Trevor McKendrick - Sabbath Hard and Go Home

Hi all,

I got back last week from the Olympics, it was fantastic. I thought the Olympics might be dying a bit after Tokyo 2020 but I feel like this year in person and online were the best they’ve been since at least 2012 London, maybe even 2008 Beijing.

One thing we learned: on TV, individual events are the best! Swimming, Gymnastics, and Track & Field in particular. But they are much less amazing in person because it’s much harder to follow an individual. Track & Field and Gymnastics both have like 5 things goin on at the same time, and even with great seats you can’t really see or track what’s going on.

On the other hand: in person team events are incredible. We had great seats to the USA vs China Women’s indoor Volleyball game, and it was one of the best sporting events I’ve ever been to. WAY better than watching volleyball on TV.

Hope that helps for Los Angeles 2028!

Trevor

Sabbath Hard and Go Home (article)

A friend described the Jewish Sabbath as “a day where you are not trying to rest from advancing the interests of your life, but just to enjoy your life.”

“If you do not assume like a modern consumerist that work is what you do for money, and leisure is what you spend money on, then what is work?”

tldr: the Quakers are good people (article)

“Quaker decisionmaking also centers empowering individuals to discern the right for themselves. "Clearness committees" provide guidance to Friends making difficult decisions, not through advice or admonition, but by asking questions to help the decider know the right with their own conscience.”

VICEX is a mutual fund that invests in “a group of vice industries that includes the alcoholic beverages, defense/aerospace, gaming, and tobacco industries.”

“Vice industries” are those industries whose focus, in the Adviser’s assessment, may be morally questioned by members of the general public or face funding or regulatory challenges because of social disapproval.”

The single best blog on the mechanics of (broadly) private equity (blog)

If you wanted to raise a venture capital fund this is where I’d start.

A group of friends created a fake steakhouse in NYC for 1 night (article)

This was excellent. And boo to the people who disputed the charges on their credit card after they found out it wasn’t a “real” restaurant.

Obvious travel advice (article)

“#43: Travel reveals the value of stability, roots, routine, community, relationships, and cooking at home.”

Some founders fail to hire well because they think everyone sucks but them (article)

“Part of the trouble with using self-deprecation as a defense mechanism is that it becomes self-fulfilling. As these founders surround themselves with relatively slow or mediocre performers, their own performance inevitably suffers. You can’t lower the bar on your team without also lowering the bar on yourself.”

Review of Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth (article)

“For too long, women with large families have been deemed irrational. She must have dropped out of school to get married young. She must not “believe” in modern birth control technologies. She must not have attractive career options. She must be stuck in the past, probably lives on a farm. She must lack appropriate concern for her existing children and their quality of life.

“These tropes do not describe the women introduced in Hannah’s Children. The fifty-five women interviewed by Catherine Pakaluk and her research team all have at least five children, and some probably live on farms, but all are college-educated, most have accomplished careers or a professional skill set, and many use birth control.” (emphasis added)

IMO if we want to increase the birth rate, we must raise the status of all mothers. In addition, we must raise the status of being a stay-at-home mom.

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