Weekly Mix #185 - Dating Inequality, Slack, Negotiating Job Offers & Buying Businesses

Weekly Mix #185 - Dating Inequality, Slack, Negotiating Job Offers & Buying Businesses

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Happy Monday!

I'm always trying to improve the newsletter, so today I have a question:

What would make the newsletter better?

Shorter? More links? Less? More or less of specific topics?

Hit reply to this email and let me know. Thank you!

I'm starting to build a Personal Podcast today, which I explain a bit more here. The aim is to create ~30 short, 1-3 minute episodes that cover my background, things I believe, and how I like to work. You can see episodes here, or on whichever podcast platform you prefer.

My favourite short essays this week were Moving Fast and Finding Solutions.

In this week’s newsletter:

📖 Attraction Inequality and the Dating Economy​

📖 Slack and the Imaginary Economy​

📖 Negotiating Your Startup Job Offer​

📖 How I Bought a Business for $0​

📖 Commenting vs. making​

10 Tweets

Have a wonderful week!

Graham

📖 👩‍❤️‍👨 Attraction Inequality and the Dating Economy​

Tim Urban tweeted the following this week:

Tim Urban

@waitbutwhy

Pretty grim. Interesting that the advent of dating apps has been so overpowered by other forces working in the opposite direction. Whatever the cause, this probably does not bode well for the health of a society. pic.twitter.com/Av2oEALPEv

March 21st 2021

147

Retweets

1,251

Likes

It reminded me of the article linked above, which reminds us that inequality doesn't exist just in terms of wealth.

Power laws exist throughout the world, including in sexual attractiveness, and the internet is going to change a lot of previous norms.

Sexual attraction and relationships may at first glance seem to be too complex and local to be affected by the internet, but the rise of dating apps as a source of meeting people means that inequality in this area is set to rise too (and indeed, already is).

📖 🗓 Slack and the Imaginary Economy​

This piece explores "featherbedding"—employing more people for the sake of employment—and how Slack is an example of this in the modern world.

I'm not sure I agree with everything in this post, but it is thought-provoking nonetheless:

"In post-industrial work, the main unit of input is concentration. Creative work takes time, but more time does not necessarily equal a more valuable output. The best ideas come up when smart people are allowed to focus — on their own or with a small group.

In a world powered by human concentration, giving every employee the power to “grab” every other employee’s attention is the ultimate form of featherbedding. It keeps everyone distracted just enough to make sure we’re not innovating too quickly.

And by offering this experience as-a-service to multiple companies within the same industry, Slack ensures that everyone can afford to be a little less productive. As Fabbri pointed out, “for companies, being competitive does not mean avoiding unproductive work, but only not remunerating more of it than competitors do.”

This does not mean that Slack doesn’t help some or even most employees. But it holds back the most productive among us and prevents them from coming up with ideas that would make all their colleagues redundant. In that sense, Slack is a social good, helping society absorb the shock of technological change."

📖 💵 Negotiating Your Startup Job Offer​

I'm convinced that most of us, myself included, are terrible at negotiation.

A large part of it is experience: most of us don't spent much time negotiating, so we don't get a lot of practice.

Another is that most of us avoid discomfort whenever possible, and negotiation often involves a lot of discomfort.

However, it's worth our while to get better at it, because almost all major transactions in our life—buying a home, getting a new job, buying a new car—involve negotiation.

Improve your negotiation skills, improve your outcomes.

This is a great piece on what kind of things you should be looking for when looking at potential startup jobs.

📖 💻 How I Bought a Business for $0​

Justin Mares is the founder of Kettle & Fire, a bone-broth company that does millions in revenue each year.

Prior, he spent time buying SaaS businesses, some of which he bought for $0. "Micro private-equity" as it's often called by some, and you'll recognize that term from last week's newsletter.

Here's how he structured one such purchase.

📖 📝 Commenting vs. making​

I wrote a short essay on a similar topic last week.

This is something I am, and was guilty of, but I've been trying to curb it as much as possible. Not considering the implications, priority, or solutions of what you're pointing out is a drain on everyone.

"It is, of course, much easier to complain about how things are bad rather than do anything about it, which is why people prefer to complain. 1/100th the satisfaction, but 1/1000000000000th the effort.

It’s also easy to confuse being “helpful” with being helpful. A lot of people think they’re “adding value” by nitpicking, or supplying unsolicited takes, when they’re actually just draining energy and momentum.

“Have you ever thought of X?”

“Cool! Yes, but there’s 12 other things we thought should come first. You’re welcome to go and do it. We’ve got a big tent and a lot of shit to clean underneath.”

“Actually, can’t help, gotta take my dog to therapy, bye!”6​

This type of casual drive-by advice is astonishingly common. I’ve mostly learned to ignore it when received."

10 Tweets

​This ship-tracking screenshot shows how many vessels are now traveling below Africa, instead of through the Suez canal​

​Nick deWilde's top 12 silicon valley blog posts​

​Hilarious comics used to remind us about important life lessons​

​Funny sketch from SNL on NFTs​

​A thread on how to manage employees​

​Advice for being a content creator and growing a following​

​How Slack might replace email​

Photo of the week

A few days here and there with some warmer weather, along with Daylight Savings Time (which, don't get me wrong, should be eliminated) means more evening bike rides!

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