Breakfast Notes #42 (Apple Discount, Horizons, Shame)

Good morning friends.

Here is what I want to share this week.

• Working Wednesday Reads 4. Every Wednesday, I take a 45-minute bus ride to the office. I share with you links worth your time. This week features one of the most well-crafted and compelling arguments on why you should write.
• Quote of the Week. ‘Hasta La Vista Baby.’ - Arnold Schwarzenegger, then and Boris Johnson, now. Boris bids the Parliament adieu.

Here is the 42nd serving of the Breakfast Notes.

Why Apple Store Pay Less For Rent

Shopping malls let Apple pay less for retail space than other stores. Most stores pay 15 per cent of their sales in rent, but Apple stores pay no more than 2 per cent of their sales.

The crazy thing is that from 2012-2022, Apple has consistently brought in $6000 per square foot daily. That's particularly impressive given that retail sales in the US have been declining.

Their consistency and mass explain the 'Apple discount.'

Visualization Of The Day

Reportedly, second-hand GPU prices are falling because crypto miners are currently flooding the market with GPUs. Now that crypto mining is no longer profitable due to the ongoing crypto crash, it looks like everyone wants to dump their GPU.

Horizons

If you are a financially savvy, committed buy and hold investor, you will mostly ignore the blips of a stock. You understand today's price is not reflective of the future's value. This is because your time horizon is long.

What if we had the same perspective towards ourselves? If we want to achieve great things in our lifetime, it would pay off greatly if we were not shaken by volatility and short-term costs.

This is why I write on this blog. It's tiring to do this every week but I hope that when my 1000th post comes around, its impact will far outweigh the cost.

In other words, when it comes to investing in yourself, remember that value compounds while costs remain linear.

The Long-Term Costs of Shame

In Singapore, it's very common for parents to compare their children's grades with the kids of their friends, cousins, siblings, neighbours. If comparing grades and academic achievement was an Olympic sport, we would at the very least win a bronze. (That's without the need for foreign talent)

This shaming process is one heck of a motivator to make them perform better.

But, the only problem is that they are infected with a mind bug. When they become adults, they will be constantly thinking about their reputation. They will care more about what people think of them than getting the right answer.

Without taking on reputational risk, we cannot gain substance, networks, wealth or career experience that will exponentially enhance our development.

It is no wonder that the best innovators are often shameless. Elon Musk is perfectly fine shitposting on Twitter, Steve Jobs famously refused to shower, and Mark Zuckerberg's vision of Facebook was finding the right girls to rate.

Am I saying that we should all emulate them?

Nope.

After all, wasn't it Jobs who refused potentially life-saving cancer surgery for nine months , shrugging off his family's protests and opting instead for alternative medicine?

Remember that now, Musk and Zuck are embroiled in legal controversies.

Yet, it would pay to learn a little thing or two to imbibe a little of their shamelessness.

Thank you for reading this, and truly, may the sun shine upon your face,

Keith