Weight Limit Physically Impossible to Exceed, You are Localhost, Ideas Worth Going All in On, & More

Issue #44

May 30

Today at a Glance:

Quote: Success is right around the corner
Reading: Data For Your Entire Life
Podcast: We'll call you, Localhost
Tweet: Physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for USPS small flat rate box
Thought: What's an idea worth going all-in on?

#QUOTE

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”– Thomas A. Edison

You're close to success than you think, you've just got to persevere longer than others.

#READING

howisFelix.today?

//felixkrause

I personally track a lot of my stats, but Felix takes it to a whole new level, tracking his whole life over the past 3 years, yielding some interesting insights. Some interesting ones:

Days with >4 alcohol drinks = 21x more likely to dance, 60% more time spent with friends
COVID lockdowns resulted in 60% more likely to follow the meal plan, 40% fewer alcoholic beverages
Summertime results in 40% less likely to be sick

#LEARNING

Listerine Mouthwash Royalties

//royaltyexchange

TIL that some assets have lifetime royalties. An example of one is Listerine. Listerine has had royalties for over 141 years.

Sold for: 1.795M
12-Month Earnings: $114,253
15.71X multiple

I honestly wonder if this was a good or bad investment.

On one hand, this seems to have consistent royalties being paid out and it can increase, plus it is very much a cash flow machine (which is good in the current market).

On the other side, I could see people moving toward using more natural mouthwashes as there are claims that mouthwash doesn't actually kill bacteria and even results in worse breath.

#PODCASTS

MFM Origin Stories, How to Find Winners, and More

//mfm

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on YouTube

Some takeaways from this episode:

If you spent more than a day on LocalHost (i.e if you don't ship) --> then we'll call you "LocalHost"
You're just localhost, you don't want people to use your product
This is simply bully management to shipping early
Live your values, build things fast
Takeaway: move fast

#TWEET

Paul Sherman @PaulMSherman

It is physically impossible to exceed the 70-pound domestic weight limit for a small flat rate box. The interior dimensions (8 5/8" x 5 3/8" x 1 5/8") are ~75.333 in^3. If you filled the box with pure osmium, the densest substance known to man, it would weigh ~61.48 lbs.

🤯 I wonder how USPS arrived at the 70-pound number initially.

Gergely Orosz @GergelyOrosz

Wild statistic. Facebook / Meta has fewer software engineers than Citi - and Meta has ~3.5B monthly users. Netflix has 1/15th of the software engineers as Citi (~2,000) Uber has fewer *employees* than Citi has software engineers.

Marcelo P. Lima @MarceloPLima

Citi has over 30,000 software engineers. Nuts. https://t.co/aJ9IsRv0eL

What do all of these software engineers end up doing? Or is the overhead that great, that it is impossible to get anything done?

#THOUGHT

What’s an idea worth going all in on?

Most people (myself included) pick things to work on that appear to be probable and usually result in a low expected value (since it’s guaranteed to work).

What if you instead flipped that on its head and picked something with a low probability, with an outlandish return (resulting in a high expected value).

The reality is that humans are terrible at predicting that probability and return (whether it be high or low) and therefore you get average returns.

Taking this idea--what is that idea for you that is worth going all-in on?

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