4+1: episode 3

While I was in San Francisco the past weekend, a friend made a comment about something he read here. So, I have at least one happy customer :)

1. This was the week of the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 and Alaska Airlines gave a few (very lucky) passengers an amazing view of the eclipse from 35,000 feet. I also stumbled upon a great photographic capture of the eclipse on Twitter.
2. I was honored to be given a chance to volunteer as a mentor for Defy Ventures at the Techstars Music Accelerator office in LA. Defy helps currently and formerly incarcerated individuals pursue their own business ventures and careers, and successfully reintegrate into the society. I was glad to work with 5 different EITs (Entrepreneurs In Training) in that event and meet a bunch of other volunteers. As a side note, we were given a really fun icebreaker activity. I strongly recommend volunteering at least once for Defy if you can; I know I will be going back.
3. One of the most interesting applications of blockchain technology was introduced this week. The Mark Cuban-backed startup has built an open-source messaging platform built on the Ethereum blockchain, which, most interestingly supports decentralized user engagement, bypassing central ad servers (e.g. Facebook). I’ll be watching this one closely. Read more about this here and here.
4. From my newly-favorite How I Built This podcast, I learned that: (a) the guy behind Huffington Post also built Buzzfeed (and thus largely shaped digital media for the 21st century); and (b) the guy who built Atari also went on to start Chuck E. Cheese (and thus shaped the childhoods of a couple of generations of Americans). I highly recommend this podcast to everyone.
5. Some really exciting research findings have been coming out from the field of gerontology, specifically how we can delay the effects of aging and stay healthy (physically and mentally) for much, much longer. This one is specifically interesting, mainly because it doesn’t rely on some exotic and out-of-reach technique; rather, it utilizes a commonly-found plant extract and costs a couple of cents to produce, making it available to virtually anyone. Read more about this here and watch the related TEDx talk here.

I hope you find these weekly short posts interesting. Reach out if you have any comments or if you want to buy me a round of mezcal as a thank you ;)