Live Near Friends
Tings Newsletter #17
Who am I? I’m Michael Karnjanaprakorn. I am an ex-founder that created Skillshare and Otis. Now, I’m a content creator exploring new ideas. You should subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Youtube (and drop me a review 🙏🏼). Every month, I send out a newsletter about life, work, and random tings.
2024 is here! Looking back at 2023, it’s the year that I went on a sabbatical, stopped drinking alcohol, prioritized my health, and started a podcast. Here’s my 2023 review and lessons learned.
I’ve reached one year without alcohol. I plan to continue this indefinitely as I have no desire to drink again. Easily one of the best decisions I have ever made.
I’ve been thinking about how to have a memorable year. It revolves around a few components: an 1) memorable annual milestone, 2) system and routines to create a lifestyle change and 3) a solo adventure coupled quarterly experience with friends and/or family. (Related: one year of obsession can change your life.)
Some of my 2024 predictions: being in good health will be the new status flex, “one and done” seed stage rounds, and the electrification of everything.
I also went on Greg Isenberg’s podcast to talk about 2024 trends. We covered mini-towns, AI friends, and niche holding companies.
I enjoy sharing free business ideas. My latest idea is for a “Soho House for families”: private members club featuring a pool with epic slides, kids’ play area, gym, sauna, and co-working space. No, it’s not Lifetime Fitness (but that is cool!). This needs to be made for families and not be a gym-first.
Similarly, my dream is to own a personal co-working space complete with a top-notch gym sauna, and content studio combo with other entrepreneurs and content creators. Or, a secluded compound in nature where friends can visit to recharge or work from.
I wrote the most viral tweet I’ve ever written (over 11K likes), about an emerging trend of living near your friends. The concept is to live as close as possible, ideally on the same block as your best friend. This idea resonated with people as it contradicts the norm of living near family. I discussed this in-depth in a specific episode. Here’s a compelling article explaining why more people don’t do it. TLDR: friendship matters for long-term happiness.
I’ve been getting more and more into fitness. I really like this trend around a hybrid athlete: “someone who combines strength and endurance to push the limits of their fitness capabilities”. For me, that would be strength training and running. My big milestone is to both get back into running and PR the half-marathon in 1:30.
I’ve also started practicing martial arts, specifically a combination of Muay Thai kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I can see why people are passionate about this sport — it’s like human chess match. And you have athletes like Mikey Muscumeci dominating the sport, and is described by Joe Rogan as “someone who fixes your computer”.
What the US spends on Education and what it buys. Spending has gone up, staff per student has gone up 70%, but math, reading and science scores have stayed flat.
Here’s an innovative high school where students “learn life skills, not memorizing useless facts. The students spend 2 hours a day on traditional academic learning and the rest of their day on a passion project, which can turn into growing, viable businesses before the students even graduate.”
Just finished reading “Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe” by Jay Jenkins aka Young Jeezy aka Jeezy. He’s your favorite rappers favorite rapper. I found his story about how turned nothing into something inspiring. Although, it’s a memoir, it’s jam packed with lessons on how to “get after your dream”.
Age of Miracles is an excellent podcast by Packy McCormick. It explores the future with technology, with the first season focusing on nuclear energy, including both fission and fusion. It’s highly educational and a great resources if you’re interested in energy. Hopefully, it’ll happen sometime in our lifetime!
This is great advice to founders: “If an opportunity to exit presents itself where you would make enough to own a home, take it.”
This year, there will be two types of startups that get funding: 1) extremely difficult tech problems that require a lot of capital to get started and 2) one-and-done rounds. With the latter, teams will aim to raise one round, experiment with new profit-sharing, and maintain optionality to take a big swing if the company takes off.
What are good conversation questions that lead to interesting convos? Or, things you can say to people in 10 seconds that produce insanely outsized effects? My favs: “if you crack open your youtube right now, what are the 20 videos it recommends you watch next?” and “Do you sort of already know what you're going to do, or have you made up your mind about this?”
Our COBRA is expiring so I decided to look into health insurance plans. Why are the incentives so misaligned and why are there more alternatives to traditional options? I came across this article about doing direct primary care instead. Our family is going to do a combination similar to this.
Loyal has earned what we believe is the FDA’s first-ever formal acceptance that a drug can be developed + approved for lifespan extension (source).
If you enjoyed reading this issue, you can also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ below, which helps me get visibility on Substack. Or, forward this along to a friend.
Until the next one.
Michael Karnjanaprakorn
There are only a couple of newsletters which I read when they land. Yours, along with Justin Mares are the 2 that really pack incredible value into a compact, beautiful writing style. Good to see you back in flow.
Michael,
The last time I saw you was at the office of Behance. I think you were employee number two or three.
I'm enjoying your musings on Substack and would love to find a moment to catch up. Congratulations on everything you're up to. Keep it up. You're a great source of inspiration.