PJM - November '21

Soo this newsletter is a bit late ;)

What happened to November? Was it just me or did anyone else have an unproductive month? 🤔

I had plans for a few projects (of which I'll list down below) but between traveling from Indonesia back to the US, getting sick for a week (COVID-neg), I was pretty beat and did nothing but BFCM shop...btw check out this cool tool to see how massive Shopify and indie storefronts did this year.

Here are some updates and news from the month...

PROJECT UPDATES...

DeFacebookMe

I don't know about you, but over the past few years I've been trying to detach myself from Facebook... and it's so damn hard!!! The recent news and whistleblowing has finally got me sayin "✌️nice to know ya".

I'll be removing my data from Facebook's (aka Meta's) platform this week. I'm making a guide on the steps to deplatform yourself as I go through the process.

I'm listing the website here now, but it's still very much a work in progress. I hope to complete it next week.

https://defacebookme.com

CURRENTLY LIVING IN...

NEW JERSEY, USA

Back to the dirty Jerz!

Feels good to be back to the land of pork roll egg and cheese, pizza, bagels, and curse words.

If you're in town/the city and wanna grab a beer - hit me up - I'll be around until January :)

MY FAVORITE CONTENT FROM NOVEMBER...

Business | Marketing

A small VC firm that invests in so many companies I love. They make things super simple - making offers in 7 days and closing deals within 30.

Millions of documents reveal offshore deals and assets of more than 100 billionaires, 30 world leaders and 300 public officials. Pretty insightful on how billionaires hide their money, not that we didn't know this already happens, but the papers reveal a lot of specifics about where and the processes.

If you haven't been following this story it's super wild. Basically a lawyer helped an indigenous town sue Chevron for royally fucking up their lives - so they got him put on house arrest for over 2 years and now actually thrown in jail in one of the most straight up corrupt court cases in modern history.

A trove of Amazon documents reveals how the company ran a campaign in India of creating knockoff goods and manipulating search results to boost its own products. I think we all knew this was happening when 'Amazon Basics' seemed to be the top result for nearly everything I searched for... but maybe they thought they could get away with it in India? Sure it's happening here too. Pretty fucked up...I mean Jesus Amazon how much bigger do you actually need to be.

Super interesting read on a much more in-depth look at what is going on with the economy. We're spending more and getting less. The problem is bigger than just standard inflation.

Design | Development

HUGE news! Apple parts, tools, and manuals — starting with iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 — will be available to individual consumers for repairs. That means 3rd party shop repairs and not paying Apple a million $$ for a cracked screen that only Apple can fix. Don't think Apple was being the good actor here though - they're being preemptive as the "right to repair" laws around the country were going to force their hand anyway. They're great at marketing and taking this opportunity to jump the gun and gain some clout.

Soooo Trump's new "social network" .... legit just copy and pasted an entire open-sourced platform and changed some colors and visuals. Dood may be the greatest hustler in the history of the world. Smells scammy - I can guarantee this one will be a big fat failure.

Travel

Why is it that when a place is [pick one: walkable, bikeable, beautiful, lovable, inviting, human-scale], it so often gets coded as being “gentrified” or “upscale”?

Some flight travel tips for 2022... if we're allowed to travel 😳

Super important in the remote-work life. I kind of like working 24/7 (for myself), but I've met so many friends who've transitioned from in-office companies that said they feel like they're on call all-day, everyday. Good move by Portugal ... who besides this law already looked like the big winner as the new remote working capital of the world.

Got $35 mil from being a bedside, crypto king? Buy this castle with a f*cking moat. And please for the love of god invite me.

Books | Podcasts | Music

The GF suggested this one. A bit repetitive but solid principles. If you like Eckhart Tolle - this ones worth a quick read.