1. QQQ Closes Below 200Day Moving Average
2. FANG+ ETF -21% from Highs…Still Above 200-Day
3. Fear and Greed Index Hits Extreme Fear Levels
https://www.cnn.com/markets/fear-and-greed
4. VIX Volatility Index +135% in 5 Days..What Happens Next?
Nasdaq Dorsey Wright
5. Japan Lost All of 2024 Gains in 3 Days
6. Nikkei Japan Stock Market -25% from High….Approaching 200day
7. TLT 20-Year Treasury +5% in 5 Days
8. Who is Hoarding NVDA Chips? META
9. 60% of Today’s Workers are Employed in Occupations that Didn’t Exist in 1940
Torsten Slok, Ph.D. Apollo–Global Management Research by David Autor from MIT shows that 60% of today’s workers are employed in occupations that didn’t exist in 1940, see chart below.
This is important when discussing what impact AI may have on the labor market.
10. Leave the Crown in the Garage -Farnam Street
Reading-Indra Nooyi on leaving your crown in the garage:
“I drove home. It was about 10 p.m., and the wintery roads were peaceful and dark. In those fifteen minutes behind the wheel, I let myself enjoy my accomplishment. I had worked so hard, learned so much, and earned my place. I entered our house through the kitchen door and dropped my keys and bag on the counter. I was bursting with excitement—so eager to tell everyone. Then my mother appeared. “I have the most incredible news!” I exclaimed. “The news can wait,” she said. “I need you to go out and get milk.” “Why didn’t you ask Raj to go get the milk?” I asked. “It looks like he came home a while ago.” “He looked tired, so I didn’t want to disturb him,” she said. I picked up my keys, went back to the car, drove to the Stop & Shop a mile away, and bought a gallon of whole milk. When I walked into the kitchen again, I was hopping mad. I slammed the plastic bottle on the counter. “I’ve just become president of PepsiCo, and you couldn’t just stop and listen to my news,” I said, loudly. “You just wanted me to go get the milk!” “Listen to me,” my mother replied. “You may be the president or whatever of PepsiCo, but when you come home, you are a wife and a mother and a daughter. Nobody can take your place. “So you leave that crown in the garage.”
Still, my mother’s comment that night has stuck with me—just vague enough to interpret in myriad ways. First, I think she said something deeply important about how we combine work and family. She was right, of course, that no matter who we are or what we do, nobody can take our place in our families. I was enjoying big success, but the stability of our home meant I would be equally valued and important whether or not I had been named president of PepsiCo, she indicated
The “crown in the garage” comment also speaks to the broader relationship between power and humility. This is an incredible lesson for those who rise in their careers and end up in roles that give them real authority in the workplace and in society.”
— Source: My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future (Members can access my highlights here). https://fs.blog/
Important hills usually get much steeper at the top.
99% of the training in competitive athletics is devoted to the last 1% of performance. A tenth of a second.
The same is true for squeezing the last bit of performance out of a car, a grape or a semiconductor. And healthcare, luxury goods and science as well.
As soon as we declare it important and invite the world to compete, the problems become more difficult.
Our experience tells us that more input leads to more output, but in asymptotic conditions, where competition is seeking to go to the very end of the curve, this rule is often suspended. The entire point of the competition is how extreme the last few steps are.
The options are pretty clear:
- focus on activities where you’re in the sweet spot of the curve, where more preparation, focus and effort lead to huge benefits. This means walking away from competitions against people who are committed to being unreasonable.
- embrace the unreasonable and accept that your competitors will as well. While the unreasonable is thrilling, it’s difficult to build a sustainable career around it.
