January | Madrid, Mendoza and Buenos Aires.

Completely disconnected from everything for two weeks. Only friends and family, but not an investment metaphore. Just friends and family.

Author

Simon Puebla
February 11, 2024

I said I would, and here I am. Happy to be dedicating this time to reflect on what happened during January. Once again, thanks for clicking on the link and having the will to read this post. Hope you enjoy what’s happened so far in 2024.

In the thumbnail you can see both my great uncles. They’ve got together after 20 years, and watching them reunite is definitely a reason for celebration.


🏃‍♂️ TL;DR

I got attacked by a komodo dragon in Mendoza. I saw an alien eating an icecream because Argentine summer is too hot. I boxed a professional fighter and only got destroyed in the last round. I listened to Ricky Martin for pretty much the first two weeks of the year. The alien’s UFO got picked up because it wasn’t properly parked. The alien paid the fine with bitcoin.

Some of this is true, some isn’t. You’ll have to find out.

🍋 Thoughts

Communication is key for stable, healthy relationships. However, excessive communication shows lack of trust.

If we take this to the professional realm it really strikes: micro-management is just another way to show that we do not trust the person we are working with, therefore, we look generate touchpoints to make sure everything is going on correctly.

In personal relationships things may vary over time. Sometimes you want to know everything, sometimes you don’t - varies greatly based on your self-esteem. However, not everything needs to be shared.

Accurately showcasing your professional value when you are younger is hard since your ‘proof of impact’ is hard to measure.

Unless you are fucking brilliant, proof of impact feels like it takes a while to actually arise. Personally, I feel I do quite a few things and I am always pursuing something new, however, when trying to share what I’ve done in the past, it feels like I am just sharing cool anecdotes with little proof of the impact they had - and people just have to believe it.

I am sure this balances out over time, but at the moment it feels like a lot of ideas, but not that much ‘real’ impact.

You do not have to be the center of attention all the time to be successful. Develop ideas that do not slave you.

When thinking about streamers I always get to the same point: these people cannot go on holidays because their whole business structure depends on them watching something - all the time, everyday. This is a massively competitive environment where everybody is trying to grab a bit of your time. However, these people also need to take a break from producing content - as we all do from our jobs.

How do they do it? Are deep fakes going to cover streamer’s holidays?

“You do no want to onboard people to crypto, you want to onboard crypto to them”.

Sometimes it feels we are just pushing use cases on to people who didn’t ask for a solution - and when adoption is low you get lots of ‘they just don’t get how important this is’. Ego-maniac business building is naturally doomed.

However, we are seeing that most current technological developments are not directly requested by society. Since the brand new is unthinkable/requires lot of effort to visualise, we mostly focus on the old and we assume our routines.

I wonder how tech companies do problem discovery prior to product ideation, since the gap between current problem and tech solution that has no adoption yet is literally the solution 1.0.

🗳️ What’s going on now

  • I am trying to see if the Sustainable Pizza Day should have a version a 2024 edition. This is a decision that should happen soon.

  • Got accepted to EthGlobal’s hackaton in London! Will anyone be there? Let’s build something cool.

  • Back to work, and starting a new venture track on mobility. Feel like contributing? Please reach out!

  • Planning on going to Thailand for a thai boxing fighting camp in July. Anyone did it before?

🗳️ Questions in my head

  • Are we really requesting all these technology advancements, or is the tech industry just pushing it regardless?

  • Suddenly had very vivid dreams that freaked the fuck out of me. Can this be trusted? Do they actually show what’s going on in your subconscious?

  • Can character development actors do in movies and plays be related to buyer persona’s development in innovation methodologies? It feels like they really get to know the characters, and maybe there’s something to learn there.

  • Is there any framework for taking emotional decisions? Emotions and frameworks look quite distant, but you never know.

💎 Inspiration

💙 Cheers

To some lovely people who were part of January:

Emi, Calvi, Santi, Rama, Carri, Nachito, Luquita, Lula, Abu, Julito, Nico, Juli, Valen, Agus, Milu, Nico, Adri, Futre, Leandro, Puli, Celia, Mauri, Ines, Steve, los pibes de La Casita, Santi 23, Vale 23, Luca, Mar, Flor, Juan Cruz, Agus, Pablo, Gustavo, Eze, Maxi, Lucho, Emi, Rodri, Coqui, Fer, Jordi, Rubén.