Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads April 16th, 2023
“If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
"Overall, the bottom-up SaaS approach is a powerful strategy for gaining widespread adoption within organizations. It relies on delivering a high-quality product that meets the needs of individual users and teams, and then leveraging their advocacy to drive broader adoption across the organization."
https://sacks.substack.com/p/what-is-bottom-up-saas
2. I really like this guy Justin Waller. A very positive model for many young men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Z9W7fsSf0&t=529s
3. "In software, we like to talk about must-have products vs nice-to-have products. Of course, it’s a continuum and not binary, but the most successful startups are in the must-have category and the vast majority of failed startups are in the nice-to-have category.
Only, when times are good, it’s often hard to know just how much a must-have or nice-to-have a product is as budgets are loose and grow-at-all-costs is the mantra. The easy spending can make products look more must-have than they really are. Then, when budgets contract, the truth comes out."
https://davidcummings.org/2023/04/08/budget-pressures-highlight-mission-critical-software-or-not/
4. This is an instructive discussion on how to leverage audiences and technology to build massive businesses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C3n1vqG5VY&t=28s
5. I don't like to see this but it seems to be happening directionally.
"Central banks can see the writing on the wall when it comes to the end of the USD’s prominence. As a result, they’ve been taking rapid action to stuff their coffers with a stable asset that isn’t on the decline.
Since late 2019, and increasing at a rapid rate since then, central banks around the world have been buying up gold like mad. 2022 saw the largest stockpiling of gold by central banks ever on record, with a total of 1,136 tons being purchased by nations like China, India, Turkey, and Singapore. This frenzied buying hasn’t slowed this year either, with January 2023’s purchases up by 192% when compared with December.
In other words, everyone is losing faith in the US dollar. The final nails are being hammered into its coffin as we speak.
Over the next few years, we’re going to see a gradual-yet-rapid decline in the purchasing power of the dollar, and in turn, the economic power of the United States. This is more than likely going to signal a shift in global supremacy along with it, and create even more economic turmoil than we’ve seen these past few years (as if we haven’t already had enough of that).
So, what am I doing to make sure I’m as protected as I can be during this time? I’m sure you’ve already guessed: I’m buying more gold."
https://abundantia.substack.com/p/the-men-who-eat-gold
6. "So, the Ukrainians have worked out what seems like a coherent strategy to fight for the town. As long as the Russians are throwing increasing force into the battle, and advancing by blocks a day, the Ukrainians will continue to defend the city.
As they will the other Russian targets in the Second Battle of the Donbas. The Ukrainians will do that because they want the Russians to keep attacking, to keep them from building up fresh reserves and to keep them from building up deep defensive lines. When the counteroffensive comes, the Ukrainians want to face as small number of fresh, rested Russian troops as possible."
https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-23-reflections-from
7. I love the Substack product. But lots of questions on the business.
"Substack’s main issue is the absence of a lock-in effect and, consequently, limited pricing power. Ironically, that’s also the reason I like Substack as a user. The platform is built on email, allowing users to leave and take all their subscribers with them. In contrast, leaving Twitter results in losing most if not all of your audience.
From the user side, the reliance on email is a feature; from the business side, it’s a bug. If Substack were to increase its fee to 30% (the fee Apple takes in the Appstore), everyone would simply leave.
This means that even if Substack keeps growing its users, it can never charge them much money. Good for the users; bad for the business."
https://unfashionable.substack.com/p/substack
8. "What I think happened in the last two years is that the fragile remnants of the industrial work scripts lost their hold over our collective imagination. You might still buy into the belief that designing your life around continuous employment throughout adulthood is a good decision and that’s great if the story works for you, but it is no longer a collective story that everyone believes.
This is leading to weird feelings. People working remotely have found their life got a lot better but experienced a subtle emptiness that they couldn’t explain. I sense it was just the awareness of a collective lostness, being in a time in which most people don’t really share a narrative about what we should be doing with our time.
We’ve entered a choose-your-own-adventure labor economy that clearly and explicitly puts all the pressure on the individual to figure things out and everyone knows it."
https://boundless.substack.com/p/the-industrial-work-script-is-dead
9. Good perspective on Macron's visit to China. And Xi's China's issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leyoYtunqPQ&list=RDCMUCsy9I56PY3IngCf_VGjunMQ&index=5
10. "It is very early in the tragic conflict over Ukraine and much remains unclear. But whatever happens, our response must be realistic and strategic, serving our interests in Europe while ensuring the prioritization of Asia. It is both right and in our strategic interests to help Ukraine and our European allies defend themselves and make sure Russia does not gain from this loathsome aggression.
But we cannot rest our strategy on a fiction—that we can fight two major wars against China and Russia at anything like the same time. We need to have a strategy that accounts for that fact, not one that ignores it or wishes it away. Fortunately, there is one, and we should pursue it."
https://time.com/6152096/us-support-ukraine-china-priority
11. "However, with the information the Chinese have collected on Western decision-making about Ukraine, recent intelligence leaks, and previous US responses to constant Chinese aggressive behaviour, the Chinese Communist Party probably believes it is able to cleverly calibrate its actions to remain just beneath the threshold of American military or economic retaliation.
The real issue then is what happens if the Chinese leadership miscalculates this strategy, or America's strategic calculus in the Western Pacific changes and it becomes less accommodating of coercive Chinese behaviour?"
12. "In Europe, NATO’s interior lines are built on a backbone of posture left from the Cold War. Permanently stationed forces, stockpiles, and logistics networks that include bases, airports, and seaports are already in place and prepared to support massive military operations.
In the Indo-Pacific, however, the U.S. military lacks the interior lines it needs to fight and win.
Its forces and equipment are concentrated in Korea and Japan, and the United States is perennially challenged to secure pre-conflict agreements for posture elsewhere in Asia. To oppose a PLA force with the advantages of magazine depth and its own interior lines, the U.S. military must adopt creative, practical approaches to develop the interior lines it lacks, from Southeast Asia to Australia through the first and second island chains.
No one knows just what it would take to win a future war in the Indo-Pacific, but one fact is clear. PLA capabilities and CCP ambitions do not afford the United States the liberty of a World War II repeat: ceding the Pacific, then spending years of blood and treasure to fight back in. Asia is a joint theater with problems that require joint solutions. Working together is the only way to win, and it begins with interior lines."
13. "I’ve seen the same patterns in friends and clients. They feel like outsiders in comparison to tech’s “anointed ones,” and end up chasing external validation as a way to try to feel like they belong.
Instead of focusing on craftsmanship or doing work that matters, their life becomes about trying to get funded by Sequoia, go viral on Twitter, or give a TED Talk. External recognition becomes an end unto itself, often at the expense of their own values and vision.
This is what I call the “status spiral.” When we compare ourselves with those we perceive as higher status, we feel insecure and doubt our self-worth. This in turn leads us to chase status as a way to try to feel better about ourselves."
https://every.to/no-small-plans/the-status-trap
14. This is a great framework for figuring out B2B Sales for founders.
https://www.formatone.io/blog/enterprise-sales-b2b-startups
15. I'm legit curious about this new Netflix show now. We all have rage inside it seems. Product Zeitgeist fit as we are in the Age of Anger.
16. Every young man should listen to this discussion.
Net net: Everyone has challenges, so do the work and deal with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3nS5u_BtvY
17. Hope he is right. But the West needs to ramp up our preparations for Taiwan’s defense asap.
"One day, China may invade Taiwan, triggering a war with global implications. But that day isn’t soon. When and if it does, the timing will be determined by China’s leader, not as the result of any diplomatic provocation, but by his own calculation of benefit and cost. For now, it’s still possible to hope that cooler heads can one day find a diplomatic solution to avert a war that would have disastrous implications far beyond Asia."
https://time.com/6270599/china-invade-taiwan/
18. No surprise here and glad it’s happening. That is why they are "special forces."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65245065
19. Another example that we are in the Age of Grifters. I feel for the victims.
https://restofworld.org/2023/generacion-zoe-leonardo-cositorto/
20. This is an information & insight rich interview. One that you will listen to many times to understand the mindset of true success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuNOFW-oVn8&t=1870s
21. "My takeaway is that precious metals and other hedges are a defensive solution at best. It’s one part of a hyperinflation survival strategy, but only as a store of value that can be traded for a more stable currency in the future. My major problem with precious metals is that they don’t generate income.
What I learned from Stinnes is that the ability to generate income during periods of inflation and hyperinflation is based on your ability to produce things of value and connect them with buyers."
https://grayzoneresearch.substack.com/p/gray-zone-research-001-dying-of-money
22. "In sum, Europe appears to be turning its back on the technologies of the future, viewing them either as threats to be regulated away, or as consumption goods to be imported from China. If you want to be a superpower, this is not the kind of thing you do. Mastery of cutting-edge technology leads to both economic and military power; the EU will not be able to substitute regulatory power or moral power in their place.
Europe seems in danger of making that sort of mistake in the modern day. It risks becoming a backward but tranquil society, smug in its relatively high quality of life, refusing to engage with what Macron calls “crises that are not ours”.
That strategy might work for a while, as France and Germany buy off the Russian barbarians and make a quick buck selling a century of accumulated technological leadership to the Chinese at bargain-basement prices.
But in the long run, a decline into weakness, irrelevance, and backwardness will not work out for Europe any better in the 21st century than it did for China in the 19th."
https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/europe-is-not-ready-to-be-a-third
23. "China today is very different from what it was in the pre-Xi Jinping era. Practically every private company has now been forced to establish Communist Party Committees, which interfere in management decisions.
So while entrepreneurs might appear rich on paper, they remain servants of their masters in the Chinese Communist Party."
https://www.asiancenturystocks.com/p/playing-red-roulette
24. A very solid episode of NIA: talking about culture & business on the internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W27JeMCLAw
25. This was a good discussion on the rise of AI. Really enjoyed this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1gMhEUXeNk&t=1666s
26. This is an extreme case of Libertarianism & frankly stupidity. And probably likely outcome: Jail time.
"It’s not the smartest course of action to decide to completely opt out of society in a place where technically, you could still be called out for non-compliance. That kind of stuff ends with you in jail, as we’ve seen above."
https://bowtiedmara.substack.com/p/sovereign-individuals-in-argentina