Investing notes. Business, technology, and strategy. In search of long-term business compounders.
As always, this is not investment advice! Please do your own due diligence and take your own financial situation into account. Everyone has a different financial situation, which means different tolerances for risk and ability to take risk. What is appropriate for me may not be appropriate for you.
We live in a Chaotic era, an era of Change.
Nothing made that more clear than the last few weeks.… Read the rest “Paper Portfolio – March 2022 Update”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
There’s almost nothing directly related to business, media, or tech in this edition. It’s all Ukraine, but that’s just a reflection of how overpowering geopolitics is at the moment.
… Read the rest “Tidbits #72 – Ukraine”Russian President Vladimir Putin started his long-anticipated invasion of Ukraine, triggering one of the worst security crises in Europe since World War II, after threats of economic sanctions from the U.S.
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
Sorry I’m a bit behind since the last issue 3 weeks ago. Unfortunately, I seem to have given myself a combination of carpel tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. Will need to see how my arm situation evolves from here to know how much I can type (and unfortunately each issue does take almost a full day to hash out).… Read the rest “Tidbits #71 – Russia, Free Fire Ban, Inflation, Blockades + More”
This is Part 2.
In Part 1 – The Truth About Money – We discuss the properties of Money and explore why Money should be considered debt.
In Part 2 – The Death of Capitalism and the Rebirth of Religion – We discuss how society is rejecting the long-established rules around Money (and Capitalism) and why that will usher in a new era of Religion.… Read the rest “The Death of Capitalism and The Rebirth of Religion”
This is Part 1.
In Part 1 – The Truth About Money – We discuss the properties of Money and explore why Money should be considered debt.
In Part 2 – The Death of Capitalism and the Rebirth of Religion – We discuss how society is rejecting the long-established rules around Money (and Capitalism) and why that will usher in a new era of Religion.… Read the rest “The Truth About Money”
As always, this is not investment advice! Please do your own due diligence and take your own financial situation into account. Everyone has a different financial situation, which means different tolerances for risk and ability to take risk. What is appropriate for me may not be appropriate for you.
What a start to the year.
The selloff that began in late November and accelerated in December…continued to accelerate throughout January.… Read the rest “Paper Portfolio – February 2022 Update”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
… Read the rest “Tidbits #70 – Collapsing Bridges, EV Batteries, Virtual Humans + More”Biden administration officials are attempting to stem growing Republican opposition to high-priority legislation aimed at bolstering U.S. competitiveness with China and aiding domestic semiconductor production.
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
In Internet culture, #69 is supposed to be a funny number. So I guess that’s supposed to make this edition special. Edgelords like Elon Musk can somehow masterfully insert 69 (and 420) into random situations to conjure up billions of dollars in market cap (and personal wealth).… Read the rest “Tidbits #69 – China Easing, Drinking Glue, Depressed AIs + More”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
… Read the rest “Tidbits #68 – Antiwork, Rate Hikes, Autonomous Tractors, Pig Hearts + More”North Korea said Wednesday its leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a successful flight test of a hypersonic missile he claimed would remarkably increase the country’s nuclear “war deterrent.”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
With the first week of the year all wrapped up, 2022 seems to be as wild as 2021 and 2020 so far…
… Read the rest “Tidbits #67 – World’s Factory on Break, Kazakh Chaos, Deltacron, Bividend + More”Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology are experiencing staff shortages at their manufacturing sites as the city imposes strict controls on people’s movement amid its worst outbreak.
As always, this is not investment advice! Please do your own due diligence and take your own financial situation into account. Everyone has a different financial situation, which means different tolerances for risk and ability to take risk. What is appropriate for me may not be appropriate for you.
First off – Happy new year! May we all live in less interesting times in 2022.… Read the rest “Paper Portfolio – January 2022 Update”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
Hope you had / are having an enjoyable holiday break! 🎄🎄🎄
Although we spend most of our waking moments thinking mostly about what’s going on in our world and our work, what matters most is almost always our family, friends, and loved ones.… Read the rest “Tidbits #66 – Data Security, Elon, More Elon, TikTok on SNL, Log4j…+ Even More Elon”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
… Read the rest “Tidbits #65 – Economic Alliances, Bitcoin Dumpster-Diving, Metaverse Marriages + More”The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, put forward what it called an “anti-coercion instrument” relating to what it views as unfair trade pressure, arguing that new tools were necessary because of the “weaponization of trade for other geopolitical purposes.”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
… Read the rest “Tidbits #64 – Omicron, Powell, AI Paintings, Life-like Robots + More”The U.S. and the European Union are adopting “increasingly convergent” views on the threat posed by the Chinese government, according to senior Biden administration officials, deepening a trend that could tilt the scales in an era of great power competition.
As always, this is not investment advice! Please do your own due diligence and take your own financial situation into account. Everyone has a different financial situation, which means different tolerances for risk and ability to take risk. What is appropriate for me may not be appropriate for you.
I’m currently on holiday (at a nice warm beach) and I assume you were / are / will be, too, so I’ll keep this short (and because there really isn’t much to say anyway!).… Read the rest “Paper Portfolio – December 2021 Update”
This is Part 2.
In Part 1 – Competition, Experimentation, and Progress – I discuss why the positive benefits of technological and societal Progress alone are not enough to encourage people to pursue it, why Competition and Experimentation are both necessary to create Progress, and how to look for areas of potential Progress in the coming years.
In Part 2 – How the Metaverse and Digital Twins Can Accelerate Innovation – I discuss the the potentially transformative power of the metaverse and digital twins, and why societies and companies that successfully harness this technology could see rapid periods of Progress.… Read the rest “How the Metaverse and Digital Twins Can Accelerate Innovation”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
Maybe we’re all starting to wind down for the year…there isn’t much going on beyond a very narrow range of items centered around the concept of the Metaverse. Speaking of the Metaverse, there’s clearly a titanic struggle from several different groups for control of what comes next in tech / internet.… Read the rest “Tidbits #63 – Still Stuck in the Metaverse / Web3”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
While lining up the articles below for this week’s edition, I am struck by how many different games are being played. People tend to discuss differences in strategy (whether personal, professional, or competitive), but strategy cannot be objectively evaluated without knowing the specific game that is being played.… Read the rest “Tidbits #62 – Playing the Real Game, Metaverse Mania”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
Happy Halloween 🎃🎃🎃
I wish I could carve a pumpkin like these!
Source: Pinterest
… Read the rest “Tidbits #61 – PAX, Booritos, Meta + More”China recently conducted a “very concerning” test of a hypersonic weapon system as part of its aggressive advance in space and military technologies, the top U.S.
As always, this is not investment advice! Please do your own due diligence and take your own financial situation into account. Everyone has a different financial situation, which means different tolerances for risk and ability to take risk. What is appropriate for me may not be appropriate for you.
In the blink of an eye, the year is almost over as we head into the final stretch.… Read the rest “Paper Portfolio – November 2021 Update”
This is Part 1.
In Part 1 – Competition, Experimentation, and Progress – I discuss why the positive benefits of technological and societal Progress alone are not enough to encourage people to pursue it, why Competition and Experimentation are both necessary to create Progress, and how to look for areas of potential Progress in the coming years.
In Part 2 – How the Metaverse and Digital Twins Can Accelerate Innovation – I discuss the the potentially transformative power of the metaverse and digital twins, and why societies and companies that successfully harness this technology could see rapid periods of Progress.… Read the rest “Competition, Experimentation, and Progress”
Hello, hello! 👋🏻👋🏻
Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
This edition is super packed…so I’ll skip the random opening thoughts and dive right in.
… Read the rest “Tidbits #60 – Hypersonic Missiles, Cyberthreats, Trump SPAC’d, M1 Max, + More”The Chinese military conducted two hypersonic weapons tests over the summer, raising US concerns that Beijing is gaining ground in the race to develop a new generation of arms.
Since the beginning of this year, Capital Flywheels has written about global supply chain issues on several occasions, including the Suez Canal blockage, auto chip shortage, and potential supply chain stress from China’s energy crisis.
In isolation, each of these incidents are more than manageable.
But together, repeated stress will eventually lead to breakage.
The way things break is not always obvious because we live in a non-linear world.… Read the rest “Canary in the (Supply Chain) Coal Mine”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
… Read the rest “Tidbits #59 – Space Force, Taxes for the Digital Age, Tether?, Governance + More”Top U.S. national security advisers will gather officials from 30 countries this month with plans to combat the growing threat of ransomware and other cyber crime, President Joe Biden said on Friday.
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
Generally, I consider myself to be a fairly (long-term) optimistic person (but near-term realist). I’m generally more optimistic than almost anyone I meet or know.
Even with that starting disposition, the more I think about the sudden shocks from COVID-19, supply chain stress, and dramatic global geopolitical changes unseen in decades, the more I feel the need to tone down my medium-term optimism.… Read the rest “Tidbits #58 – AI Machine Guns, Collapsing Supply Chains, TikTok + More”
You come at the king, you best not miss.
Omar Little, The Wire
So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Almost two years ago, Capital Flywheels added Cloudflare to the Paper Portfolio shortly after Cloudflare’s IPO. For a while, the market overlooked Cloudflare and largely assumed Cloudflare to be fairly undifferentiated vs other CDN companies like Fastly and Akamai.… Read the rest “Cloudflare Aiming for the King”
The Paper Portfolio returned -5.68% during September vs -4.66% for the S&P500. This brings YTD returns to 9.90% for the Paper Portfolio vs 15.91% for the S&P500.
September saw a number of extraordinary and unexpected events. While Capital Flywheels anticipated some volatility around the potential announcement of Fed taper (check), Capital Flywheels did not foresee an energy shortage in China that is now feeding investor concerns around further supply chain stress and potential inflationary impact.… Read the rest “Paper Portfolio – October 2021 Update”
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
Sorting through all the things happening around the world recently has become a challenge in coherence.
Although we all live on one world, increasingly it feels like we live on multiple worlds. Sometimes these worlds touch and intersect, and sometimes they do not.… Read the rest “Tidbits #57 – Babel-ing, Crackdowns, Reunifying Media + More”
This is part of an on-going series exploring the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) space.
Part 1 “Buy Now Pay Later” and What Might Be Coming Next discusses why BNPL adoption is likely to surprise to the upside…and why BNPL must ultimately merge with commerce to survive.
Part 2 “Buy Now, Pay Later” and the Coming “Closed Loop” discusses Square’s acquisition of Afterpay…and why BNPL is a credible threat to the current payment network landscape.… Read the rest “How Shifting Consumer Preferences Could Threaten “Buy Now, Pay Later””
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Welcome back to another edition of Tidbits covering all the recent things worth talking about in business, media, and technology.
Less “news” in this edition, but a lot of thought-provoking think pieces that outline how society’s tectonic plates are shifting.
People are really thinking outside of the box!
Indeed a time for change. Perhaps COVID-19 has reminded us of how short life is, and there is never a better time to pursue ideas and dreams.… Read the rest “Tidbits #56 – New Frontiers”