This graphic shows that learning to use a spreadsheet is probably far more helpful than many advanced math subjects 😂

Subjects like calculus were hard to get excited about in high school because they never told you WHY it was helpful.

If you give zero evidence why something is useful, it’s hard to dedicate time to it.

This is the same for your product marketing. Are you telling your customers all the reasons your product/service will help them?

Cool quote overheard on a Lex Fridman and Kimbal Musk podcast:

"Food is a gift we give ourselves 3 times a day.”

- Kimbal Musk

I like this quote because I cook almost all my meals, either in the form of meal prep once a week:

I have in the past bought pre-made meals, but there's something very satisfying about fresh food and you know every ingredient that goes into it.

Also I enjoy the process of taking a few minutes to grill up some steak or chicken on the grill. There's something very fun about it.

Some angel investing advice Dan Martell said Naval Ravikant gave him (paraphrased):

“Make 12 investments, all of the same size, over the course of a 4 year period.”

He said it roughly follows the old normal curve, where most of the investments will either be a washout or you breakeven, but 1 or 2 of those investments will return all the money:

You can see his advice here at this timestamp: 30:36

If you are reading this on Friday morning, I am probably travelling at the moment, so I pre-wrote this SWIPES Email a few days early.

I couldn't find any non-personal-event pictures to share, so I am sharing this random picture of my Aprillia Scarabeo 100 scooter that has served me well for the last 10 years (also I had 2 other of the same model before that).

I've always lived around Downtown Austin, so if I ever need to get somewhere in a hurry when there's tons of traffic or parking will be bad, this baby has always been there!

This quote means sometimes JUST DOING THINGS to advance a goal is better than pondering on it:

....it doesn't mean you shouldn’t stop and think, but if you’re feeling inspired you can start writing that article, buying that domain name, or making a mockup…and the motion helps you move forward.

For example this is just PART of my collection of useless domain names:

...but buying a $7 domain name is often the first step in helping me take a project seriously.

So what if I waste $200 in a year buying dumb domains? One success out of those can return 1,000x.

Some "motion" towards an idea will help you work on it faster.

When I'm alone I goof off, BUT if someone is working with me (and can preferably see my screen) I will get lots of work done.

Sometimes working at home doesn't provide this, and I'll often hop onto CaveDay (this isn't sponsored I just think it's a cool service).

I am currently writing this SWIPES Email from a CaveDay Session, and it currently has 75 people on the call just silently co-working

This is the exact letter that made Gary Halbert a millionaire in 1971. 

It was one page, sealed in an envelope, selling them a “Coat of Arms” picture and report based on their last name, and it peaked at making 20,000 sales per day (and these were physical mail orders) 😮

This particular letter was sent to every "Macdonald" in the phone book across the United States:

For $2.00 (in 1971) this is what was sent back to you:

1.) A coat of arms picture of your family last name, you could then frame it if you liked. Like this (without the frame, it was just sent to you on paper):

2.) A small report explaining the coat of arms: (h/t to @eston_esau for taking this pic of this in his grandpa's house)!

Here's two quotes I really love:

This is a quote about having a goal you're working towards:

Quote

"When things are hardest, a clear goal is the most important thing. To have a fountain of energy to draw from. Establishing a worthwhile goal is the hardest part. It gives you a place to go and a reason to get up." - Earl Nightingale

This one is about building confidence, and that it comes from having a bunch of smaller experiences of success:

Quote

“Confidence is built upon an experience of success.”

A cool pattern I've found with regards to reading:

10 pages of a fiction book at night helps me go to sleep.

10 pages of a business book in morning helps me wake up and have my brain thinking about work.

I've noticed I read too much fiction in the morning, it's exciting but then I don't really wanna do work. So this hack is pretty neat!

The current business book I'm reading is this: Read Write Own

The current fiction book I'm reading is: The Three Body Problem.

Apparently the Three Body Problem just came out as a movie or TV trailer....AND I'M PURPOSELY NOT WATCHING THE TRAILER SO I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN!

Hey check it out I got one of those 100k subscriber YouTube plaques!! 

I put out 2 long-form videos or interviews per month, and one short form video everyday.

If that sounds up your alley then give me a subscribe!

I've been thinking of buying a Tesla Model S, and wanted to try it out for a multi-city, mulit-destination trip, so I rented one with the specs I wanted off Turo (I would’ve preferred a black one but couldn’t find that with my specs).

I'm not a big car guy....the reality is I want one main thing: Full Self Driving so I can get around without paying attention.

Almost all my friends have variations of Teslas, and the only one I really love the look of is the Model S:

Like I said I just want FULL AUTO DRIVING.

That’s it.

That’s the killer feature to me.

The experience with FSD after 3 days of a lot of driving is: It's definitely kick ass, but not fully there (yet). It's still kinda jerky at times (I notice this a lot more when a passenger is in the car), and 2% of the time it freaks out and scares the hell out of passengers.

My Pro’s of the Tesla Model S:

• Stupid fast. Like….so fast you don’t really need all that speed. It’s unreal.
• Everything is controlled by phone, it’s kinda neat to cool the car or heat it up remotely, or just not have to have a key (just your phone) to operate everything.
• You can see all the cameras from the phone app..it’s like having an 8-camera security system wherever you’re parked!
• FSD (Full Self Driving) is amazing….I have some gripes with it, but it’s an awesome safety feature to have, and is really relaxing to drive on.
• FSD is so good at directions, if I was ever in doubt of which freeway or exit to take, FSD nailed it every time.
• I love + don’t love that everything needs to be controlled from the screen. Like changing directions of the air vents requires a few clicks to do.
• The FSD feels good having it as a backup driver for safety, and is nice to sit in slow traffic with it on and not pay much attention.

My Con’s of the Tesla Model S:

• For passengers the Full Self Driving is kinda jerky when slowing down….even with “Chill Mode” on the way it breaks sometimes is like a bad Uber driver.
• You kind of have to babysit the FSD….it definitely does the job, but you’re not totally doing nothing, you still have to pay some attention.
• It’s a total lane hog. On the highway the Tesla will very frequently try to move into the left lane then just stay there, which is a huge pet peeve of mine.
• The yoke steering wheel looks cool, and is nice for visibility (you can see right over it which is neat), and for the most part feels good….but the buttons stink. The turn signals are not intuitive, and you have to reach your thumb to touch them each time. Same with the horn or lights, definitely not in an intuitive spot.

Hope for the future of driving:
I frequently go back and forth between Austin and Houston for family stuff, and I think of the countless hours of driving I’ve done that could’ve been used for something more productive or fun.

I wish I could do work, or read, or listen to podcasts AND take notes while driving….currently you can just passively consume information in a car and not much more.

My goal is that I can drowsily hop in the car, fall asleep, and safely wake up in a different city. This seems roughly ~5 years away.

I love local-business marketing, and I saw this in a neighborhood while driving in Houston:

It's a simple A-Frame (much like my Shoe Hospital Experiment sign) this window cleaner puts out in front of a house they were cleaning.

A great way of drumming up business is letting people in the neighborhood know you're helping out one of their neighbors.

If you're a service provider like this, spend the $150 to get a nice A-Frame made and stick it in front of your service sites!