Howdy friends,

I'm writing to you straight from my room in Memphis. I hope you had an awesome week!

Big thank you to the 82 subscribers, especially to the 4 new subscribers this week: Harry, Jolie, Amber, and Marty. I'm seriously so thankful to anyone that subscribes to this email - even if you just open and skim it.

I'll be honest - today more than any other day, I didn’t feel like writing this week's email for one reason: fantasy football. Sine it's the fantasy playoffs, I’d love to plop down on my couch and watch football without a single worry or obligation in the world.

But I made a promise to myself and to everyone reading that I would send this email every Sunday (even if it’s just a few friends + my mom reading it). Consistency, I’ve come to realize, is the key to unlocking your creativity - regardless of whether fantasy football is calling your name.

Hopefully, this email can add some new and fresh ideas to your Sunday evening. And as always, I'm open to feedback, suggestions, ideas, or to be a soundboard for any issues you may be facing.

Here is what I'm working on right now:

I'm 27 days into the Ship 30 for 30 Twitter writing challenge and only have 3 more essays to go! All of the essays are on Twitter but I plan to share my favorite essays on my blog soon. Here are 3 places to start if you want to read any of these mini essays:

• Why I Love Memphis BBQ 🐷 If you know me, you know I love Memphis BBQ. I wrote a mini essay on why I love it so much including my dad's ribs, working at One & Only BBQ, and the dream to own a BBQ restaurant one day.
• Everything Doesn't Need to Scale ⚖️ With so much hype around learning to scale, this essay is a humbling dose of startup advice from the founding story of Airbnb (more on their IPO below).
• Spilling Sprite on Lil Dicky 💧 I wrote a story on the time I spilled Sprite on Lil Dicky in Jerusalem. Good times!

Lastly, I wrote a blog on the Future of Crypto Subscription Payments for my job at Gilded this week. I don't typically share writing from my job, but I think this blog was particularly fascinating and fun to research / write.

With all that being said, let’s dive into The Necessities, where I share what I’m learning and consuming every week. 

The Necessities

Listening 🎧

My favorite podcast from this week:

• Jerry Seinfeld on The Tim Ferriss Show 🍿 If you're a fan of Seinfeld, you have to give this a listen. In this episode, you will learn how Jerry uses daily systems to consistently create jokes and standup routines, why he ended Seinfeld after nine seasons (hint - 10 seasons sounded like it was too much), how he uses his natural irritability to his advantage, and how being turned away from the most popular comedy club in Los Angeles set him up for later success.

Other Notables Podcasts:

• A Podcast about Podcasting - a16z Podcast 🎙️ An oldie but a goodie. It's from over a year ago and still very relevant. Mad me excited about new podcast opportunities in the future. We are just getting started in the world of podcasts and I'm excited to see where the industry goes in the next 5 years.
• Sahil Lavengia on The Knowledge Project 🤝 Sahil was employee #2 at Pinterest and left to start Gumroad, where he helps makes it easier for creators to get paid. He will make you think a lot about how you're spending your time and who you're spending time with.

Random idea: podcast listening groups (similar to book clubs) are going to become more and more popular. Agree or disagree? Would you join a podcast club?

Reading 📚

• The Airbnbs by Paul Graham 🛏️ In celebration of Airbnb going public last week, Paul Graham (co-founder of Y Combinator and early angel investor in Airbnb) wrote a story on how they got started and how he knew they were going to be successful from the start. This is not because of the idea but because of how much energy and enthusiasm they had for their business idea. Fast forward to today when CEO Brian Chesky found out that his IPO price doubled. If the Airbnb story doesn't hype you up to start a company or work at a startup, I don't know what will.
• Atomic Habits by James Clear ⚛️ I listened to this bestselling book as an audiobook earlier in the year and bought a physical copy because I liked it so much and wanted to re-learn what he talked about. This book is one of the catalysts that got me to kickstart my writing habit again. If you want to start 2021 with a bang, I think this is a great book to read.

Tweets 🐦

Since I spend so much time (arguably way too much time) consuming content on Twitter, I decided share my favorite tweets from the week - rapid fire style.

• Huge opportunity for personality-based content (@businessbarista) - check out waitwho.is to see dozens of Silicon Valley creators' work in one place.
• How to make it in crypto without technical skills (@Coopahtroopa)
• Writing is therapy that you publish for the world to learn from (@julian)
• The number one reason to work with someone is to learn from them (@shl)
• It will not be roaring 20s until we build this (@RyanfDuffy)
• Instead of writing a blog post a week, try publishing a post a month. (@shl) - I'm going to start publishing less frequently in 2021 but it will be more research-based and thought-out content. The daily writing was just a great way to get started.
• YCombinator continues to be one of the great breeding grounds for valuable technology companies. (APompliano)
• College classes should each have a brief podcast with summary of what you're going to learn (@Brian_Burrous)
• What a 77-year-old wish she knew sooner (@ricburton)

I could ramble on forever in this section but I'll stop before I spend the entire night devouring Twitter.

Quote I'm Pondering 🤔

“Anytime you have a negative feeling toward anyone, you’re living in an illusion. There’s something seriously wrong with you. You’re not seeing reality. Something inside of you has to change. But what do we generally do when we have a negative feeling? “He is to blame, she is to blame. She’s got to change.” No! The world’s all right. The one who has to change is you." - Anthony de Mello,

Anthony de Mello, Awareness

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I'm brainstorming some new projects for 2021 and working on some essays that I think are more important than anything I've written before. I'll be sharing those with you once I publish them on my website.

Lastly, I want to start being more intentional to keep up with old friends and making new friends through the serendipity of the internet. So if you want to catch up, don't be shy to reach out!

That's all I have for you today. Happy Hanukkah to those who are celebrating and see you next week!

Cheers to building and learning in public,

Jonah

P.S. If you found this email interesting or valuable, I'd be sooo happy if you considered sharing with a friends, family, or coworkers!

If you have someone sign up, let me know and I'll shout you out in the next week's email. I'll also be launching a more structured referral program in the coming weeks👇

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