Good Morning & Hello Friday

• RAVE reviews once again for the All-In Podcast. I’m besotted by it. Smart, articulate, and brilliant at connecting the dots to make sense of what’s going on around the world. Inspiring and energizing content (#1 below).
• This week I also stumbled upon Lex Fridman’s podcast. In the latest episode he interviewed (for almost 3 hours), Chamath Palihapitiya. I especially related to Chamath’s difficult backstory with his dad – very similar to my own – except that Chamath grew up to be a brilliant billionaire and I’m just regular folk. What Chamath’s story confirmed for me, however, was that an impoverished, immigrant childhood needn’t be a barrier to success. It can actually provide you with the impetus to tackle life and ascend in a way that kids who grow up in cushier circumstances, can’t begin to comprehend. Here’s the Fridman link. I’m going to be watching this a few more times – too much to absorb in one viewing.
• Also some amazing ART happenings this week including Jordan Wolfson’s animatronic sculpture at the Brant Foundation and Beeple’s very wry take on what was going on with Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX and Musk’s recent tumultuous days at Twitter. (#2 and 3).
• Next week is Thanksgiving. I will once again be dining at a restaurant with friends. Seems to be becoming the norm throughout the country although I have not been able to verify with solid data. Big shift from a few years ago when I distinctly recall how difficult it was to find an open restaurant. And yet here we are in 2022, with every NYC restaurant open for Turkey Day. (#4 below).
• Remaining on the topic of food, competitive high school culinary teams appear to be becoming a thing, e.g., varsity bbq pitmasters. Noticed in both Texas and California (#6 and 7).

Scroll down for more.

TECH/CRYPTO

1. “All-In:” the absolute best biz/tech podcast

WHAT MAKES IT SO GOOD? 1. Chamath and the whole team are just so smart. I’ve been watching past episodes almost every night and I don’t remember the last time I was so excited and inspired to LEARN. 2. They are extremely generous in sharing their wisdom and knowledge. 3. Their camaraderie is so genuine (along with their foibles) and the poker references are the icing on the cake (and I don’t even play poker!).

This week’s podcast covered the mid-term elections, Brian Armstrong (of Coinbase) was on as a guest to provide insights on Crypto, and Chamath provided an excellent financial forecast for the startup world.

“I’ve been telling all of our startups that you need to plan to have money through the first quarter of 2025. If you don’t prepare for that worst-case scenario you’re doing yourself a disservice. This Sam Bankman-Fried thing is the tip of the iceberg in terms of money at risk.

We have had a massive rotation away from tech to health care stocks, industrial defense companies, and oil companies because at the end of the day investors are banking on oil, war, and sickness versus social media and e-commerce and SAS software. You have to be really defensively positioned.

I would really encourage people to reset their energy. You’ve got to go back into that office and find the money and the wherewithal to last through 2024. It’s Grind Time.

The conversation has to shift from culture and features to the bottom line and grinding it out and just proving that your business is worthy of investment.

Chamath Palihapitiya, All-In Podcast (1:12.22 onward)

TECH/ART

2. Beeple’s vision of FTX/SBF and Musk/Twitter

Beeple was the first person I heard talk about NFTs. It was early in the pandemic on Clubhouse (remember when that was a thing?) and Christie’s had just sold Beeple’s NFT for a record-shattering $69 million in CRYPTO. So who better than Beeple to comment (via his art) on how the crypto marketplace might be getting run.

and from elon himself…

NOTE: No sexual shenanigans going down at Twitter as far as I can tell. But the offices are locked until Monday and #RIPTwitter is trending. I know I’m an outlier here but I’ve actually found the Twitter experience under Musk to be way better, far less toxic than that cesspool of negativity it had turned into under the previous management. I also find Musk’s posts refreshingly candid and funny, e.g., this recent gem: “How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one.” We will have to wait and see how this all plays out over the next few weeks. Can’t say I’m overly optimistic.

3. Jordan Wolfson’s animatronic “Female Figure” at NYC’s Brant Foundation

1. Jordan Wolfson’s Female Figure was last exhibited in New York City in 2014. The installation combines film, installation, and performance into an animatronic figure.
2. Although still considered a complex robotic sculpture, the technology is very dated which is why only 4 people at a time can enter the room. More than that and the technology embedded in the mirror no longer functions.
3. The exhibition is up until Dec 31. Highly recommend trying to snag a ticket. It’s really cool!

RESTAURANTS/ CULINARY ARTS

4. Thanksgiving: Are We all eating out?

I’ve only cooked Thanksgiving Dinner once in my entire life but I’ve joined friends and family for at-home dinners many times over the years. But for the last 10 years, I have been enjoying my Turkey Day at restaurants. Initially there were very few options (Red Cat in Chelsea was one of a handful of restaurants doing Thanksgiving but impossible to get a res). More recently, EVERYONE seems to be eating out in NYC with every restaurant around town serving a Thanksgiving Feast. This year I will be celebrating at the NED.

Observations plus some data:

1. Key to the shift from at-home vs. restaurants: more singles, fewer families up to the task of cooking, more people vacationing (with or without their families).
2. NYC restaurants, over the last 5 years, all seem to be open. Nationwide, 30% of restaurants plan to stay open on Thanksgiving.
3. Restaurants are also seeing sales skyrocket on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. In 2019, restaurants saw a 34.6% increase in sales on Thanksgiving Eve compared to other Wednesdays in November. 
4. Thanksgiving is a bigger day for restaurants than Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, and Easter, according to the National Restaurant Association.
5. 30 million Americans will either eat their Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant or will take out food from a restaurant to eat at home.
6. Convenience is the number one reason people celebrate Thanksgiving in a restaurant, or with restaurant-prepared food they take home.

“Our research clearly shows that the convenience of restaurant meals — not having to shop, cook and clean up — drives consumer behavior and will lead millions of Americans to patronize restaurants this Thanksgiving.”

Hudson Riehle, SVP Research & Knowledge Group Natl Restaurant Assn.

5. If restaurants are your “thing,” you’ve got to go beyond res apps

1. If you LOVE restaurants (as I do), you’re probably obsessively tracking new ones as they come online and know exactly when they are scheduled to open.
2. Here’s what works for me (and this is only useful for people who are restaurant fanatics): Make it a point of hitting up any new restaurant within one or two days of their opening. Dine solo that first time and always ask to be seated at the bar which is the best way to get to know the staff, often including the chef and the GM.
3. If it goes according to plan: you meet the GM who then offers you their card with direct email and phone (and I always text, never call). After that I make my reservations through them. It doesn’t always work out but 90% of the time, it does. (Here’s the link to the NYT article)

6. Texas HS Varsity BBQ Competitions

1. Temple HS in Texas not only has a Culinary Arts Director (Margaret Fyffe) but they also have a mentor for the Temple Pitmasters (the school’s barbecue competition team). Source: Fox7 Austin
2. The team has been taught how to select the meat, prep the cuts, and control the cooking temperature. They will have their first competition in early December. They’re hoping to do as well, if not better, than the team from Navarro High School in North Austin which won 3rd place in the Brisket category.
3. The Temple team is part of the National High School BBQ Association.

7. LA’s Dorsey HS created Dorsey Green Sauce – looks delish!!

1. Per Eater LA, 30 students at South LA’s Dorsey High School created this avocado-based sauce in their entrepreneurship class with Neils Cotter (who started the Dorsey Green Foundation) and Mel Nicola, executive director of Culinary Arts Kids Eat (C.A.K.E.).
2. The class project-turned-new-business-initiative was designed to teach the students about entrepreneurship; Deutsch LA provided creative direction and branding/marketing mentorship, as well. All proceeds from the sauce go directly to the students and class initiatives.
3. At the moment Dorsey Green Sauce is available ($10 per bottle) for shipping only in LA County. As of January 2023, it will be available nationwide.

And that’s it for today my friends.

Wishing you all a great Turkey Day. There will be no blog post next week. Instead, look for me in your mailbox on December 2nd. I will also be posting on Instagram from the Macy’s Balloon Inflation event next Wednesday night. And with that, wishing you all a GREAT WEEKEND!!