Where in the World?! Wednesday

📆 August 24th, 2022

📍 Seattle, WA

Hi -

So… we know we’ve been awfully quiet. So quiet, in fact, that we skipped the last newsletter (if you noticed, we are flattered by your level of engagement!). It has been full-fledged hustle mode this month. 

To give you a quick summary: 1) Midori and I have each started our own consulting businesses and secured 4 clients between the two of us, 2) We doubled down on pickleball and now play 3x a week with our freshly-acquired semi-pro paddles (tournament soon, I hope!), 3) We’ve been dogsitting my family’s 17-year old dog for 21 days collectively this summer, so far (he needs a lot of attention 🙃), and 4) We haven’t left Seattle, but have thoroughly enjoyed chilling with family, reuniting with friends, and showcasing our beautiful city to visiting friends. Alas, this is no excuse to neglect the newsletter… so now we’re back, better than ever! 

So, what have we dug up in the past 4 weeks?

📢 Some, but not much new content from us. But celebrations, nonetheless ~

• Starting with the best… Midori and I just celebrated our 9th-anniversary last week and it was special. So, I (Akaash) just want to dedicate this one bullet (and 100% of everything good about me) to Midori and say thanks for being my best friend in years of wanderlust, unflappable support in times of peril, and uncontainable hype-woman in moments of success. You knew dating me would be an adventure, but I can promise you that you ain’t seen nothing yet 😉
• And… check out some of our new posts on our Instagram, including a few new posts from Istanbul and Cappadocia in Turkiye (formerly, Turkey). Brings back memories and makes us wanna take to the skies again!

🕸️ One trend we’re watching: metaverse influencers ~

• This one blew our minds. The ‘metaverse’ is still most certainly still in its infancy. But that hasn’t stopped Rozy, an entirely fictional ‘meta-human,’ from rising to South Korean (and global!) fame. She boasts more than 140k followers on her Instagram and is probably making more real sponsorship money in her fake world than I make fake money in my very, very real world. Crazy! 
• If that first bullet didn’t get you to click, perhaps Miquela, PacSun’s newest marketing face, will hit a little closer to home. 
• And finally, our personal favorite that showcases South Korea’s utter genius: check out Aespa, the hottest (and very real!)  K-pop girl group positioned to dominate the music + entertainment scene in the metaverse. The talented members of this group each have metaverse alter-egos, each with their own backstories, who regularly make appearances in their music videos. If you want an example of what this looks like, check out the music video for their hit track Black Mamba (metaverse examples starting at 2:32, but the entire song is a banger!)

📱 Two phenomenal corners of the internet friends have introduced us to~

• We’re all familiar with how unemployment works. The pandemic even familiarized us with underemployment. But have you ever heard of being overemployed? Insane. The basic concept is you simultaneously hold down multiple (remote) full-time jobs using turbocharged (and comical) productivity hacks to deliver on all commitments and collect multiple paychecks. It remains a mystery whether this is a real thing or not, but the subreddit (linked earlier) is absolutely amazing to spend time in. Check out this post in particular to get a hilarious overview of how this works. (thanks, Nisheeth, for taking us down this rabbit hole!)
• For all of our fellow armchair philosophers and productivity nerds alike, you’ll love this. Check out untools for a catalog of amazing mental models/frameworks for problem-solving, decision-making, and more. Each tool includes a helpful explanation of how to apply this in your thinking and a handy visualization to help you remember how it works. I’ve found myself referring to this page time often… sometimes multiple times a day.

We may not be gallivanting around the world right now, but the summer so far, surrounded by friends, family, and sunshine, has been nothing short of an adventure.

PS - we’re headed to the SF Bay Area next week so if anyone has any ‘must see/do/eat’ reccs, please do reply to this email and let us know! 

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🤦‍♀️ Just like Sarah Palin... you thought we were done but we’re back on your radar now, 

Akaash (& Midori)

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