Friday Fuel - Jan 22nd, 2020
Hi friends,
Greetings from New York City! Here’s your weekly fix of Friday Fuel, a collection of things that I’ve been learning from or enjoying recently.
📕What I’ve Been Reading: A few weeks ago, I wrote about the future of NFTs and digital collectibles. Big players like Nike and the NBA see the vision too. In 2019, Nike filed a patent for "CryptoKicks”, digital NFT sneakers. Now, the NBA has teamed up with Dapper Labs to create NBA Top Shots, NFTs of digital highlights. Top Shots are essentially digital sports cards. With the sports card market already exploding, this natural extension is primed for the younger generation. Instead of a picture of a player, you get a famous highlight from one of their games. Like expensive cards, there are only a scarce number of Top Shots in circulation which drives up the value of the NFT. If you’re thinking, who would pay for a highlight that I can view an infinite amount of times on YouTube?, you’re not alone. But one (wo)man’s trash is another’s treasure. So far, sellers have sold millions of dollars worth of Top Shots. This week, a highlight of a LeBron James dunk sold for almost 50 grand.
🎧What I’ve Been Watching: There’s a massive civil rights crisis going on in the Xinjiang region of China. Millions of Uighur muslims are being forced into “re-education” camps in an effort to “cleanse” them of their religion. Now, the US has put an outright ban on cotton imports from the region. This is a big deal considering Xinjiang produces 85% of China’s cotton which accounts for around 20% of the world’s supply. Add ongoing port congestion (and a container shortage!) to the mix and you can understand why the apparel industry is facing tough times.
This chilling VICE documentary follows two undercover journalists who visit Xinjiang to uncover the truth of what’s really going down despite the CCP’s efforts to keep their actions out of the media. Scary stuff.
🤯What’s Blown My Mind:
Over the last year, I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for maps. Especially ones that tell a story. Each section of this map contains 10% of the world's population.
🧵A Thread I’ve Enjoyed: Each day we make thousands of decisions that have direct impacts on our future. Here’s a thread of decision-making advice from a slew of business and psychology greats, old and new.
My favorite is Elon’s Razor: If you have a project, set a ridiculously ambitious deadline. Even if it takes 3x longer than the deadline, you're ahead of everyone else.
🧠Take Care: A friendly reminder to always make your mental health a top priority. This thread does a great job of breaking down the importance of acknowledging problems, finding solutions, and living in the present.
That’s it for this week. If you liked what you read or learned something new, I’d appreciate if you passed this along to some of your brightest, most curious friends.
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Thanks for reading,
Randy