Howdy friends,

Happy Thanksgiving weekend from cloudy and rainy Memphis, Tennessee! I'm feeling rejuvenated after a much-needed week off from work with close family and friends.

I hope all of my 75 (!!!) subscribers had a restful and fun-filled Thanksgiving week. And a HUGE thank you to the 25 new subscribers who joined this week. I hope you find something valuable or interesting out of this little email.

Before we dive in, here is my one big ask this week:

Would you mind forwarding this email or sharing with one friend? Only if you found it valuable!

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Podcast Idea

I'm sharing a content idea that I wrote about yesterday for the Ship 30 for 30 challenge on Twitter.

The idea is for a podcast / newsletter focused on educating startup EMPLOYEES (not founders). Read about the idea on my screenshot essay below👇

I think there is a lot of potential for educational content that is directly geared to startup employees. I wanted to share to see if it resonates with others. I'm a big believer that you should share all of your ideas. If it's an idea worth stealing, you know you're on to something.

Let me know if you have any feedback or if you have heard of any content that is solely focused on the startup employee!

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The Necessities

What I'm Reading 📚

• How I Built This by Guy Raz 🚧 - The entrepreneurship podcast we know and love is now in written form. If you need that extra nudge to turn your passion into a business, then this is the book for you.
• How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham ✒️ - Graham (co-founder of Y Combinator) produces some of the most insightful and useful essays out there in the business world. I recommend listening to what he has to say about how to write usefully.
• The Age of Cryptocurrency by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey 💴 - For a long time, I've wanted to read a book on cryptocurrency since I'm obsessed with the impact that it will have and to inform the work I'm doing at Gilded. While I just started the book, it reads like a novel and gives you the real reasons why crypto is so critical for the future of the world. This passage from the intro explains the real reasons why cryptocurrency is so disruptive:

“At it’s core, cryptocurrency is not about the ups and downs of the digital currency market; it’s not even about a new unit of exchange to replace the dollar or the euro or the yen. It’s about freeing people from the tyranny of centralized trust. It speaks to the tantalizing prospect that we can take power away from center - away from banks, governments, lawyers, and the tribal leaders of Afghanistan - and transfer it to the periphery, to We, the People."

What I'm Listening To 🎧

• Matthew Walker on Why We Sleep 😴 - I thought I knew a lot about sleep. Turns out, I know nothing. This episode on sleep from the Joe Rogan Experience in 2018 will make you rethink how you live your entire life (it did for me). For those who think getting 5-6 hours of sleep every night is good enough, think again. I've since queued up Walker's book aptly titled Why We Sleep to read soon.
• Building a more human internet with Caterina Fake 🌎 - Caterina is an expert on building online communities (as a co-founder of Flickr and early-stage angel investor in companies like Etsy). Regardless of what kind of business you're running or working for, Caterina emphasizes why you need to focus on building a passionate community from the beginning.
• So You Want to Launch a Newsletter from the a16z podcast 🚀 - This is a panel-style interview with four Substack writers from many different backgrounds. If you're interested in starting a newsletter too, this is a great place to start.
• 1619 from the New York Times and Nikole Hannah-Jones ⛵- listened to this mini podcast series last year but wanted to re-share because it had such a profound impact on how I think about racism, slavery, democracy. and even music. You've probably heard of it now but I needed to give it a shoutout.

What I Gifted Myself 💌

• Trends 📈- Premium newsletter community (created by The Hustle) that tracks startup trends and how to pounce on them. It's now two days after I bought their Black Friday deal and it's already 3000% worth the investment. The business insights, exclusive podcast interviews, and community of other entrepreneurial-minded people are incredible. If you're interested in upping your business knowledge, you can get $100 off by using my referral code (disclaimer - I get $100 in return).
• Four Sigmatic Mushroom Ground Coffee 🍄 - I've heard about Four Sigmatic coffee as a sponsor on many different podcasts over the years. I'm not a big mushroom guy but the health benefits and lack of jitters that they advertise finally forced me to buy it. I'm still waiting on it in the mail but hopefully I can update you on my experience next week.

Resources for Gifting Others 🎁

I've seen a lot of gift lists out there. Here are four of my favorite:

• Shop Small Collective 💐(from my friends in Venture For America): gift ideas from small businesses in mid-size cities across the country
• The 2020 SideKick Gift Guide 🛴(from Morning Brew)
• 2020 Holiday Gift Guide ⛱️ (from The New York Times)
• A Gift Guide Featuring Black-owned Businesses 🎄 (also from The New York Times)

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Last week, I only shared a few resources to keep it simple and short. This week, I expanded and shared a ton of different content that I'm consuming (I even had to delete a few because I didn't want to overwhelm).

As always, don't be shy. Let me know if you prefer the shorter format or the brain dump like I did today!

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I'm ending this week's email by sharing my 3 big wins from last week:

1) 🚢 Wrote and shipped 7 more atomic essays on Twitter

2) 🎂 Enjoyed my 24th birthday last Wednesday by writing, biking with my dad, eating Vietnamese with the family, and having a distanced bonfire with friends

3) 🚴‍♂️ Hitting personal records on bike rides last week. If you're on Strava, follow me to see all of my rides!

Lastly, thanks again to all 75 of you for subscribing and reading this far. We're just getting started!

Cheers to another awesome week ahead,

Jonah Baer

P.S - I'd be SO happy if you forwarded or shared The Baer Necessities with at least one friend or family member!

Share with a friend!