Terry Storch Dispatch w.38.2019
Dispatch w.38.2019
This week, Reia and I sat down to talk about budgeting. This is a fairly regular occurrence, however this time we were focused on post-college budgeting and not the more practical current budgets. Why on earth would you jump four-ish years into the future and think about budgets, you might be asking? Well, the simple fact is that decisions being made today radically impact our future. College decisions, scholarship decisions, and spending and savings decisions will all play in to the post-college reality. So, we looked at a monthly budget with an income of $45,000/yr. We plugged in tithing, saving, 401k retirement, and all your typical expenses and looked at the reality. What would a car payment look like? What would paying off college debt look like. It was a great discussion and really seemed to help her see the details, and I hope gives her more tools to guide some big decisions she is navigating these next few months.
Ironically, a few days after we had this discussion, I saw this article pop up via Apple News: Living on $50k a Year (WSJ). It’s a great read!
Your 1st blog post will be bad, but your 1,000th will be great.
Your 1st workout will be weak, but your 1,000th will be strong.
Your 1st meditation will be scattered, but your 1,000th will be focused.
Put in your reps.
—James Clear
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The Apple event has come and gone, and like every year has left mixed emotions on the broader public. A new line of iPhones and a new “Pro” model, new Series 5 Watch, Apple TV+ pricing at just $4.99, and much more. On the personal side, I bit the bullet and ordered a new Apple Watch Nike version, and I'm looking forward to it for activity tracking, calendar integration, and simply telling me the time. On a broader excitement level comes the U1 Chip that is going into the new iPhones. There is a lot of opportunity with the U1 chip and Apple diving deep in the UWB world. If you are not aware of UWB, here are two articles (Wired, CNET) that can offer a bit of context.
I have never met a leader who didn’t want to make an impact. However, I am sure your experience is the same as mine: some leaders make much more of an impact than others. What separates these leaders is a laundry list of possibilities, but this article really offers some insights we can all learn from. (read more)
I love watching and interacting with GREAT product managers; they are a special breed. This article, The importance of humility in product management, is a great read and outlines many unique dynamics that come with being a great PM. I love this thought: "Great product managers find it exciting to discover their mistakes. They recognize being wrong as a learning opportunity..” (read more)
Here are a few tidbits and nuggets of goodness for your delight.
The new Tool album, Fear Inoculum is really good. Tool was a regular listen for me way back in the '90s...and this latest studio album is worth a spin if you haven’t listened.
On the other end of the spectrum, "Snoop Dog Presents Bible of Love" was a new discovery for me. I know Snoop Dogg has done a lot of different things—some I like, some I don't—but I had NO IDEA he had a gospel album. HOW DID I MISS THIS?!? And yes, it's pretty good.
Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds...those names ring a bell? The epic baseball era of home runs and performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) was back when I actually enjoyed watching baseball. The Netflix documentary Screwball dives into this era and was a really interesting watch.