Weekly Mix #184 - Carbon Footprints, Rural Revivals, Investing in Loss & Buying Businesses

Weekly Mix #184 - Carbon Footprints, Rural Revivals, Investing in Loss & Buying Businesses

​

Happy Monday!

In this week’s newsletter:

Blog Post: How I Offset My Carbon Footprint​

Article: Does Atlantic Canada have a blueprint for rural revival in the post-pandemic era?​

Article: Investing in Loss​

Article: When Content Becomes Your King​

Website: Flippa​

10 Tweets

Short Shifts

Have a wonderful week!

Graham

Blog Post: How I Offset My Carbon Footprint​

A quick post this week about how I've reduced my carbon footprint to zero, and how you can too.

tl;dr: use Wren​

Article: Does Atlantic Canada have a blueprint for rural revival in the post-pandemic era?​

While this particular article is more relevant for those of us from Atlantic Canada, I think we'll see a similar narrative start to play out across North America.

Driven by the switch to remote work, we'll see people moving to smaller towns and cities in search of lower living costs and better quality of life.

I'm excited that it may mean a resurgence for Atlantic Canada, even if property prices seem to be surging as well.

Article: Investing in Loss​

From the Liberty newsletter, on Josh Waitzkin's approach to learning:

Some good wisdom from Josh Waitzkin, via George Mack:

[Josh has] gone from chess grandmaster ---> Chinese push hands world champion ---> First ever black belt under Marcelo Garcia (GOAT of BJJ) ---> Mastering surfing in some unknown town in South America.

​

One of his most difficult (and powerful) lessons to understand is the idea of "investing in loss". [...]

​

in order to succeed at something - you have to lose a lot. You've gotta invest in loss. That's where all the beautiful lessons are.

It’s something I try to constantly remind myself of when I start something new.

I’m going to suck at it for a while, and that’s ok. Whoever I admire today, when they started, they sucked too. They just didn’t let that stop them and pushed through.

Now of course, it’s not because you push through that you’ll become great at anything; the condition is necessary but not sufficient.

But the converse of that is that if you don’t push through, you can be certain that you won’t grow and learn enough to become good.

"If you have a mindset of domination everyday, you're static and you can't grow. If you have a mindset of expanding your repertoire, you're going to lose but you have a steeper learning curve." - Waitzkin

​

"Everyone is ducking that stretch point as a way of life, which is why they are fundamentally mediocre at what they do." - Waitzkin

​

"What if we learn to love risk, our stretch point, the pain that comes with having our weakness exposed. So if one person gives you negative feedback, instead of hating it or them - you view it as an incredible gift." - Waitzkin

Article: When Content Becomes Your King​

Matt D'Avella is a popular YouTuber and the filmmaker behind The Minimalists: Less Is Now.

This piece talks about his burnout as a creator, and how he's found a better balance.

Some of the lessons:

Avoid comparing yourself to others

Form "slow goals"—goals that are meant to take longer, but prioritize happiness

Dedicate a whole day to one project, instead of splitting it among several

Take on thirty-day challenges: they help to both push through the initial friction of something, and set a date you can finish if you want

Website: Flippa​

One of the areas of entrepreneurship that gets talked about little is buying businesses.

Some have even coined it "Micro PE," as in "Micro Private Equity."

The aim is to buy a business with potential, find ways to make it more efficient (increase revenue or decrease expenses, or both), and profit.

Often, you can purchase these businesses for zero money up-front. You agree to take over responsibility for the company, and then pay the founder with profits from the business until the full price is paid.

Flippa is the most well-known marketplace online for finding such businesses.

While it's probably not the place to find the best deals, it can serve as a source of inspiration for what kind of businesses are out there to purchase, and how affordable they can be.

10 Tweets

​Julian Shapiro on building a home in the middle of nowhere​

​Shaan Puri on how Clubhouse will fail​

​Nassim Taleb's reasoning for taking a sabbatical every three years​

Short Shifts

​Some alternative drug education ads​

​Feeling guilty about not studying or working (Reddit)​

​A flow playlist (Spotify)​

Thank you for being part of the newsletter every week.

It means so much that you let me be part of your inbox, and I love building a community of like-minded people with you.

If I could ask one thing: could you forward this to one person you think would enjoy it? They can sign up directly for the newsletter here.​

If you haven’t yet, feel free to follow me on Instagram and Twitter, and say hi!