HACK Issue 001: The Dao of Capital, Patience is a virtue, and Peleton fails again

Welcome to The HACK Digest Issue 001.

Last Friday was my last day at HackerOne. This week, I shared the news of my departure across the socials and posted a video I recorded on my last day. Check it out.

Onward...

From the twittersphere

I randomly tweeted this picture and it's been one of my most engaged posts ever. Fascinating to see what content sticks and what doesn't. I'm constantly humbled by how much I don't understand in marketing and why something takes off and others don't. This week I watched @dvassallo's Everyone Can Build A Twitter Audience course, and it's solid. 10/10 would recommend for those interested check that out as well as @brandonthezhang's thread which is basically a lot of the same truths from the course.

Peleton continues to do dumb things (I own a few $PTON shares). You know, having your brand highlighted in a cult classic show like Sex and the City should be a good thing or at least an opportunity to turn it around for good (in the show, someone apparently died on a Peleton). But instead of capitalizing on it, they have a spokesperson go and say a bonehead comment about extravagant lifestyles being the reason the writers killed off a character riding on a Peleton product. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I'm probably just salty after my PTON shares were up 50% in June and now they're down 50%. #stonks

Philosopher ytcracker expresses my feelings pretty well...

What I'm reading

I've finally had some time to start going through my stack of unread books. Recent book diet has been a heavy focus on marketing and on starting a new job. I'll probably write about that in a future issue.

Today, I'd like to highlight: DAO of Capital by Mark Spitznagel. Mark reviews various ancient stories tying it all back to Austrian economics and his investment philosophy. It has been recommended to me by many people, and I'm a sucker for finance books and Wall Street stories. Going to read one chapter a week on this one. Some early quotes I like:

Capital is a verb. Capital is a process, or a method or path - what the ancient Chinese called the Dao.

The whole point of my approach to investing is that we must be willing to adopt the indirect route to achieve our goals.

All moves in the market, big and small, ultimately have immediacy at their source.

In chapter one the big stresser so far is patience. "Klipp's Paradox" or what Mark calls the roundabout approach... Rather than pursue the direct route of immediate gain, we will seek the difficult and roundabout route of immediate loss, an intermediate step which begets and advantage for greater potential gain.

Essentially we must be willing to sacrifice the first step for a greater later step.

Exercising patience and switching to overwhelming aggression when the timing is right.

Inspirational thought

I don't know about you, but I am often impatient. Reading Mark's notes in The Dao of Capital stressing patience and reflecting on my everyday battle to be patient with my two kids, I was reminded of opportunities to grow in this virtue.

The Stoics believed in Four Virtues: Justice. Temperance. Wisdom. Courage. Though not 100% equivalent, I'd slot patience under the category of temperance / self-control. So this week, exercise that self-control, appreciate the opportunities to grow in your patience. It's a valuable skill that will make you rich.

ps - My twitter feed has been buzzing about this log4j vuln. Apparently it's a doozy and errybody is affected. Here's to the blue teams and the hackers doing the needful this weekend and beyond. Gladiators, I salute you.