andresmontejo.x

My reaction to the Trump verdict is pretty simple. This is about previously shared *tacit* understandings needed for the functioning of a free society. The current case and verdict seems similar to the Bork confirmation battle from almost 40 years ago: it is a sign of the breakdown of previous *shared* tacit understandings between the parties that made the US both strong and functional. To the Democratic Party leadership, Trump represents the breakdown of an understanding that the parties not allow a populist outside their perception of a window of allowable candidates. This is akin to *their* contention in 1987 that Bork represented a nominees outside the tacit agreement not to nominate extremists. Thus they mounted a new campaign of extraordinary measures to enforce their perception. To the Republican Party, the Democratic leadership is innovating never before seen warfare and immoral tactics by *initiating* extraordinary warfare in violation of the tacit agreement to accept the Republican Party’s right to propose reasonable candidates without hysterical bed-wetting behavior. They believe the Democratic Party is breaking the tacit agreement not to prosecute presidents or pursue legal action as part of a campaign. Leaving the issue of who is right aside temporarily, what is happening is the acceleration of the continuing breakdown of *SHARED* **TACIT** ASSUMPTIONS. These are the backbone of our previously functional country. They are not written down. You can’t look them up Trump and Bork are nominees portrayed as madmen by one side, that are so extreme as to require extraordinary measures. Democratic hardliners will celebrate. What will come back is a series of prosecutions by Republicans that the Democratic Party will see as evidence that Republicans are inexplicably evil. As for what I believe? I think the Democratic Party leadership is acting like shortsighted decisions to open the doors to hell don’t matter because many are in their 80s and aren’t going to be around long enough. And they don’t care enough about their own children or their country to care about the world they leave behind after their demises. I have always said that Trump poses an existential threat. Biden joined that club a while back. He should be removing himself at his age and in his condition and Kamala should not be a heartbeat away from being commander in chief of the world’s pre-eminent thermonuclear power. What do I want? It’s laughable. I sound delusional. I want all these people gone, removed by their parties’ middle aged wise men and women so that we aren’t forced to play this out. I want some vital person in their 40s with military and government experience and a technical background to be in the Oval Office giving the speeches needed to restore our nation. I don’t care which party at this point. Someone who has seen action and loves America. I don’t care the party, the race, the gender, the sexual orientation or anything else at this point . The fact that such a vision admittedly sounds insane…even to me….tells you everything about how these people have shifted our tacit understandings of ourselves. We have accepted madness. Adults would never have let this happen. The aged, ironically, have simply cleared out *all* the adults. How do you ask a badly misbehaving Octogenarian: “Is your mother or father at home?” I am more concerned with my children at this point than either Biden or Trump. We are going to play this out as we did Bork for our foreseeable future. It’s so insane. 🙏

gen z discovering going outside is the best way to meet people

I find it interesting that most of the worlds greatest macro investors are big crypto and tech investors (public and private markets) Stan D. PTJ Louis Bacon Alan Howard Steve Cohen Soros Rick Rieder Yet many macro pos(t)ers who wish to emulate them on X are still skeptics.

How incredible is this? “The famous Italian diver Enzo Maiorca dove into the sea of ​​Syracuse and was talking to his daughter Rossana who was aboard the boat. Ready to go in, he felt something slightly hit his back. He turned and saw a dolphin. Then he realized that the dolphin did not want to play but to express something. The animal dove and Enzo followed. At a depth of about 12 meters, trapped in an abandoned net, there was another dolphin. Enzo quickly asked his daughter to grab the diving knives. Soon, the two of them managed to free the dolphin, which, at the end of the ordeal, emerged, issued an "almost human cry" (describes Enzo). (A dolphin can stay under water for up to 10 minutes, then it drowns.) The released dolphin was helped to the surface by Enzo, Rosana and the other dolphin. That’s when the surprise came: she was pregnant! The male circled them, and then stopped in front of Enzo, touched his cheek (like a kiss), in a gesture of gratitude and then they both swam off. Enzo Maiorca ended his speech by saying: “Until man learns to respect and speak to the animal world, he can never know his true role on Earth.”

When I was 16, I was hired as an usher at a sports arena. Not knowing any better, I took the job as seriously as a surgeon or pilot would. I read every word of the job manual, memorized every rule, shined my shoes before every shift, and showed up way too early each time. I took things way way too seriously, because I naively thought everyone did it this way. Looking back, I was perhaps the most serious usher of all time! 😅 Unbeknownst to me, management started to take notice. Turned out doing things like showing up early and shining my shoes, which took zero talent, made me stand out. I was soon invited to help with job fairs, and was conducting 5 first round interviews a day with people decades older than me. A couple years in, the then president of the arena (Jim Goddard) got wind of this nerdy college freshman that was taking things way too seriously, and asked if I’d help him with some projects. At 18, Jim and I would spend a few hours working together each week. It took people weeks to get on his calendar (he’s a LEGEND in the arena operations management world), but he told me I can walk into his office any time. I didn’t realize it then, but the confidence I gained working with Jim at such an early age would change the way I looked at the world. It gave me that “anything is possible” outlook you have to have. And it happened because I was naive enough to show up early, take the job seriously, and keep my shoes shined. Wild what a life hack doing small things that take no special talent is.

This is perhaps the best small business I’ve ever seen. You may think it’s something fancy. But it’s a common business: A parking lot. A 🧵;

It took me a while to get out of the bloody midcurve but I now see clearly that the top of the pyramid of the entire crypto economy are art NFT's, and in particular, deeply culturally-relevant and truly pioneering digital artists. They'll only get more expensive in time too...

If you're not living under a rock, you probably saw the Apple Vision Pro announcement. Damn - this is revolutionary technology. Here are 21 mind-blowing examples of what you can do with it: 1. Touring homes for sale

I invested $10k into a random demo day fund in 2015 which put $515 each into 16 companies, "spray and pray" that turned into ~$250k, mainly in GitLab and Equipmentshare (+ a bunch of other small positions and several 0's) Valuations were reasonable, companies had real traction, the # of companies hadn't yet exploded & anyone could still invest in them at demo day. Spray and pray was a great strategy at the time! I did small checks into a handful of these funds from 2013-2015 ($80k invested) and ended up in some good companies - Webflow, Easypost, Outschool, Shipbob, Ironclad, Flexport, etc. Overall the $80k those years turned into ~$250k realized and another ~$700k unrealized (some of it surely overvalued) for a 12x, pretty good for no-name demo day investors. I didn't continue investing in these funds but suspect that spray and pray stopped working well around 2016 (valuations and company formation way up); anyone have data on that? Cool to see the cost basis

1) Go to VRBO / Airbnb 2) Find a rental you like. 3) Identify the property manager firm in listing 4) Google firm name 5) Book property on their website 6) Save $400 Every. Single. Time.