Lorcana

Tings Newsletter #19

Apr 21, 2024

Who am I? I’m Michael Karnjanaprakorn. I’m the ex-founder of Skillshare and Otis. Every month, I share interesting ideas related to life, work, and random tings.

Life Update: 1) I've been writing daily on my blog, and I'm enjoying it. The more I embrace the role of a writer, the more natural it feels. 2) I've updated the entire tech stack for my website, which now includes every tool I use. 3) We visited Disney World for the first time. It was epic, and now I’m hooked on Lorcana.
Depression is a topic rarely discussed in my circles, especially among men. So, I wrote this blog post called Suppression, where I share my struggle with it. If you’re dealing with something similar, know you are not alone.
So I was watching UFC 300 and listening to a post-fight interview with Moicano, who shouts out, “If you care about your country, read Ludwig Von Mises and the six lessons of the Austrian Economic School Motherf***er!” That caught me completely off-guard.
But he does bring up a good point. The US National Debt is currently at $34.6T, and we’ve been adding $1T every ~160 days. “Within one month, they’ve posted a 47% overshoot on the largest budget in world history.” This can’t end well.
Jung’s Five Pillars of a Good Life: 1) good physical and mental health, 2) good personal and intimate relations (marriage, family, and friendships), 3) seeing beauty in art and nature, 4) reasonable standard of living and satisfactory work, and 5) philosophical or religious outlook that fosters resilience.
Some things you read just hit hard. This is one of them, discussing what assets will be important throughout your life.
This is a great idea. Rather than asking for birthday gifts, ask your friends, family, and loved ones to write you a letter instead.
I plan to interview my Mom to capture her life story. There are also other great products and services, such as Storyworth, No Story Lost, and Tales. (If you’re interested, here’s a list of questions I put together).
Google inventions to kill startups: 1) OKRs, 2) PMs, and 3) Weekly 1-1s 😂
If I were raising money for a startup today, I would opt for the “one and done” round. The tradeoff is that you might grow more slowly than a VC-backed startup, but preserving optionality and control is worth it.
Tech roll-ups are becoming more and more of a thing. Here’s the playbook for Splash, which plans to acquire hundreds of small pool cleaning companies to build the first national pool service brand.
100% cancer remission through a monoclonal antibody trial. This is a huge breakthrough as it eliminates the need for chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.
I’ve been using Mercury Business and it’s a magical product that just works. I just signed up for Mercury Personal. It allows you to use OCR on a PDF invoice and pay instantly. Super easy to send wires. Can spin up multiple cards and accounts with just a click.
Dividend startups have arrived. These companies distribute profits to investors and employees, instead of waiting for an exit. DoNotPay is paving the way, highlighting a few trends: 1) AI reduces the need to hire as many people, and 2) both employees and investors value liquidity more than ever.
We’ve been using the Sans Water Purifier, which eliminates up to 99% of contaminants, including PFAS, microplastics, and heavy metals.
The book Bad Therapy dives into why kids today are having so many mental health problems. The takeaways from the book are thought-provoking, such as that “most well-adjusted kids come from families with loving parents that have strict rules for the household.”
I am a fan of Don Winslow and finished his last book in two days, City of Dreams, from The Danny Ryan Trilogy. If you’re into mafioso stories, I highly recommend it.
On my podcast, I chat with Ben Tossell about life after selling your company. Ben sold his company to Zapier in 2021, which allowed him to retire. We talk about how your identity changes, navigating the idea maze, and his goals have changed.
Moneywise is a podcast for “high net worth people” by Sam Parr. Some topics they cover include what it’s like to retire early, spending $5K and $200K a month, and whether a 24,000-square-foot home is worth it.
PSA: Don’t trust any business guru who gets rich from selling you courses, workshops, or access to a paid community. I’ve enjoyed watching Geoffrey Woo expose all the fake-preneurs.

That’s all for this month.

If you enjoyed reading this, can you do me a favor and forward it to a friend?

Michael Karnjanaprakorn's Newsletter

Discussion about this post