Friday Fun(d) - Makara 💰, Yeonmi Park 🇰🇵 👉 🇺🇸
And a Happy Friday to You 🤝
Thought I had this week: You know how people always say, “The book was better than the movie.” What if this is the case because we ultimately give life to the books we read. Yeah, it’s the author’s story, but we imagine it. When watching a movie based on a book, we see someone else’s imagination of the events. It might not line up with ours, so we downplay it. Just a thought.
Survive the last final dog days of summer and enjoy the weekend!
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More crypto? 👇
What I Learned This Week
Makara
When I purchased my first cryptocurrency earlier this year, I created a guide outlining how. Still, I received a lot of questions from people confused by the process. I've put in hours learning this industry, and I have so many questions like many of you. We need a platform to help alleviate the uncertainty.
Makara is a fabulous development for just this problem. It will help many people not knowledgeable in cryptocurrency get some skin in the game.
I wrote about Makara a few months ago before they recently launched the first SEC-registered crypto investment advisor. Makara first came to my attention from The Pomp Podcast, where the Co-founder, Jesse Proudman, discussed irregularities in crypto investing. Because these irregularities can be wildly complex, he saw an opportunity to help make investing in cryptocurrency as simple as possible.
In April, I signed up for the waitlist, which is what every startup does now to build hype around the launch. A few weeks ago, I received my code to begin investing. Much like signing up for a brokerage account with a standard financial institution (Schwab, TD, Robinhood, etc.), there is the usual onboarding process. Once you're all set, it's as simple as transferring money into your Makara accounts and picking one of the crypto investing buckets. As this is in no way investing advice (!!), you can see that I have deposited only a small amount of money, to begin with.
I chose the DeFi bucket, which includes key applications we discussed in my post on Decentralized Finance (Aave, yearn.finance, Maker). The other investment baskets include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blue Chip, Inflation Hedge, and Universe.
I can't stress enough the importance of Jesse taking the challenging route and registering with the SEC. Other crypto platforms wish they would have taken this route after the recent Congressional Infrastructure Bill has shown that crypto is partially still at the mercy of the government. On top of all of this, the platform's ease of use produces a bright future for Makara.
Electives
What to Read
Using NBA Metrics to Scout Superstar Startups - Andreessen Horowitz
We live in a quantifiable world. Just about everything can be put in terms of percentages. This article is an excellent read on the similarities between the NBA (or sports in general) utilizing metrics to predict super-star talent, and investors doing the same to discover the next high-growth startup.
What to Listen to:
#1691 - Yeonmi Park - The Joe Rogan Experience | Podcast on Spotify
This episode has been a hot topic lately. Apparently, Yeonmi's story is not new news, but this is the first I have heard of her. Honestly, I have no clue how her story can be controversial, but fair warning, it's a tough listen. She goes into great depths of life in North Korea.
*Describing life in North Korea and her mom told her*
"Your tongue is the most dangerous weapon you have. Don't even whisper because the birds could hear you."
This shook me because freedom of speech is under attack right now, probably more than it ever has been. Regardless of the circumstances, nobody should be silenced, ever. Likewise, we should never think we have the power to silence someone else.
*Once she escaped North Korea & China, she took up asylum in a South Korean re-education center where they teach you how to live in a free society*
"It was overwhelming. Having choice and learning freedom was difficult. If I didn't have *good food*, I would have chosen to go back to North Korea (given the option). Thinking was hard. (It was almost like) Can you not just tell me what to do?"
Yeah, that one shook me also. And you know what? I believe thinking for ourselves is exiting free societies, too. As evidenced by someone having to do it for the first time as a teenager, it's not an easy thing. We would rather be conditioned to consume and have someone else make decisions for us.
*As she was crossing the Mongolian desert to escape China in -40 degree temperatures, where they would freeze to death if they stopped moving for a second. This is what she was thinking*
"No one even knew I existed. No one knew I ever came to this Earth."
Historical Find
Below is a copy of Benjamin Franklin's daily routine:
My first reaction was the obscure hourly time slots in the middle. To the right are Ben's daily activities, but to the left are two questions:
The morning question, What good shall I do this day?
Evening question, What good have I done today?
I have found in the professional world the ease of getting pulled in many different directions. It's chaotic and stressful. Ben Franklin's schedule (a) is simplistic, but (b) it's human. Too often, we get into the rhythm of robots and forget the human element we get to enjoy. So, what good shall I do this day?
Patent App of the Week:
Not to mention, we have Ben Franklin to thank for almost every patent app of the week.
Roku has applied for a patent that hopes to sync audio from "smart speakers" to "dumb speakers" because we just can't get rid of that audio system from 2010. I bought my first Roku streaming device this year, but it sounds like they want to start making a run at your full home entertainment. But not the actual products themselves. Much like they don't care to sell you a TV, it doesn't look like they want to sell you a speaker, either.
Audio Synchronization of a Dumb Speaker and a Smart Speaker Using a Spread Code
Provided herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method and/or computer program product embodiments, and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for synchronizing playback of audiovisual content among multiple speakers. Some embodiments operate to receive, at a first smart speaker, a spread spectrum signal from a second smart speaker over an audio data channel.