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Nuggies: Tech Billionaires and Energy Drinks
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Nuggies: Tech Billionaires and Energy Drinks

Apr 29, 2021
Share this post
Nuggies: Tech Billionaires and Energy Drinks
nuggies.substack.com

Thursday, April 29th, 2021

Welcome to the 45th edition of Nuggies, an email newsletter that aggregates articles and commentary on business, economics, startups, and more, in bite-sized nuggets sent right to your email weekly. Created by and for college students.

Our quote of the week comes from Apple CEO Tim Cook, “I worry more about people thinking like machines than machines thinking like people.”


This Week’s Articles:

The Case for Universal Creative Income, Li Jin

We’re already printing money to fund everything else, why not print some money to fund artists? The precedent is there: we spent half a billion (inflation adjusted) during the New Deal doing just that, and this blog posts argues in favor of doing it again. This is a well researched and thorough article that argues for reinstating a universal creative income, arguing that art has myriad positive externalities that this income can help fund.

Read it here

How People Get Rich Now, Paul Graham

YC's Paul Graham: The Complete Interview — The Information

In the latest essay from the investor and founder of famed startup studio Y Combinator, Paul Graham talks about the changes in wealth building over the last 40 years. He examines the shift away from wealth built from oil, real estate, and inheritance to wealth built from tech companies, now. His argument can be summed up well as, “In 1982, 84% of the richest 100 people got rich by inheritance, extracting natural resources, or doing real estate deals. Is that really better than a world in which the richest people get rich by starting tech companies?”

Read it here

The Mythology of Red Bull, The Generalist

Before reading, pour one out a Red Bull for Tommy, Notre Dame’s most fervent and dedicated Red Bull brand ambassador until he became a casualty of the pandemic (and maybe his own work ethic).

This is a great article that looks at the dominance of Red Bull, the company that owns 43% of the energy market, manufacturers cans for $.09 a unit, and pours all of their money into marketing like Formula 1 teams, soccer teams, huge stunts, and more. Red Bulls is truly a feat of marketing power and economies of scale. In their pursuits of marketing glory, however, they end up doing incredible things, like breaking the sound barrier in a skydive from 150,000 feet.

Read it here


This Week’s Tweets:

Twitter avatar for @lexfridmanLex Fridman @lexfridman
"Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world." - Miyamoto Musashi

April 25th 2021

1,495 Retweets9,350 Likes
Twitter avatar for @spakhmSlava Akhmechet @spakhm
Stripe has a huge team working for years on a product that I just prototyped on Etherium in a day. Crypto is an absolutely crazy alien technology that hasn't even begun to make a dent.

April 27th 2021

138 Retweets1,486 Likes
Twitter avatar for @breadcrumbsreBread Crumbs Research @breadcrumbsre
Been studying management as a value driver for the past year. One of key takeaways - what really matters is not how good management team is in absolute terms, but how good management team is RELATIVE to management teams of competitors.

April 27th 2021

11 Retweets125 Likes
Twitter avatar for @gaganbiyaniGagan Biyani @gaganbiyani
Most rejections happen in silent, rather than out loud. Watch for moments when people slink away and choose an option other than the one you presented. The best feedback is hidden behind those silent rejections!

April 27th 2021

12 Retweets132 Likes
Twitter avatar for @mattcashoreMatt Cashore @mattcashore
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiii'm SAAAIILling A-Waaaaaaaaay...
Image

April 26th 2021

6 Retweets253 Likes
Twitter avatar for @splashbr0s4everGSW Revenge 🏆 @splashbr0s4ever
Thank you for inspiring me @NBA
Image

April 27th 2021

4,581 Retweets48,516 Likes
Twitter avatar for @souljaboySoulja Boy (Draco) @souljaboy
You can really get rich af from investing that’s crazy 😳

April 27th 2021

1,468 Retweets10,048 Likes
Twitter avatar for @HipCityReg🌀 @HipCityReg
If you get fired for doing LSD at the office It’s your fault for two reasons: - you have a culture of dork snitches - you picked the wrong investors

April 27th 2021

18 Retweets625 Likes
Twitter avatar for @nikitabierNikita Bier @nikitabier
If Coinbase taught us anything, the fastest way to 10x your valuation and create generational wealth for all your employees is to ban political conversations at work.

April 26th 2021

65 Retweets1,160 Likes
Twitter avatar for @megfuzzleMeghan Scott Molin - Camp NaNo or bust @megfuzzle
My therapist: "you definitely have clinical burnout." Me: "Oh man. Well, how long is that going to take to fix, because I've got a _lot_ of stuff that needs doing." My therapist: Me: Me: what?

April 26th 2021

21,591 Retweets183,018 Likes
Twitter avatar for @caitiedelaneycaitie delaney @caitiedelaney
Teenage boys must feel so attacked by every commercial for household products, food items, air fresheners, cleaning solutions etc centering around them being insane and disgusting. Every commercial is like “my teen son is a vile maniac caked in shit, luckily there’s febreze”

April 24th 2021

9,449 Retweets152,413 Likes
Twitter avatar for @modestproposal1modest proposal @modestproposal1
Looking for something on @stratechery and stumbled on this from '13. The quote is fundamental to understanding the world today. The full excerpt looks prescient 8 years on: "if there is a single phrase that describes the effect of the Internet, it is the elimination of friction"
Image

April 24th 2021

32 Retweets226 Likes
Twitter avatar for @RGAR/GA @RGA
This isn't a tweet, it's a string of SEO keywords

Time Out New York @TimeOutNewYork

A viral TikTok CBD lounge for Gen Z is opening in NYC: https://t.co/qsYTfIh4eD https://t.co/uVMwlxr37q

April 23rd 2021

80 Retweets1,195 Likes
Twitter avatar for @zackfreedmanZack Freedman - Voidstar Lab @zackfreedman
Image

April 21st 2021

17,910 Retweets106,144 Likes
Twitter avatar for @ajb_powellJamie Powell @ajb_powell
smoking encourages cancer research

jack @jack

#bitcoin incentivizes renewable energy https://t.co/KCe5bwdVs4

April 22nd 2021

1,314 Retweets7,658 Likes

This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):

Check out this graphic from the New York Times from a year ago, mapping out how long a COVID vaccine will take. And people say capitalism is evil.

Image

This Week’s Question:

Is wealth creation as a result of tech companies being built better than how wealth was built in the past, even if it grows wealth at a much faster and more disproportionate rate?


What are we listening to this week?:

This week, we’re listening to Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa. Are we a late entry to the Dua Lipa hype? Possibly, but this is a phenomenal modern pop album that clearly shows mastery of disco influences.


Thank you for reading! Nuggies is created by Thomas Pero and Spencer Koehl, two undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame.

If this was forwarded to you, please subscribe here:

If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us at tpero@nd.edu and skoehl@nd.edu, or on twitter, @tpero_ and @spencerkoehl

While this is a labor of love, if you would like to support our efforts please share this with friends and on social media. 

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