Monday Caffeine – Your Expert Opinion

I got mine a week early, a day after I turned 31.

Strangely, getting a vaccine here seems somewhat taboo. I know many people had gotten it, but if you were under the age threshold, you didn't say much about it for fear of blowback...

And no one is immune to that blowback.

For me, it was Moderna, not that I had a choice. I'll get my follow-up in a few weeks.

If we trusted our institutions more, this would be less of a discussion.

But today, we are forced to adapt and learn much more than we traditionally would have.

We all learned a lot about viruses in this past year, but we also learned more about police brutality, the nuances of our political system, and what hedge funds with leverage look like.

If trust in our institutions goes down, the burden of finding and selecting information shifts further onto the individual.

In changing times, this becomes a necessary adaptation.

As old structures are crumbling to make way for the new. Just read Neil Howe's "The Fourth Turning." We're right in it. It's a cycle that keeps repeating.

"Common knowledge" splinters as everyone follows their own version of the truth. So this is happening in markets (investing), education, personal health, and many other spaces.

If this is the century of the "Sovereign Individual," we'll need to equip ourselves with deeper independence of thought.

Luckily, the tools, communities, and ideas from people with expertise are more available than ever...

Make sure you find "signal" is critical. Many can lead you astray, and no one is an expert on everything. But there is true expertise, and when you find it it's not dumbed down. It's got depth.

The problem is to communicate to the masses, you cannot convey depth...

Anyways I hope you're well and that if you're getting the shot you've gotten it, and have been able to do something that is fun again.

We need more of that.


Learning is an Onion, not a Mountain.

I used to imagine learning was a process of adding ideas together – building this foundation and then stacking new information on top of it like mountain.

But as my knowledge grows, I realize that changes in perspective and perception are what truly level up my learning.

It's not that I add new ideas to my stack, but rather that my view of the board shifts. I realize that I'm standing from a different vantage point, and from this view, I see things differently.

Then, I think (at the time) that I'm seeing more clearly.

Until the next layer reveals itself.

Knowledge and wisdom are about depth. But depth doesn't just come from adding up to "more."

I enjoyed this podcast with Tyler Cowen with Lex Friedman mostly because you'll notice how Tyler engages with the world. He keeps saying out loud, "Everything is so interesting."


Catching Mentorship

Someone in the Jacuzzi asked about how people have gone about finding mentors.

The truth is... I've always paid for them. Be it buying and reading their materials and devouring everything they've ever created. Or simply hiring them to work with me.

If we want to improve at something, it makes intuitive sense that we want to put ourselves in the orbit of a swirl of information related to that topic.

You want to dive in and place yourself in the mix of their thinking, actions, and ideas.

Mentors have developed their own galaxy-like mastery of materials and skills that are easy to catch as you get closer to them.

We're learning machines; we replicate and expand upon what we are around most.

Has anyone had good luck finding mentors a different way?


What I'm Working On

What are other people focusing their time on right now? How do they spend their days? I've always wondered that. So I thought I would share more; feel free to share back if that's something you'd like to do...

• Jacuzzi Club is getting a Job Board that will help more people in DTC/e-Commerce get great jobs at up-and-coming brands.
• My Ghost site is getting a redesign to better organize my published work and allow for new formats.
• I'm recording my 3rd video on the Crypto Economy for Business Owners and Creators. Each video is helping business owners in my network understand what this shift means for their future and how they can participate.

1-1 Adaptive Coaching for Founders/Creators
You're going through the difficult journey of scaling your first business, making a major decision, or learning to package and communicate your skills to the market...

I help as a guide and partner through that process using an adaptive model that works with you to find more freedom, flexibility, and focus.

Just hit reply to share more with me about where you're at and what you're looking for; I'll see if I can help.

xx David