[AKN #64] Cause I want it all or nothing it all
LAUGH: George Carlin on boring people, LOVE: Make manufacturing cool again
Sup homies?
Welcome to the 64th edition of another krappy newsletter.
I have always had a fondness for the number 64.
It is the most underrated number out there.
First of all, it is both a perfect square and a perfect cube.
I will always remember it is a perfect square because it has the greatest of all time mnemonic device:
I ate and I ate until I got sick on the floor (8 times 8 is 64)
Still looking for that perfect cube mnemonic. Guess for now I will just need to do the math like a loser.
Second of all, it is the number of real teams that participate in the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament.
We all know the play-in games are bogus and another example of the slow encroachment of communist equality think into America.
We should stop trying to include everyone. Make excluding people cool again.
Lastly, it is the age at which the protagonist of this famous Beatles song arbitrarily chooses to reflect on whether his lover will still care for him.
My favorite part of this song is when it makes a sharp transition from asking whether he will be needed or fed when he’s 64 into giving great instructions for how to reply to a newsletter.
Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
In fact, I am updating my sign off to this newsletter as we speak.
Anyway.
Listen.
You don’t have to respect me, but you better respect the number 64.
On to the newsletter!
LIVE: Cause I want it all or nothing at all
I suffer from All or Nothing Thinking.
When thinking in all-or-nothing terms, I split my views into extremes.
I often think of it as “I am 0 or I am 100”.
Oh you want to lose weight? Well I am either going to the gym 4 times per week and eating clean 7 days a week or I am just going HAM on some ham.
Oh you want to learn how to program? Well I am going to fully immerse myself in this online course for weeks or I am just going to stay exactly the same.
Or in the words of O-Town…
'Cause I want it all or nothing at all
While this helps me move quickly when I can supply the time required by my psycho brain, it is crippling for habits which require a longer term commitment like health or learning a new skill.
Over the years, I have worked on catching it before this mindset takes hold in some venture I am pursuing.
I have found that journaling and writing a newsletter about your feelings helps shine a light on when it starts to creep in.
But once I notice it, I also have found that I need to actively work on changing the mindset.
Rather than beat myself up about how shitty I did, I have to do soft shit like try to be nice to myself.
“It’s OK if you messed up and ate a little too much dessert last weekend.”
Or I try to congratulate myself on all the little things I already accomplished.
“Kind of cool that you got 1 workout in instead of 0 this week, huh?”
It feels fake and lame as I write it out, but weirdly I found that it actually works in calming my mind.
So this is just a public service announcement to my fellow all or nothing thinkers out there.
Be nice to yourself.
Celebrate the little wins.
LAUGH: George Carlin on boring people
George Carlin is probably the greatest comedian of all time.
This bit he does on boring people puts all of his comedic genius on display.
It starts off with such an awesome line:
I like people in short bursts. I dont like people for extended periods of time. Once you get passed a minute, minute and a half, I gotta get the fuck out of there.
The bit navigates through his very low tolerance level for stupid bullshit, how everyone wants to tell you their stupid bullshit, and how they will proceed to tell you all about things you are not remotely interested in.
His impression of the guy telling a terrible story is a masterpiece.
Legend.
LOVE: Make manufacturing cool again
If you are new to this newsletter, you may not know that I spend my days as a hardware engineer in Silicon Valley.
So this article about making Silicon Valley about silicon again hits close to home.
At some bizzaro point in time, we decided targeting people with advertisements was “cool” while manufacturing the electronics that power our lives was “the type of job we don’t want in America.”
The author’s argument is that this de-emphasis of innovating in the physical world is going to leave the United States behind as an innovation center of the world and more importantly:
This inability to manufacture deprives America of the chance to lead
Here are some other great quotes from that piece:
The manufacturing workforce today has shrunk by 40% from its peak in 1980
I would love to see a breakdown of what industries were most affected here. Additionally it does sort of feel suspect to completely leave out the explosion of the information economy. But I did like his framing of how often service or information economy jobs can turn into zero sum ventures.
Only around 10% of integrated circuits are manufactured on American shores. Some of the declines are due to automation and technology upgrading. But American businesses also embraced offshoring manufacturing with a greater zeal than those in other industrialized countries
Integrated circuits are the components that power the digital utopia so many of us luxuriate in all day. As we stand today, we have set ourselves up to be exclusively dependent on other countries for what not only powers the past, but also the future.
The offshoring of iPhone production to Shenzhen has allowed the city to become the hardware innovator of the world. The steady training of workers for over a decade has made thousands of line engineers into the world’s greatest experts in electronics assembly. That has kickstarted the rise of Chinese smartphones, which dominate the developing world today, and made Shenzhen the leader in follow-on products — “the peace dividends of the smartphone wars” as Chris Anderson describes it — that include consumer drones, scooters, wearables, and much more.
Our insistence on continuing to offshore manufacturing has left us behind in emerging industries.
The future is going to be amazing, but as is we will depend on other countries to make this a reality.
I welcome alternative hot takes on this subject, but I feel very strongly that we need manufacturing back in the United State in a big way.
Closing time
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are strictly my own. Who else’s would they be?
Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
Reply to this email, but be sure your response follows the “When I’m 64” format:
Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Mahalo,
Kevin