Juan David's Newsletter - May 10, 2020
My Generation Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity: Leverage
Happy Sunday!
New to My Newsletter? — Welcome! I’m thrilled to have you! You can view past emails here
If you are a mother —> Happy Mother’s Day To You!
If you are not —> Happy Mother’s Day To Your Mother!
I just realized that the word “mother” is weird. Let’s quickly explore where it comes from:
The word ‘mother’ comes from the Old English mōdor. All the words for ‘mother’ all have their roots in the sound ‘mama,’ which can be recognized in almost any language. Pronunciation can vary, but they all have the same sound of consecutive m’s and a’s. In Spanish, Russian, Greek, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Dutch mother is, “mama”. Even in Mandarin sounds like 妈妈 (māmā).
The reason? “m” sounds are the easiest to produce.
Happy Mother’s Day!
¡Feliz Día De Las Madres!
母亲节快乐
My Generation Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity: Leverage
If it’s easier, you can read the essay on my website
This month has been a tough one for many of my peers, especially seniors. The moment we were all looking forward to, just vanished. Vanished is the right word because even if we get a graduation, it won’t just be the same.
That sucks and is… sad.
I made an Instagram Story to show my perspective, and I explained why I’m not being as affected by the current situation happening in 2020. In the story, I describe that many of us are sad, depressed, anxious, and bored. I talked about what inspires me. I said that we are living in an era of infinite leverage and that a way to get a new perspective is to work on:
Projects you care about
Projects to help other people
More than ten people messaged me, telling me how bored and sad they were. I tried to help them and show them my humble perspective. Three of them are already working with me on exciting projects.
What’s the difference then?
I’m definitely seeing something else that people are not seeing. Or perhaps, I’m just crazy or naive.
There is an idea that gives me goosebumps and excitement like nothing else: the idea of leverage.
The Greek scientist, Archimedes, once said: "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." What kind of lever is Archimedes talking about?
He’s talking about the lever of technology and progress. We have the mind-blowing opportunity to leverage today’s technology such as the internet to create breathtaking projects by doing things we care about. Just by focusing on the internet, the opportunities are limitless.
In 2005, Mark Zuckerberg was invited as a guest speaker to a computer science class at Harvard. It was funny because there were only a few people attending, and no one really knew who he was. Then, he said, “one of the cool things about this time in technology is that individuals are leveraged and able to do way more than they've really ever been able to do before.” That stuck with me and made me realize how fortunate we are to be alive in this time period of technology and leverage. When Google started in the 2000s, you needed to have a big piece of hardware to make a simple website. When eBay started, they needed to have two $50,000 machines.
Facebook was started by a group of kids and who were able to scale it in less than a year to 300,000 users. Traditional businesses needed to raise capital before you can make anything, that’s no longer an issue. We are leveraged to do more on our own.
Not only are the costs dropping, but so is the credentialism. You don’t have to have a specific degree or license to solve people’s problems on the internet. Also, to reach and let people know what you’re doing you needed the news. Now, as long as solve a problem people care about, you can use free distribution channels like social media to reach people.
Beyond anything else, this is an opportunity to do something cool and exciting. You don’t need to create the next Facebook or Google (you could), you can start by finding and solving a problem that helps other people. For instance, a high school kid was concerned about the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. The 17-year-old kid created a website that collects the latest and most accurate data about the epidemic. Check out what he did here.
This amazing dude might have known to code, but even if he didn’t, he could have gone to a website builder that requires no code. The tools to create are getting easier and more accessible to all of us, we just need to take more action.
Taking action might be the hardest step, but when you work on a project that you care about, are excited about, and helps other people, taking action becomes the easiest step.
Honestly, don’t even think about creating the next Facebook (maybe you will), but for the most part, you just need to do or create something that you think it’s cool. That’s all! When Zuckerberg created Facebook, he thought it was a “cool idea.” It was just another project for him.
Just focus on creating something cool. What does that look like?
Creating a YouTube channel
Starting a business *
Making a Tik Tok video
Start a blog
Opportunities are endless……………………..
True story. In my newsletter, I include a section called Curiosities where I talk about fun and cool things I learned or discovered throughout the week. A friend was inspired by my Curiosities, and he decided to create a blog where he explores his own curiosities. Take a look here. It’s really good, he crushed it!
That’s all it takes. He had an idea, was inspired by it, and went for it.
One of the reasons why I’m so excited and inspired by this concept of leverage is the opportunity to do good for society while doing things you love. You can create a business or if you like video games you can literally be a media company and start a Twitch or Youtube channel to Livestream your games.
Not long ago, we would need millions to even create a simple website, now we can create one in a matter of seconds. With so much leverage, we’re able to create and help the world like never before. Get inspired!
Alright. I’m done.
How can you get started?
You probably know what kind of things you like to do. (Hint: something that doesn’t feel like work)
Brainstorm at least 10 ways of how your idea can help and provide value to other people
Research how current technologies can help you achieve these two things 1) Reach people you’re trying to help 2) Make what you’re doing scalable.
BONUS: Click here to access +200 No-Code Tools to start creating!
Website (Carrd.co or Squarespace.com)
Apps (Glideapps.com or Bubble.io)
Anything else? Click here
You’re good to go!
If you’re working on a project or don’t know where to start, I’ll be more than happy to jump on a call with you and help you. You can contact me here or watch how I’ve helped other people.
This is an opportunity to work on exciting and cool things/projects. Get inspired!
Curiosities
Curiosity #1
This is one of those things I asked myself, “How didn’t I know this ?”
Wolfram Alpha is one of the coolest sites on the internet, yet few people know about it. Wolfram Alpha is an engine that can give you an answer to almost anything. From really complicated math questions to simple knowledge.
Curiosity #2
Being in a flow state when I’m working is almost a requirement. I found this song that gets me there very quickly.
It may have lyrics, but for some reason, I never understand English songs lyrics, unless I try to.
Curiosity #3
Hal Morris shared this with me. Thanks, Hal!
Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, measured by authorship of math papers.
Erdős published more than 1,500 papers during his lifetime, more than any other mathematician in history. Interestingly, he spent a large portion of his later life living out of a suitcase, visiting his over 500 collaborators around the world.
Curiosity #4
Way before I knew how important leverage is, I was familiar with its implications.
If you haven’t already, watch my TEDx Talk and discover how I cleverly used leverage.
Watch it here. (It’s only 6 min)
I spend lots of time thinking about thinking. Specifically about the quality of my thinking. I realized that the quality of our thinking heavily depends on the people we think with.
Ask yourself these two questions:
Are you happy with the quality of your thinking?
Who are you thinking with?
Thank you for reading! I will see you next week!
Have a great week!
All the best,
Juan David Campolargo