W.I.E.R.D: What I Enjoyed Reading & Discussing (week 26 2021)
Some great reads from the internet this week
The problem banks face is that whatever value that can be derived from complexity has diminished. No one wants it any more. Customers now have the tools to identify it and to circumvent it. In fact, it’s those tools that are creating the most value. Adyen is one of the best performing financial services stocks in Europe this year. It has doubled in the time that HSBC has halved. What does Adyen do? “We use a single platform to solve complexity [in payments].” Across multiple categories, technology is being deployed to root out complexity.
If your tolerance is zero – if you are allergic to differences in opinion, personal incentives, emotions, inefficiencies, miscommunication and such – your odds of succeeding in anything that requires other people rounds to zero. The other end of the spectrum – fully accepting every incidence of nonsense and hassle – is just as bad. The world will eat you alive.
A unique skill, an underrated skill, is identifying the optimal amount of hassle and nonsense you should put up with to get ahead while getting along. Volatility. People having bad days. Office politics. Difficult personalities. Bureaucracy. All of them are bad. But all have to be endured to some degree if you want to get anything done.
Calm promises to give the anxious, the depressed, and the isolated—as well as those looking to be a bit more present with their family, or a bit less distracted at work, or a bit more consistent in their personal habits—access to a huge variety of zen content for $15 a month, $70 a year, or $400 for a lifetime. For that, its investors have valued the company at $2 billion
There is a weird idea that you are supposed to get everything from your romantic relationship but I realise the huge amount of love I have in my life. Living in a house share with real friends makes me realise that a lot of what I thought I wanted from a relationship was really a close, daily friendship.
I love my friends. It is different because it is a love that is chosen and quite special. People talk about unconditional love but I think there is something special about conditional love because you are always opting into it. It is an obligation but there is something special about day by day by day you are choosing to stay in those relationships.
Every time a credit card is swiped, the bank charges a fee. It seems trivial, but those fees add up — enough to help pay for rewards like points-funded hotel rooms and cash back. To compensate, businesses raise prices, and so cash users (who tend to be poorer) are often subsidizing the perks going to credit card users (who tend to be richer). And the higher the rewards, the bigger the cost to the unsuspecting people paying for it. When you pay with a rewards card at the bodega, the guy paying in cash behind you is picking up the tab
Thanks for reading through.