The Sunday Drive - 05/28/2023 Edition

Musings and Meanderings of a Financial Provocateur

May 28, 2023

👋🏼 Hello friends,

While we celebrate the unofficial start of summer this Memorial Day weekend, let’s also pause to remember its purpose and honor those who paid the ultimate price to protect the freedom we all enjoy.

Let's take it easy and enjoy a leisurely Sunday Drive around the internet.

Vibin'

The world lost a legend this week, the Queen of Rock and Roll, Tina Turner. She was a supremely talented and resilient artist, and the world is a much poorer place without her in it. So, this week I’m vibin’ to The Best from her 1989 album, Foreign Affair.

Share The Sunday Drive by Mike Allison

💭 Quote of the Week‌

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles but misguided men." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

📈 Chart of the Week

This week’s Chart highlights the importance of staying invested in the market if one is to earn the returns needed to meet one’s goals, or these, just to keep up with inflation. However, staying invested in the stock market can be easier said than done when an investor is approaching or is in retirement. Seeking lower volatility alternatives that don’t require timing the market is a worthwhile endeavor, and it’s why I founded New Lantern Capital.

🚙 Interesting Drive-By's

📈 A Simple Framework for the Drivers of Wealth - from Frederik Gieschen

Factors determining the increase of wealth:
Creation of economic value
Capture / control of that value
How much leverage is being applied
Period of time during which the capital compounds

🤔 Talent, Scarcity, and Culture - from Dror Poleg

Why are some companies back at the office while others aren't? Why are some people allowed to speak directly to the boss while others aren't? Why do some companies prioritize "process" while others encourage people to "break things"?
It all boils down to the type of talent each company depends on, at least according to a new theory.

🤓 Is Technology Outpacing Us? - from Chip Conley

Society-altering innovations have typically happened in a way that's allowed us humans to take them in stride and adapt to them.
The wheel was an extension of the foot. The hammer was an extension of the hand. It took two hundred years for society to get used to Gutenberg's printing press, but we digested it.

And, now, the internet is the digital extension of our nervous system. It seems like just yesterday when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in front of a packed and excited crowd (yet it was 16 years ago). Today, we lose our smartphones, and it feels like our heart has stopped. Social media has become our cancerous connective tissue. Gitnux reports that 61% of us have a digital addiction.

And now, artificial intelligence seems to be iterating at the speed of light (or the speed of darkness). Here's my question: Is technology advancing far faster than our wisdom? When I asked ChatGPT, it gave me a head fake answer pointing to the upside, "Advancements in biotechnology and genetics present new possibilities for treating disease and improving human health." But, then it acknowledged that these advances could raise ethical issues around gene editing and there could be "unintended consequences" with all this fast-paced tech advancement. And, yes, I was heartened to see that ChatGPT had some human integrity in their answer.

So, how do we get wise enough fast enough to incentivize the "intended consequences" of the tech revolution, not the unintended?

🤩 A New Approach to Building Your Personal Brand - from Jill Avery and Rachel Greenwald for the Harvard Business Review

Much of professional and personal success depends on persuading others to recognize your value. You have to do this when you apply for jobs, ask for promotions, vie for leadership positions, or write your dating profile. For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand, and you need to develop yours and get comfortable marketing it.
Personal branding is an intentional, strategic practice in which you define and express your own value proposition. And though people have always carefully cultivated their public personas and reputations, online search and social media have greatly expanded the potential audience for—and risks and rewards associated with—such efforts.

👋🏼 Parting Thought

All gave some. Some gave all. We remember and honor them.

If you have any cool articles or ideas that might be interesting for future Sunday Drive-by's, please send them along or tweet 'em at me.

‌I hope you have a relaxing weekend and a great week ahead. See you next Sunday...

Your faithful financial provocateur,

-Mike‌

If you enjoy the Sunday Drive, I'd be honored if you'd share it with others.‌‌

If this was forwarded to you, please subscribe and join the other geniuses who are reading this newsletter.