Digital Coffee (Free) #15 - how to disagree, Amazon is eating the world & refreezing the arctic
Morning morning morning, up to the 15th free issue and I think around the 30th overall for Digital Coffee — and now being sent out to 200 or so people!
Apologies that yet another issue is coming out on a Monday, rather than the usual Sundays! I guess what I’ve learned over the past few months is that I have to be fluid in when it comes to writing. Either that or prep the newsletter throughout the week, but taking this approach may mean I may miss some of the latest news.
I think the structure is pretty good — one thing I’ve struggled with is the longer form piece that I used to do in the early newsletters. To write something good would take 1-2 hours, and at the moment I don’t have that much writing capacity left. I’m still putting the finishing touches on my second book, and I’ve just launched the AIPM Course — meaning when it comes to the longer form stuff I don’t have much creative juices left!
You know the drill by now — if you enjoy reading this newsletter and think you know someone else who would too — forward it to them 🙏 failing that if you could tap the little heart icon, it’d also be greatly appreciated.
Now Happy September, and onto the content 🚀
Some thoughts to ponder
(1) The worst thing you can do in your teens, 20s, and 30s is being slow and lazy. Utilise the energy of youth. Once gone, it’ll never come back.
(2) A good path to building generational wealth — build an online/SaaS business with little to no outside capital. Hire a lean, remote team. Get profitable. Extract yourself from the day to day operations. Sell the business.
Five interesting links to kickstart your day
"There's a lot more disagreeing going on, especially measured by the word. That doesn't mean people are getting angrier. The structural change in the way we communicate is enough to account for it. But though it's not anger that's driving the increase in disagreement, there's a danger that the increase in disagreement will make people angrier. Particularly online, where it's easy to say things you'd never say face to face. If we're all going to be disagreeing more, we should be careful to do it well. What does it mean to disagree well?"
“Unlike most of the Fortune 500, Amazon is very diverse. It isn’t one or two products that drive their success; it’s an army. Amazon’s business is made up of five primary divisions: Amazon.com, AWS, Alexa, Whole Foods Market, and Amazon Prime. Each of Amazon’s five primary divisions would, on its own, be an impressive business. Combined, they create the world’s largest flywheel.”
👣 China’s footprints across Africa
Building modern Africa. It’d be easy to assume that China is the leading investor and biggest donor in Africa, but those honors still belong to the US. Where Beijing has made its mark like no other is on the African landscape—physical structures like airports, stadiums, dams, bridges, and roads. In a Quartz member exclusive, Youyou Zhou highlights such projects across the continent, using satellite images to show their scale.
💁♀️ American millennials think they will be rich
More than half of American millennials, the generation of people born between 1981 and 1996, believe that they will one day be millionaires; one in five think they will get there by the age of 40. These are the findings from a survey conducted in 2018 by TD Ameritrade, a financial-services company.
❄️ Refreezing the Arctic: How to bring the ice back with geoengineering
“The Arctic is heating up faster than anywhere else on Earth and the only way to save the ice may be to intervene directly. We look at the three ambitious projects that aim to do just that”
Want to become an AI Product Manager?
I launched AIPMCourse.com, a free 10 week course that teaches you all the basics on how to build and launch artificial intelligence products. Check it out, or recommend it to a friend who you think would find it useful
Until next time, thanks for taking the time to check out this issue of Digital Coffee.
“Be a voice, not an echo” — Unknown