The Pryor Week #1

Note 1

Hey peeps! This is the first iteration of a weekly roundup of interesting topics I’ve come across. I mentioned it before in a post a few weeks ago, and here I am trying to make a habit of it. Look at me go, wooooo.

1. It resulted in this beast of a collection of cool and zany facts/learnings/stats/neat sh*t I had from a year of notes. It was probably too long for an email (thanks for mentioning that everyone), but it looks much better as a blog post☝️.

2. Feedback is everything. If you like/hate this idea or have some ideas for how to improve it, please comment or hit reply (it’s an email to me). For example, not so sure about the name yet. I’m also not sure what I’ll have for dinner tonight. Stuff like this, thanks for any tips!

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This Week’s Pryor Learnings

#1. From Russia With Love:

I learned my Russian friend thought the now-famous lyrics of Kelis were actually: “My milkshake brings all the boys to the garden” and I couldn’t stop myself from a good hearty maple-syrup-soaked laugh in a Canadian accent.

#2. Jeff Bezos:

He’s bringing a new angle to an old profession. Land baroning is back, baby. But this time with no occupants, productive use of land, or pesky federal taxes to stop him.

My favorite quote from the article:

“The billionaire purchased the property with plans to convert the two adjacent structures into one single family home so that the Bezos family could use it during their visits to the city.”

One of those structures being one of “the largest houses in all of D.C.” Single Family Home needs a new definition, I suppose, or we just have to take it in its literal sense.

It’s a great time to own 1% of society, isn’t it?

That’s not a joke, his net worth is +$200 billion. US GDP in 2020 was $20.94 trillion. Apple to orange comparison, but still…

Read: Inside Jeff Bezos’s Massive Real Estate Portfolio

#3. Making a Website from Paper

This modern-day tinkerer runs mini-projects every year as a hobby (which I think is his full-time income now). His latest one was hilarious and went a bit viral a few weeks ago. I love when people combine 2 very different ideas into a brand new idea.

In this case:

Paper and Pen + Simple Phone App = Blog Making Tool

It’s awesome, and his description of coming up with the idea/following through on it is writing gold.

Read: I blew $720 on 100 notebooks from Alibaba and started a Paper Website business

#4. You Have to See to Believe

I love seeing roundup lists—if it’s a subject that’s interesting and doesn’t involve Kim Kardashian’s preferred purse material. This time it’s 5 of the weirdest forms of eyes in the animal kingdom. Neat and short read, if anything just to see the pictures.

Read: The Weirdest Eyes in The Animal Kingdom See a World We Can't Imagine

#5. Google allegedly has been paying billions to not compete

Google is being sued to prove and stop paying Apple to refrain from entering the multi-billion dollar search engine business.

Why it could be a big deal if true?

A) It’s collusion that retains a monopoly for Google. Even though it’s a “free” service, it’s anything but. Monopolies economically result in far higher pricing for consumers. Even if it’s not money being used.

B) This is collusion and it’s highly illegal (if enforced). Perhaps that’s why Google changed their “Don’t be evil.” slogan years ago.

Read: Class action lawsuit filed in California alleging Google is paying Apple to stay out of the search engine business

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That’s it!

I’m working on a couple large business proposals for the next week or two (been a while, it’s nice to get the entrepreneurial rust off my fingers). I’m really enjoying the lead-up conversations. It’s always fun to see other business owners be so passionate about their companies, I know most people can get bored to death quite easily from such things if they aren’t in the same line of work.

I’m usually the opposite.

I’m a vacuum cleaner of overly specific information I’ll never get to use but highly enjoy consuming it.

New product line for Dyson? Hmm, yes, I think so. The Dyson Pryoritizer or some such thing.

I was going to make a more specific joke name, but after looking at the actual Dyson product names, well—too easy, man:

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Cheers!

J.J. Pryor

P.S. Don’t forget to throw some feedback or hit the heart button if you’re cool.

Notes:

That cool drawing is actually a reprint. One of my local watering holes has a long history here, multiple owners, thousands of customers over the years, but everyone kind of knows everyone vibe. The one wall was painstakingly drawn by my artist friend years ago, but the new owners might have to replace the wall. So they took a bunch of pictures, digitally edited it to fit in that frame, and reprinted it as that piece—and of course, gave a high-quality print to the artist as thanks. People can still be good.