#isurvivedDavos2024
Simple update for what can be easily a complex year.
Hello!
Welcome to Ease & Effort, my newsletter that above all else, allows me to share what I’m up to (outside of work, because we always talk about work) to you.
Enjoy my updates!
Allen
Previous Posts
What I’m Up To
Acclimated back from Davos and have sent, or will send, a number of follow ups. Culling photos (it’s mostly photos of coat check numbers).
Preparing for skiing in the U.S., and figuring a Tahoe trip in there.
Refilling a fridge after my last fridge broke and I had to dispose a lot of stinky food.
Back to the gym and immediately got rocked by sprint intervals.
Finished Monarch Legend of Monsters, which honestly would have been better if you cut out the main 3 actors.
Taking a liking to Loudermilk, a tv comedy featuring Ron Livingston who felt like he disappeared from Hollywood since his 2001 Band of Brothers piece.
Looking forward to LNY - Oh look, Ascend has a non-traditional LNY event at NeueHouse in Hollywood!
At this point, I’m just scheming 2024.
#isurviveddavos2024.
Guten Morgen
After a few days of rest, I’m finally stabilized after operating on severe sleep deficit after spending 7 days in Davos. As I find creative analogies to explain what happened Davos, Mark M’s son puts it best: “It’s Disneyland for MBAs.”
What is Davos about? It’s the place where the World Economic Forum is hosted, and for only a week, the town converts into a heavily secured, incredibly active, capitalism-driven party social town, completely with machine gun posts, military & police personnel, and processions.
After all, where else can you run into Will.i.am, Michael Dell, Al Gore, the security procession of Zelensky, former Chairman of the Keepers of the Quaich, that one guy I saw make fried rice (it’s an EY PAPN reference), CEOs and the head of banks, and even me!
You’ll find yourself running into people in the most unexpected places and sharing contacts across whatsapp, telegram, signal, linkedin, and even business cards. As the week progresses, you’ll start to see some of the same people at the same events you’re hitting up and ideally it’ll feel like a reunion when you come back next year.
The great common factor for everyone is that it’s cold, and that dressing requires more functionality than style. The temperatures were chilly with the week getting progressively closer to 0 degrees (that’s -16C!). For many, the dreaded “Davos cough” materializes a week after as the constant movement inside hot hotels to cold streets become a consistent theme throughout the week.
If you’re clever, you can get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and after parties covered without spending a frank. Though the running joke at Davos is that there’s no food, and that you should absolutely eat the thing in front of you because there’s no guarantee you’ll get food later. What can be guaranteed is the amount of pricey alcohol floating around (I 100% came back for drinks from a $300 per bottle tequila).
As I try to remember what the week was about, I can only think about fondly to the intimate conversations I had with newly made friends. Shoutout to the Sonos gang.
Many thanks to Jim, and of course, Mark, of which Davos 2024 I can greatly attribute to.
#isurviveddavos2024.
Extra bonus pic: How much walking at Davos did I do?
Answer: See below.
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Originally created to drive his Professional Curiosity, Allen Au has since shifted to explore “Ease & Effort”, and his relationship with not only the blockchain industry, but with all things that consume and replenish his energy. The distribution of this newsletter is intentionally curated to only go to people he has met, or has been introduced to online to.
I've been a huge Sonos lover for many years now - I'd love to hear more about that story!
Read the next post:
https://effort.substack.com/p/how-do-you-interpret-its-a-people