Get Down On It: What Else I’m Up To, 9/5/2023 Edition

How you gonna do it if you really won’t take a chance by standing on the wall?

Writing (thoughtfully) in public is HARD. But it’s so much fun to work out too (see #1 and #5 below).

YouTube is REALLY HARD. But the more I’m doing there see #2, #3, #4), the more I’m appreciating it as the public-access TV of the 2020s. Search, which often starts as a specific curiosity then devolves to channel flipping, has gotten me to some incredible places. There’s a lot of crap, but when you find gold – you make note of the channel (and you don’t need to take note of time of day anymore!). That’s the drive to create on YouTube, to be someone’s Mystery Science Theater 3000, or Birtha clip, or…

Let’s get down on it/down to business. Here’s what I’ve been up to in the last few weeks and I’d love if you’d take a minute to check some or all of these out.

AND – open call for feedback, I’d love to know what you think. What do you want more OR less of, from me, as I try to figure this stuff out?

1. “The Time I Got A High School Paper Extension In A Bar: The Fourth Turning (But Not In The Way You Think)” is my latest for Epsilon Theory. Neil Howe’s work on generational theory is massively useful AND massively misapplied. People need to stop predicting and start protecting. Everybody is so busy talking about the end of the world, what if we shift the conversation back to moving humanity forward? I’ve got thoughts and a funny story in this longer-form article.

2. “Put Down the Dividends and Back Away Slowly,” on the Excess Returns YouTube channel. Whether you invest in companies or have your own, the idea of how, when, and why to distribute cash to shareholders is… poorly understood. People make a religion out of this stuff and I was excited to talk to Jack Forehand about how to think about dividends. I also loved his article of the same title.

3. “Breaking Down the Greatness of Warren Buffett,” on The Education of a Financial Planner YouTube channel. Buffett is such a good communicator that everyone in the financial space uses his words, phrases, and framings to talk about practically everything. In music, the group you could never escape the influence of was The Beatles. And to this entire discussion, all I could think of was how Buffett is the Beatles of finance. Stay tuned for the end when I say what’s the most Buffetty Beatles song. I bet you could do better – send me yours.

4. “Breaking News Ep. 3: ESG, Vivek Ramaswamy and The Influence of Political Entrepreneurs,” on the Breaking News channel. Ever wonder who steers our public discourse and how they do it? Ever get frustrated with where the focus is being (re)directed? Want to know what we can do about it? These Breaking News conversations are by far some of the most important conversations I feel like I can be having these days. I still believe it takes a village. We’re trying to share the tools of village building with all of you.

5. “Is Your Work An Octopus Or A Swordfish” got a lot of great feedback from all of you and I wanted to highlight it again. I’m a living example of a swordfish trying to be a little more of an octopus lately. If you’re creating stuff in public, I’m sure you can relate too.