Will's Weekly Roundup

Oct 17 - Oct 23

October 24, 2022

Will’s Weekly Roundup is a weekly newsletter about what I'm working on, thinking about, and reading.

What I read this week…

  • Founder Salary Report 2022 (LINK)

  • Make $87.50 in 3 minutes: reporting idling trucks in NYC has become a lucrative side hustle for clean-air vigilantes (LINK)

  • Iran's Military Boats Seized 2 US Sea Drones Off Yemen (LINK)

  • Mark Cuban Doesn't Know If He'll Come Back for Shark Tank Season 15 (LINK)

  • Next pandemic may come from melting glaciers, new data shows (LINK)

  • Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs Have a 20-Minute Chat in AI-Powered Podcast (LINK)

  • The Hottest App Right Now? One Where Teens Have to Say Nice Things About Each Other (LINK)

  • Stanford Wants a Bigger Piece of Silicon Valley’s Top VC Funds (LINK)

  • Clean Energy Has a Tipping Point, and 87 Countries Have Reached It (LINK)

  • Scientists Transformed Pure Water Into a Metal, And There's Footage (LINK)

  • Amazon to Use Airbus Cargo Planes for First Time (LINK)

  • Why "per capita emissions" is a bad frame for the climate debate (LINK)

  • A Good Chess Cheater Might Never Be Caught (LINK)

  • Getting Rich Is One Thing; The Tricky Part Is Keeping It (LINK)

What I listened to…

  • “Ye acquires Parler, Snap drops 30%, macro outlook, VC metrics, valuing stocks & more” (All-In Podcast Ep #101 - LINK)

  • 5 Business Ideas With High Demand & Low Supply (MFM Podcast Ep #374 - LINK)9 Business Ideas To Profit From The 2022 A.I. Gold Rush (MFM Podcast Ep #376 - LINK)

My Startup Ideas from this Week

  • Crowd-Sourced Traffic EnforcementProblem: idling vehicles make traffic worse in citiesSolution: a system where anyone can upload a 3-minute video of idling vehicle and that person earns half the cost of the traffic ticket the vehicle owner has to pay (idea modeled after the new NYC traffic reporting system).

  • A/B Testing for Menus Problem: it is difficult to test the performance of restaurant menus.Solution: the world of QR code menus now allows the opportunity to test different menu formats/menu items to see which ones yield the most spending form customers (idea inspiration: Steff Smith)

Ideas I’m Thinking About

  • The Different Types of ‘Smart’ - not every ‘smart’ person is smart in the same way. I believe that there are three types of smart: (1) being book/school smart; (2) being socially aware smart; and (3) having strong intuition (gut feeling). Super successful individuals seems to have a combination of these 3 types of smart in addition to having high levels of determination and high aspirations.

  • The Birthday Paradox - it only takes a group of 23 individuals to reach a 50% probability that two of people shared the same birthday. It’s one of these paradoxes that appears wrong, but is in fact true (Source).

  • Fall in Love With The Problem, Not the Product - the problem a startup is trying to solve is not going away, but the product might fail.

  • Quality Over Quantity - as Steve said, ‘It's better to hit one home run than two doubles.” A “quality over quality” mindset is beneficial in most areas of life.

  • The Importance of Remembering Someone's Name - the ‘shock’ on someone’s face when you great that barista, waiter, or gym staff member by name the second time you see them is amazing. It makes people feel incredibly special. Start keeping a simple note in your phone with the names of everyone you meet (Source).

Cool Startups I Found

  • Ambi Robotics - building adaptable AI robotics to simplify the supply chain

  • Greenzie - self-driving commercial mowers

  • Dialect - instant video help to debug your code

  • Play.ht - the best AI powered text-to-voice generation

  • Robo Burger - burgers cooked by a robot chef

  • Orbex Space - the world's most environmentally friendly rocket

Cool Websites I Found

Quotes I Came Across

  • “Just a reminder that it’s your parents first time living too.”

  • “Don’t rush something you want to last forever.”

  • “Confidence is calm. Ego makes a lot of noise.”

  • “Speak confidently as if you are right, but listen carefully as if you are wrong.”

  • “Data is the new oil.” - Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful

  • "Always organize information by where you will use it, not by where you found it.” - Tiago Forte

  • “How big would you dream, if you knew you couldn’t fail.” - Robert Schuller

  • “Why is it normal to eat the same breakfast or lunch every day but weird to eat the same dinner every night.” - Source

Comedic Corner

The funny side of the internet this week.

Best of TikTok

Click TikTok to view the video. They won’t disappoint.

  • If Shaq starts coming at you, run: TikTok

  • Grandparents telling stories, Joe Biden edition: TikTok

  • Every teacher during Parent-teacher conference week: TikTok

  • If you had to fantasy football draft the best things from the season Fall: TikTok

  • The best halloween costume, Home Alone edition: TikTok

  • On today’s episode of NYC is not a real place: TikTok

  • When you’re funny ringtone goes off full volume in the library: TikTok

  • The best dynamic duo celebrations: TikTok

  • Those people with the best energy: TikTok

  • Making fun of the brutal 9-5 lifestyle: TikTok

  • When your studying follows you to the shower: TikTok

  • Every French teacher at the start of class: TikTok

  • When my wife asks if I lost money trading this year: Twitter video

Best of Twitter

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