Another Week in the Innovation Age #1
Hi Growers š±,
We live in the innovation age. A period where groundbreaking events happen all the time.
These Sunday round-ups are my way of distilling what Iāve gathered.
My last post was on 2/20. Donāt miss my weekly updates and join 97 ambitious and self-motivated champions by subscribing here:
Ukraine Defending Democracy Against a Dictator
Very few people expected Russia to invade Ukraine quite like they have. Russiaās aggression has been shocking and barbaric.
But unlike other wars, this one we have watched unfold in real-time on Twitter.
What we have witnessed is the strength of the Ukrainian people and their will to defend democracy and freedom at all costs.
And no one has emulated this more than their leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky said āhe needed ammunition not a ride outā when responding to the U.S. about being evacuated.
He has provided personable real-time updates via Twitter about the Ukrainian people defending their homeland and has galvanized nearly the whole world to support the Ukrainian people.
It is hard to think of another recent instance in which one human being has defied collective expectations for his behavior and provided such an inspiring moment of service to their people.
Iām anxiously glued to my phone watching these events unfold hoping for the least loss of life and for democracy to withstand tyranny.
The Greatest Fear
One of the biggest worries in all of our minds is nukes which Russia has openly threatened. This is the most terrifying event possible that is hard for me to even imagine.
As a society, we must work to ban all nuclear weapons so this can never happen when conflicts get escalated.
Human civilization is much more unstable with nukes around.
We should convert all nuclear weapons into nuclear energy.
I wasnāt sure if this was possible, but indeed it is.
For the last two decades, using dismantled nuclear weapon material has become an integral part of energy production in the United States.
The materials salvaged from the bombs for energy production at the time accounted for 50% of the nuclear fuel and about 10% of the electricity produced in the United States (Turning Nuclear Weapons into Nuclear Fuel).
The world should do this for all nuclear weapons asap.
Thiel Fellow Helping Ukraine
One famous Russian, Vitalik Buterin, the genius programmer who developed the Ethereum blockchain, made his stance clear on supporting Ukraine.
He is now raising millions to support civilians in Ukraine.
As some of you may know, Vitalik is a Thiel Fellow which I think is important program for people to know about.
The Thiel Fellowship was created by billionaire Peter Thiel for students aged 22 or younger.
It offers them a total of $100,000 over two years, as well as guidance and other resources, to drop out of school and pursue other work, which could involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement.
Vitalik, like many other Thiel fellows, are playing a critical role in our society and have demonstrated themselves as leaders on the global stage in the times of a crisis and beyond.
Pause on My Birthday
During the invasion of Ukraine, I celebrated my 27th birthday.
It was quite the dichotomy to celebrate as our democratic neighbor was being invaded.
I went to Pause, which is a sauna and cold bath studio, to take an hour to listen to meditation music, relax, and hone in on the moment of time I was in.
I had an immense sense of gratitude to have the luxury to look inward on my birthday as opposed to being on the front lines of a conflict to defend the very freedom that I was enjoying.
I couldnāt help but ask, āwhy them, and not me?ā
Reading Compounds With Time
I once made a goal to read 12 books in 1 year. I read 18.
But after doing so, it burned me out from reading and I havenāt read too much since.
One of my friends, mentioned that even just reading a little bit everyday can compound over a long time.
It has since ignited my desire to dedicate time to reading everyday again.
My other friend recently recommend I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
I went for a 2 hour long walk and started to listen to this timeless book. I plan to keep reading everyday as a new goal.
Goals & Actions
Speaking of a new goal to read, at the beginning of February, I set the intention to set goals for the month and track against them.
I used a relatively simple excel spreadsheet to track them.
After about two weeks in, I stopped keeping track, which Iām a bit bummed about.
With that said, I can say that I did hit my goal of working out 20 times and studying Spanish 20 times.
I also published a Substack everyday Sunday like I intended and planned a few activities for Elana (my girlfriend) and I.
I didnāt hit my goal of hitting 800 Twitter followers, but I did grow by over 100 followers which was one of my biggest months on the platform.
Iām going to set more goals for March and be better at tracking everything.
As always, would love to hear from you in the comments.
Thank you for reading! š±
Aidan