The Risk Curve 🪃

Short, practical drops on culture and technology. 🚀

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To the community 🙏

Happy Monday! ☀️

I can't believe I'm only now getting to Ernest Cline's penultimate Ready Player One. It's a dystopian sci-fi novel that is as thrilling as it is....possible. I believe optimists win and pessimists lose given a long enough time horizon. But I can't help but read RPO with a hint of anxiety (when are we launching the Boomerang Book Club?!).

With that, the introduction of a new segment! Tweet of the Day (TOD)! 🐦

I hope, beyond anything, that you read Boomerang and say, 'That really made me think.' 

Let's get into it. 🚀

The Risk Curve 

The last two years have made me re-evaluate my relationship with risk. New entrepreneurial journeys, the detection of a vulnerability in my heart, marriage, a global pandemic, and rocky financial markets.

Where you fall on the risk curve is an evaluation of who you are, and what your lot in life is. If you have a young family and you're treading water, your tolerance for risk will be low. If you're young, employable, and active on the internet, your tolerance for risk might be high. The easiest way to visualize the risk curve is a two-dimensional view of risk vs. return.

To choose a risk-level in and of itself is a blessing. To feel pushed or pulled in any direction on the risk curve is a curse. Unfortunately, that's where I think young people are right now. 

I was one of many Canadian millennials that onboarded foolish amounts of debt for a borderline useless undergrad degree. Not useless from an institutional quality sense, useless in the sense that I didn't know who I was or what I wanted. It was a societal trap that I walked in to voluntarily.

The minute people like me join the workforce your choices don't feel like your own. You're being pushed by debt and pulled by work that will satisfy those monthly demands. 

PS: There is hope on this front. I think an underrated future utility of NFTs will be as a student-loan killer. More on that later. 👀

Pushed Out The Risk Curve

Raoul Pal was the first person I encountered who put the blockchain space in this way. 👇

Raoul thinks young people are being pushed out the risk curve, and I tend to agree. We're willing to onboard more risk to get ahead in a market that is....confrontational. Real-estate pumping, inflation reaching multi-year highs and a cost of living that is outpacing salary growth. 

Middle-class millennials grew up with parents who could afford their first home, two cars in the driveway, and an annual family vacation on two modest salaries. That simply doesn't feel possible right now. (Someone might hit me with some numbers that prove the opposite, and I'll be happy to entertain that if/when it happens).

What's the point? 📲

Where are you on the risk curve? Do you have the right time horizon? I'm not just talking about what you're invested in financially:

• Where do you spend your time?

• What are you working on?

• Who are you working on it with?

The great foundations are laid by great questions. 🙏

Gratitude 🙏

I feel lucky to have you on the other end of this newsletter. If you haven't yet, join the community, and a bring a friend! Have a great week.👇

See you on the path. 

- MG