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Forgetting to Take Out the Trash- Nightcap #2

October 14, 2020
12 min read

NaNoWriMo, business strategy, and looking at old projects

Renamed the series Nightcap. Thought it was more fun than ā€œNightly Recap.ā€ I also forgot the take out the trash. Or rather, I remembered but had so many other things on my plate that I decided not to take it out anyway. Sent my resume to a few places (my contract is ending at my current job soon).

Nightcap #2

Bought

Five Guys

After eating clean for several days, I couldnā€™t resist the temptation of a nice burger.

Considering

Doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

This is an annual writing project. Try to write a 50,000-word manuscript in November.

Four book ideas

  1. Personal Finance Guide (as an Allegory)
  2. Cat Killer Novel
  3. Something extremely derivative
  4. A novel idea I had for a while. It is an idea that struck me as a kid- at least a concept. A feeling. Something I always knew I would have to write. It would end up being a series of some length, though. I was hoping to do a standalone novel as part of this challenge.

Obviously, though, 1 doesnā€™t immediately lend itself to a novel. Though I suppose I could write an allegory/parable. Iā€™m reminded of The Honey Bee or The Richest Man in Babylon.

The Honey Bee: A Business Parable About Getting Un-stuck and Taking Control of Your Financial Future was a book I read in a single sitting. It isnā€™t very long (hence parable).

The Richest Man In Babylon is a classic personal finance novel. TL;DR Always save some money for yourself.

Making something similar to that fits with my personal finance business idea, and I could probably even sell it as an individual product in that niche. I could also use it to buff up existing offerings. Sweeten the pot!

Iā€™m sure it is very different from other peopleā€™s genres as well.

Buying a TRX System

Being stuck inside, I considered many different exercise devices. I was looking into getting a manual treadmill before the pandemic- but they all were either too cheap or too expensive. Thereā€™s not much middle ground.

Another option was an exercise bike. Iā€™m talking old school fan on the wheel bike. Not these Pelotons. Iā€™m not fancy.

I read a bit about Randy Hetrickā€™s (the founder) story and decided I liked the concept. This is the one I was considering

Watched

Critical Business Skills for Success Episode 1: Strategy is Making Choices

A course taught by Dr. Michael A. Roberto.

Some interesting points from a graduate of Harvard Business School. I like seeing the perspective of people who go to these massive schools. It doesnā€™t seem much different from what is taught in other places, but that is an almost reassuring fact.

That said, I immediately had questions.

The Forbes 500 lost 250 of the companies that were on the list between 1955 and 1985. This turnover rate has doubled in recent times (the same amount was lost in the next 15 years).

But is this list ā€œfairā€? Did these companies drop out because they were completely defunct or because a list of 500 isnā€™t enough? Maybe there are more profitable companies in different areas. I would assume there were a lot more tech companies. There was also a bubble burst.

Is it true for other company indexes that are bigger? Should it maybe be the Forbes 100 now?

Should staying ā€œon topā€ even be the focus?

Examples presented:

  • Blockbuster replaced by Netflix
  • Tower Records replaced by Spotify
  • Hotel replaced by Airbnb
  • Yellow cab replaced by Uber

Some notes

Picking a Strategy
  1. What is your winning aspiration? The vision.
  2. Where will you play? Segments and geography target market. Market fit.
  3. How are you going to win? Advantage
  4. What capabilities must be in place? Execution. Not just an idea.
  5. What management systems are required to implement the strategy?
4 Key Facts about Competition
  1. Some industries vary widely profitable than others.
  2. Industry you are in matters a great deal. Forces beyond your control. Ex. Newspaper industry
  3. Competitive advantage may be fleeting
  4. Industry structure varies widely around the world. Fragmented vs. consolidated. Regulation, forms of government, culture.

A thought that was on my mind. Does a company need to make a profit? As long as it is self-sustaining, even if it is zero. One could argue a company has a responsibility to shareholders- but what if there are no shareholders? If you are the only one owning the business, and it is not capital intensive- what would be the issue with sum zero? As long as you could have a buffer.

Small assignment at the end: Consider two industries: airlines and pharmaceuticals. Why are airlines not profitable, but pharmaceutical companies are?

Airlines are capital intensive at every single point. You canā€™t just pull a giant plane out of nowhere. To run the plane itself, fuel costs, etc.

Pharmaceuticals might have to spend a lot on R&D (depending on the type of medicine), but producing most medicines is cheap compared to the sales price. It is similar to software in that way. Once the research is done, you can produce it assume you have the right inputs, which are a fraction.

See it here

Youtube

Have Video Games been on a Downward Spiral?

This video is excellent. It also explains why competition is good- showing how EA Sports gradually got worse and worse after getting exclusive rights to different sports franchises.

Iā€™ve had an interest in game dev my entire life- my specialization in college was Graphics and Animation. Iā€™ve produced (most poor) games. I think the trajectory of games has changed- but Iā€™m not sure if it for the worse. Certain sports games have :p

I think a lot of this video was clouded by thinking of those Critical Business points from above.

I especially enjoyed his points about not having a ā€œmiddleā€/average product. There use to be so many games, and you would rent them and play them just for the heck of it. Even stuff that wasnā€™t very replayable or what you would normally go for. Now there are more options but less variety: less variety and more division. You might only play ā€œRPGs.ā€ I use to play sports games. I donā€™t even like sports! Thatā€™s because games were fun regardless. Now there are either open worlds or terrible mobile games.

Programmer Explains Programming Memes by Ben Awad

Pretty funny. Worth a watch, even if you are non-technical. You donā€™t need any technical know-how.

15 Mistakes Beginners Make Cooking Food for the Week by Pro Home Cooks

See below.

7-Course Convenience Store Tasting Menu by Babish Culinary Universe

Just some food-related videos. Probably what pushed me to get Five Guys. Food YouTube is a dangerous place.

UK vs USA - Whose Songs are BETTER?

Not to ruin the video (which is completely subjective), but the USA won. Roomie is one of my favorite YouTubers. It was tough to pick between The Killers, and I Believe in a Thing Called Love.

Continued Love Island Season 5

This show is addicting. Watching through the UK version. The first two seasons were the best so far. Iā€™ve been watching reality TV in the background. Still doesnā€™t hold a shine to my favorite reality show- Terrace House. If you can handle Japanese subtitles, check it out.

Read

Paul Jarvis newsletter: Electric cars and perpetual motion machines

ā€œStarting a company is like having an electric car. Sure, it can go super fucking fast, but it also needs to recharge. If you donā€™t charge it, it doesnā€™t go at all. Both things are useful (going fast is exhilarating, but charging is required). It feels like too many startups and even the media covering them assume they are EVs with perpetual motion machines (note: these donā€™t actually exist and violate the first and second laws of thermodynamics!). The first concept to grasp the theory of perpetual motion is that itā€™s theoretically impossible. Science is fun.ā€

Obviously, the author of Company of One would take this stance. I love defying cultural standards and looking at things in a new way. Paul Jarvisā€™s whole philosophy on business spits in the face of tradition. I remember I bought the book simultaneously to Crossing the Chasm. Two books could not be more different. Crossing the Chasm is about disrupting massive industries with massive products. You can still use the principles (and the famous graph) with other products.

picture of chasm crossing. It is essentially a standard distribution graph with a gap in the first 25%. The ā€œclassicā€ chasm crossing chart

But the main points are about getting the maximum amount of adopters to your product. Paul Jarvisā€™s Company of One takeā€™s the opposite approach. Maybe you SHOULD stay small. After all, you started a business for a reason. Were you passionate about the topic? Was it to fund your lifestyle?

Going big for the sake of being massive is the worst reason to do it. If what you really want to do is knit scarves and you are happy enough- why bring in all of the management headaches of constant expansion?

This seems like common wisdom we have forgotten. Starting a small local business use to be the rule, not the exception. In a small town, you played a role. Were you a baker? The grocer? Iā€™m sure these are all food-related because I havenā€™t had lunch yet.

Now some ideas are about the IDEA. Maybe you want to start a personal finance company because you want to help people and it would be in the best interest that more and more people to consume it. Maybe the intricacies of finance by itself are less exciting than the results. In that case, it does make sense.

Paul Jarvis doesnā€™t advise not expanding. He says expand for the right reasons at your own pace (hence the electric car metaphor). My dad owns a trucking company, which is really just him now. He could have expanded at some point but made an active decision NOT to. He already didnā€™t have a lot of time, and I donā€™t think he was trying to be a businessman. I need to ask him more about this.

He also says you should scale smartly. Why not make more efficient systems? Perhaps you donā€™t need $15 million in seed money. Maybe you just need to find a better way.

Money is a magnifier. If you have good systems and habits, the money will make you happier. If you have poor systems and habits, the money will destroy you quickly. This is as true in personal finance as in business.

Throwing money at a problem doesnā€™t fix the problem. Money is a tool. If youā€™ve got a $15 million ticking timebomb, it isnā€™t too much different from a $0.002 toothpick. You can still harm yourself with it if you are trying hard enough. One will just be more explosive and firey.

Fixed - lucaspuskaric.com updates

The e-mail input box on these blog post pages was way too wide on mobile. It has been changed to 100%, so there should be no overflow. Iā€™m considering adding comment boxes to the bottom of the pages. Made images fit better/responsively.

Should I add discussions? The point of the blog is really to post my own thoughts. I tend to think discussion boards give equal credence to ideas or subtract from reading content.

On the other hand, it fosters communities and makes it easier to fix mistakes. If someone notices a typo now, theyā€™d have to e-mail me directly or use the front pageā€™s feedback form. That isnā€™t obvious.

A piece of me wants to add it just because it seems fun to do. There are existing solutions like Disqus and CommentBox.io, rather than spinning my own.

I may have talked myself out of it. Iā€™m not TRYING to foster a community. Iā€™d rather have a ā€œone on oneā€ relationship with the reader. Please reach out to me if you see a typo :p My real e-mail is [email protected]. You can also use the feedback form at the bottom of the homepage.

But Iā€™ll probably add it anyway.

Nostalgia - Retrospective

I mentioned in Nightcap #1 that lucaspuskaric.com use to be my old portfolio site. It was trash. Iā€™m considering putting back up a version of it just to archive that old stuff.

I really like peopleā€™s personal sites. Iā€™ve spent hours over the last couple of months looking at personal sites. Mine is a lot less cool right now. But at least it exists. I exist. Until the internet crashes down, only the person who made physical journals will be rememberedā€”a modern Leonardo da Vinci.

I looked through the old site and through a lot of my old Google docs. The slideshows on there are epic and hilarious. I was probably meant to be a contrarian public speaker. Thereā€™s still time.

Added

Backlinks

Tried adding backlinks to this blog on:

Freeform - Just thoughts

I was in a goodbye call today at work. One thing that came up was a story about going to a gas station. They were trying to buy some alcohol. It was in a rural area, and no one was wearing masks. The gas station cashier asked them to take off the mask because they couldnā€™t see how old they were.

I forget how it connects to this point- but I would tell a joke about the mask taking ten years off. Hmm. Welp, next time I say goodbye forever to someone, Iā€™ll write it down better :D

Ideas (or maybe just idea today)

Mystery Shopper for Programmers

The concept of mystery shopping has always intrigued me. I feel bad for suggesting this, but I also really want to do it. Iā€™ve worked with many contractors (and I say this as one) who were less than savory. There are people out there trying to sneak into job roles and hide under the radar for as long as possible- just collecting a paycheck. Not lazy people. Not incompetent people. People who * DONā€™T KNOW ANYTHING*. Literally posing as a stand-in. We could root out those people and reduce inefficiency in companies. Wouldnā€™t it be great if a mystery shopper showed up that helped point out inefficiencies in developersā€™ work and help them get better?

It is similar to the idea of the panopticon. Imagine a guard hides among a group of prisoners. Prisoners never know if they are being watched or not.

Extending this concept to technology/software could be a slippery slope. But it is preferable to a board like doctors and lawyers have. Now I just have to convince a company to pretend to take me as a new hire to scope out different teams or act as a customer. It all depends on the role and what is produced by the company.

Hey! You know me. Well, maybe not. Either way- I'm Lucas Puskaric! This site captures a small part of the nonsense I get up to. I'm not a vegan, but I do program stuff occasionally. I read books too. Stick around for unique big boy content.

You like the post? Let's be friends! I might e-mail you sometime