Medley 153: Taxes, Meaning, Mountains, Fungi, Ibuprofen, Tongues, Octopi...

Happy Monday!

Last week was an exciting week for Growth Machine.

We officially got the growthmachine.com domain (which I'd been trying to get for over a year). No more annoying "your" at the beginning.

AND we officially launched our link building service! We've been working on adding this for a while, and I'm super excited that we can offer it as its own thing and use it to augment our normal content work.

In other news, Julian Shapiro wrote a great piece on TechCrunch about making content marketing work featuring Growth Machine and Cup & Leaf. It's the first time something I've worked on has been in TC so I won't lie, it feels pretty cool.

Alrighty, on to the Medley!

The World of Taxes

☠️ It's tax day! Boo. But remember: if you're getting a refund, that means you gave the IRS an interest-free loan for as long as a year, and you should definitely try to reduce how much you send them next year to avoid it.

🗺 Also on the subject of taxes, here are the areas where you're most likely to get audited. Unfortunately, it seems to be overly concentrated on the poor, who have the hardest time affording to deal with the audit.

The World of Meaning

👨🔬 It's a bit of a roller coaster in how it's written, but I enjoyed this piece on "Rick and Morty and the Meaning of Life." I think this sentence captures it really well:

"At the heart of “Rick and Morty” is a choice: Will you crumple in despair knowing the terrifying truth that life is totally meaningless or will you saddle up the universe and strike out for a life of fun and adventure?"

⛰ David Brooks is working on a book about finding meaning, and published this excerpt in the NYT about "first and second mountain people." Essentially first mountain people are mostly concerned with themselves and their success, second mountain people have undergone some huge setback that broadened their perspective and made their work more other-minded.

"When you’re on the second mountain, you realize we aim too low. We compete to get near a little sunlamp, but if we lived differently, we could feel the glow of real sunshine. On the second mountain, you see that happiness is good, but joy is better."

The World of Health

🤢 There's a mystery super-fungus spreading around the world killing people in hospitals, and no one is talking about it. I get why you wouldn't want to disclose that there was an outbreak at a hospital to avoid panic, but I'd also kinda want to know about it so I don't go in for something minor and end up infected.

🤳 Kim Kardashian, among others, is affecting how the FDA has to think about social media. One thing I learned from the article is that the FDA was largely created in response to the rise of media and advertising since someone needed to control the wild claims being made in the early periodicals.

💊 My friend Carly from Frolic and Flow sent me this research on Ibuprofen. Apparently, some studies now are suggesting that it can actually impede the healing process by reducing necessary inflammation. I've also seen some research on it hurting your heart and stomach. I generally try to avoid it already, since CBD (I use this one) solves many of the same problems.

🌈 There's some new research on the mechanisms of LSD. It's interesting to think about how a drug might work just by reducing the amount of stimulus our brains are filtering out. What would the experience be like without that filter?

The World of Genetics

👅 It turns out that tongue rolling is not genetic. Almost anyone can train their tongue to do it.

💬 And here's a very cool analysis from Quartz of a big research study on how genes and languages evolve together.

The World of Technology

☢ This is an interesting analysis of nuclear power by Wired. They make a great point that it's hard to invest in nuclear considering how long the payback period is, and uncertainty as to what else might displace it in the interim. I was also really surprised by just how not-dangerous it is, and how not-that-bad Chernobyl actually was relative to how we imagine it:

‍ "In terms of full-blown nuclear disaster, there is really only one data point: Chernobyl. Which was horrifying. But in terms of real risk? The World Health Organization estimates the disaster will claim 4,000 lives, a figure that includes everything from direct victims to people born with genetic mutations well after the meltdown in 1986. By comparison, particulate matter from coal power plants kills about 7,500 people in the US every year. Radiation is the shark attack of environmental danger: An awful way to go, but far less likely than, say, a car wreck."

🔗 Here's a look at all of the oldest registered domains, in order of when they were registered. It's crazy to imagine there was a time when you could grab any 3-4 letter domain. I wonder what opportunity like that will come up next. Real estate in the mirror world maybe?

🤖 A16Z published a fun look at all the ways humans and AI are starting to work together, as a counterpoint to all the doom and gloom "robots will take our jobs." The obvious response though: "Yeah these are great ways for high performers to replace their support staff, they don't help displaced truckers much."

💸 Fred Wilson pointed out something in the Zoom IPO filing: they've saved a ton of money by hiring developers in China. We'll likely see more of this geoarbitrage with building companies as it gets easier to work with people remotely. I know Growth Machine has benefited significantly by being able to hire talent all over the world, and it's only getting easier.

Just For Fun

🐙 It's time to take Octopus civilization seriously.

"One might wonder: if octopuses have already mastered blockchain technology, what else are they hiding?"

📹Remember the fun "I'm on a horse" Old Spice commercials? Here's how they filmed them in one take. It's craaazy to see this kind of setup in action.

End Note

As always, if you're enjoying the Medley, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up. I try to make it one of the best emails you get each week, and I hope you're enjoying it.

If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here. Thank you, Jennifer and Max, for your contributions last week!

And should you come across anything interesting this week, send it my way! I love finding new things to read through members of this newsletter.

Have a great week,
Nat