but you should know where to spend your time/attention.
A community can optimise the process of content discovery a lot better than one or several algorithms, but then there’s bias…
If you don’t already follow, Balaji Srinivasan is someone interesting to follow both Twitter and Clubhouse (he was on last night).
I think I’ll be writing more about things I learned and people I’ve learned from.
but not here 🌒
Thanks for reading, but don’t stop; continue.
Last Week in the News
🇸🇻 El Salvador becomes the world’s first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender [link]
🇺🇸🇱🇻 US Justice Department has charged a Latvian woman it says helped develop Trickbot malware [link]
Waymo’s driverless taxi service can now be accessed on Google Maps [link]
Twitter may be close to launching Super Follows, as new research shows what it could look like [link]
Bing’s accident, Apple’s past, and Jack Dorsey’s hardware wallet [link]
Twitter’s speeding up, Apple’s getting ready for the future, and ransomware is taking over the world [link]
Back at Apple offices, Facebook messaging, and the next generation of Windows [link]
Another ransomware attack, another step for Dogecoin, and an electric hypercar for $2.4m [link]
New GPUs, a drone attack, and a new bank [link]
Tesla’s Texan problem, Xiaomi’s HyperCharger, and a cloudy sky on Mars [link]
🃏 a gift for you.
Worth Your Attention
a16z’s Crypto Startup School — Learn how to build a crypto company
if you wanna get into crypto business, this is a good starting point. lots of smart people…
and while we’re at crypto, here’s another thing definitely worth your attention:
Vitalik Buterin on Lex Fridman Podcast:
[Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify]
also, see this 🤣
Retailtainment by Marie Dollé — a deep dive into the new shopping experiences
it’s a great long-ish read; interesting analysis.
The Anxiety of Influencers by Barrett Swanson — a look into the lives of the Gen TikTok!
i don’t know if it’s out of jealousy or just pure ignorance when people belittle social media influencers, thinking “what the f are they doing? they’re not adding anything to anyone… why are they being paid for posting photos/videos of themselves…” but when you look at the market, it disagrees with them… i think, like any other thing, it’s a lot harder than it seems… and being successful in that deserves respects, even if you don’t understand/agree with it.
Alain de Botton’s Animated Field Guide to Getting Over Rejection via Maria Popova’s BrainPickings — A resaning antidote to one of the most dangerous and damaging romantic myths in our culture.
not the type of article i usually share, but brainpickings is one of the new resources i’ve been introduced to, so i do my usual thing and share it…
Chart of the Week
The Lifecycle of a Meme
& some stats
Facebook & Instagram ad benchmarks for retailers in 2020 [link]
4 in 10 US internet users say they check their phone every few minutes [link]
Top apps worldwide for May 2021 by downloads [link]
Exclusive LinkedIn data shows marketers are in demand – especially in the digital realm [link]
some interesting Snap stats
Tools & Apps
Google’s PageSpeed Insights: Make your web pages fast on all devices
benchmark your website — thank for the tip, Yash; also,
Lighthouse 8.0: Analyze web apps & sites, collect modern performance metrics [also from Google]
Creatopy: visual production platform
one of those handy tools for your toolbox
Koalendar: free online appointment scheduling software
has a pro tier at $6.99 per month, but the free tier is enough for most of your needs…
Quick Tips
Twitter/iOS: long-press the search button to go straight to the search bar.
Twitter/iOS: long-press the share button to go straight to the iOS native share sheet.
Twitter/iOS: long-press the home tab to switch accounts.
Clubhouse/iOS: long-press on your avatar while in a room to go straight to camera roll to update your avatar.
Browser/macOS & Windows: Cmnd + L (macOS) or Ctrl + L (Windows) activates the address bar on your browser
Spotted
Twitter is working on Raised Hand emoji ✋ reaction in Twitter Spaces [link]
Twitter is working on bringing Bookmark Folders to the Android app [link]
Twitter is working on the ability to “Change who can reply” after the tweet has been published [link]
Twitter is working on Tweet Reactions view [link]
Instagram is working to allow access to the Reels feed on the desktop website [link]
Instagram is working to show how much time left before a Story expires [link]
Instagram keeps working on Public Event Settings [link]
Instagram is working on the Monetization Help section [link]
Instagram keeps working on the Text-to-Speech feature [link]
Instagram continues to work on audio rooms [link]
Uber is working on dark mode in the Uber Wallet webpage [link]
Signal is testing new chat colours for iOS [link]
LinkedIn is working on Dark Mode for web [link]
Google Maps is working on a redesigned Directions UI [link]
Notion is working on “Synced block” whose content and subsequent edits are synchronized across pages [link]
🐦 Tweets of the Week
Fun Stuff
now, go read the replies to this 👇 tweet 🤣
and now we’re done for this week
What did you think of this issue?