Saturday 7

Published: Sat, 08/29/20

Hey, good morning!

Here is your Saturday 7 roundup of this week's findings, fun, and f'ups...

📺 What went live:

I went live on instagram and answered questions submitted from last week's newsletter. Many questions revolved around fat loss (plateaus), fasting, and other body composition questions, so we did a bit of a deep dive in that area. I think you'll find this informative.
I also went live on the Brett Campbell Show. He decided to experiment with the Carnivore Diet and (to no real surprise) started seeing amazing side effects. So he invited me on the show and we chatted all about carnivore, plants, sleep, and all things health.

🛑 What causes tension:

It seems that humans have 2 fundamental desires that are at odds with each other: freedom and security. I tend to be bent pretty far in the "freedom" direction, and have recognized and felt the accompanying tradeoffs. I thought Esther Perel offered a great solution to this internal conflict.

🦈 What it takes to swim with the sharks:

Barbara Corcoran, most well-known as a shark on the popular Shark Tank TV show, was originally denied the role. I came across her response email, which is a masterclass in winning a job, sales, and success.

✏ What was a struggle:

A pencil artist from South Africa, Jono Dry, inspires me. I love his dark backgrounds. So I thought I'd give one a go. I thought that would be the easy part, I mean you just have to color it in, right? Well this drawing was a struggle from the very get-go. Every pencil mark felt like a mistake that I then had to try and correct. I used every technique, pencil, and eraser I've come across since starting my 2019 Challenge (learn to draw). But I do believe that when you dive in and allow yourself to make mistakes, that is when you learn the most. Here's my new pet Lukos, which means "Wolf" in ancient greek. (shoutout to @lauwerskenneth for the name recommendation).

P.S. – Update on the 2020 Challenge (learn to make music):
- Song #8 will be released, as always, on the last day of the month (Monday). I'll text it out when it goes live (and if you don't get my texts just shoot me a message at 314-207-3216). I still have some work to do on it, but I'd say it's the most "interesting" song thus far lol.

🧠 What quote I've been thinking about:

"Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely."

Karen Clark

💲 What's it time for:

I've made it a habit to read investors' memos. Along with the rest of the investing world, I read Warren Buffett's, but a lesser known one that I like to read is from Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital. I particularly liked his recent memo, "Time for Thinking," where he looks back on the past 5 months to try and project forward.

In the last five months

The Fed has swollen its balance sheet by $3 trillion and the Treasury has added $3 trillion to the expected deficit, for a total increase of liquidity in the economy of $6 trillion, probably with more to come. It’s normal to assume that an increase in liquidity on that order will increase the demand for goods relative to the supply, bringing on increased inflation, as it already has for financial assets.

It’s also normal to assume that monetary expansion like this can lead to a weaker dollar, downgrades of the U.S.’s creditworthiness by rating agencies, higher interest costs on national debt, and/or jeopardy to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency [insert bitcoin]. All these things could increase the difficulty of servicing the U.S.’s expanded national debt, feeding back into still-higher deficits.

Does it really make sense that bank reserves, the Fed balance sheet and the federal deficit can be increased ad infinitum without negative effects? My answer is the usual: we’ll see.

🌞 What I do the day after:

In 2019, when trying to form the "drawing habit," I learned that one of the most important things is to start the next drawing the day after completing a drawing. No resting on your laurels. So after I finished "Lukos" I started searching through my phone for my next drawing ― a risky endeavor when you have a niece this cute!