Breakfast Notes #92 (Trump, Concentration, Running)
Hello friends,
This is the 92nd serving of the Breakfast Notes.
Happy reading!
Insightful Links Of The Week
Trump's Media Business Doesn't Matter
Matt Levine of Bloomberg explains the stock market's evolution, highlighting its most recent iteration as a psychological gambling game.
Trump's Media & Technology Group Corp's earning is nowhere near their valuation. (That's even after accounting its 22% fall)
So why?
Levine explains this phenomena, “Use it as a way to bet on Trump’s push for re-election. If he’s elected, will that make the company’s business more lucrative? Oh, quite possibly; maybe he’ll sign an executive order requiring companies to advertise on Truth Social. But I don’t think you have to posit a mechanism like that. You can just say people want to bet on Trump, so they buy Trump Media.”
His essay does beg the question - "Are our assumptions of the market still correct?"
The Writers' Ode to Running
Why do writers enjoy running?
More interestingly, why do runners enjoy writing?
They can seem to be diametrically opposite. After all, one requires you to hit the pavement and suffer under the suffocating humidity (at least in Singapore), and writing requires you to sit at the desk, agonizing over what the next word should be.
That may be where the similarities began. I love how the writer puts it, "One foot after the other; one word after the other. Sometimes it’s not pretty, and sometimes it can be maddeningly difficult. But I’ll always show up."
If you are looking to be a better writer, maybe you should try running.
How Cal Learnt To Concentrate
Cal Newport is an American nonfiction author and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University.
He is one of my favourite thought leaders because he embodies the ideal of 'deep deliberation'.
Every idea he explores publicly, from AI to productivity, is a product of deep private thinking.
What's his secret sauce?
His uncanny ability to concentrate.
Like all good superhero movies, we need an origin story. His began at MIT where he was a graduate student who took his first 'glimpse of thinking in its purest form'.
A must-read article for those interested in learning the value of focus.
Visual Of The Week
It always blows my mind that this was the Singapore River 60 years ago!
Now, look at us.
Never forget your progress!
May the sun shine upon your face,
Keith