I Like Contributing
What I'm Up To (TokeBi, my Startup), What I Reflected On (Contributing as a Value), and What's Occupying My Mind (Vampire Survivor) - all part of Allen's Friday Flights
HELLO to the Friday Flights
These are a flight of personal updates from me and it’ll be centered around what I’m up to, what I reflected on, and what book (or even thing) occupies my mind. Makes sense why I’d have a different selection of topics since I often choose samplers and flights when I go out to eat and drink.
Ciao!
Allen
Past Friday Flights
7/15 - I Did Not Value My Skills
7/8 - Explainer Burnout
Inside:
What I’m up to
What I reflected on
What thing occupies my mind
What I’m Up To
TL;DR: Got a startup going.
The Things:
I’m co-founding a startup called TokeBi (Tow - Keh - Bee). We help Crypto Founders understand their business health, but also make the finance team make sense of blockchain data. This is how I end my career break of 8 months.
Shout out to Meagan and Michael for going on career breaks.
Here’s the first Twitter Space of WriteWeb3. Tune in Wednesday at 9a.m. I think.
Shoutout to Solomon and Ben for figuring out that living at home and saving money to buy a house can have an incredibly mental impact on their health, and so instead elected to move out already and rent. I get it.
I participated in 3 different founder meetings related to YC’s Startup School. Maybe one day I’ll be in YC.
I now at the point where my Google Storage (200 gigs) and iCloud Storage (100 gig) are at capacity and I get reminders to pay more to expand it. Please send help. I am currently setting up Handbrake to compress the shit out of all videos.
I found an incredibly great Thai Restaurant with the most generic name. It’s Called Siam Station, and its got the best Crab Fried Rice. Also Crispy Pork Pad Thai.
If you remember Action Passion, the career direction finder. I tried it, didn’t find market fit nor motivation to continue, and killed it.
CryptoLinks was announced - it’s a Web3 Project focused on Golf Brands. It is headed by my friend and hilariously my former audit senior, Edwin Aguilar.
What I Reflected On
TL;DR: I like contributing.
I Like Contributing
Last week I shared some ways on how I socially get out of my own head. This piece is another angle on the same goal: Getting out of your own head.
A few months ago, I attended a Diversity in Leaders MBA event at Stanford GSB. It’s essentially an admissions recruiting program where Stanford shows off how their MBA program is structured.
No, I will not be studying for my GMAT and applying to an MBA program any time soon. I’m avid test avoider. Besides, I have the Morning Brew Business Essentials Accelerator.
After experiencing the Stanford GSB program and sifting through various current students of the program and future students alike, I learned a very key cultural habit shared amongst all MBA students at Stanford.
By default, each of them will contribute to each other as fellows.
It seems like people who are Stanford MBA fellows freely, openly, and thoughtfully contribute to each other where ever possible, so much so that it reinforce a hardcore symptom of pronoia (the opposite of paranoia).
Pronoia is the feeling that everyone is conspiring to do good on them.
As I was engaging with one of the 1st year students, he mentioned that there is a class group listserve where people shoot out bulletins and requests for help, and there’s a tendency for other people in the same class to contribute back. A student I talked to became a co-founder to someone else’s business because they often spent so much time walking around the campus and talking ideas.
I’m completely extrapolating behaviors on a very small sample size, but when I think of how deep a universities alumni circles are, or specific membership organizations, it does explain how alumni of those institutions often engage other alumni for all manners of things.
There is something to be said about people who “show up to help”, or “send a message offering direct support” consistently. Providing consul to a business idea, or even personal predicament, free of bias and judgement - that’s pleasant. Reflecting on the behavior of contributing, I believe that’s a core value of mine.
How do I contribute to others in this modern era?
If I were to boil down all the activities I’ve done in 2022 alone, here’s how I contribute to others:
Writing Publicly - I write explainers and reflections, realizations and shitposts, and send them out all the time in a public forum. The writing creates a context point for anyone to engage me, regardless of what that piece of writing is. I even make it easier by sending my calendly, should they want to talk to me more about it.
My contributions in writing is to de-technical what is a completely technical world (Crypto) and make it consumable for at least a business professional. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.Building Directly - If you are able to code something to get, devise a clever excel workbook, or write a technical article all under the name that you know it’s going to help someone else out, congratulations you’re a builder.
In many ways, you can contribute to others by directly building utility tools, or visual models, that help another person advance their own intellect or project. And you can do it without being asked. If you find yourself here, I hope you don’t lose it.
Listening Like a Fellow - When greeted by someone who comes to you with their story, or their predicament, or even a vent, the best course of action is not center it on yourself in anyway - that’s their choice. Instead, spotlight them and ask them questions that give opportunities for them to elaborate their current state of mind, or the circumstances.
A cheat sheet is to simply re-explain what they just shared with you, but in your own way, as a way for you to understand it.
Fair warning - if you find yourself in a state of giving to others, make sure you recognize your boundaries. Your time and energy is not infinite.
Speaking of contributing, here are my 3 freebies for you:
The Morning Brew Business Essentials Accelerators is the best 8-week online education cohort program around. - For those thinking of a career break, are already on one, or working a job and you want something else, check out this program. It’s been 4 months since I finished, I still enjoy what I’m getting. I can refer you and you can get $100 off. I think.
These are the Apps That Build A Village - Now that remote is embraced, here are my top 3 apps that I shared with a student organization in college, that I think everyone needs to be aware of.
What You Need to Know to go from Big 4 to Web3. - If you want to get into Web3, please join me in my contribution crusade.
What thing occupies my mind
TL;DR: Vampire Survivor is a great $3 game.
Vampire Survivor is a game I picked to play on my Steam Deck. I started playing it last Wednesday. It’s been 8 days since I started playing it and I’ve put in 22 hours.
It starts slow, and slowly it gets more insane and insane.
Why do I love it?
I haven’t had this much arcade-style pick-it-up and set-it-down anytime fun in a while. If you like character unlocking, weapon combos, and endless and absurd hordes of monsters, this game is for you.
I play it between calls, or when I need a 10 minute de-compressor. Or when I feed my cats.
It’s absurd, fun, and I’ll milk it until I don’t want to play it anymore.