NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Food is a gift we give ourselves 3 times a day.

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Cool quote overheard on a Lex Fridman and Kimbal Musk podcast:

“Food is a gift we give ourselves 3 times a day.”

– Kimbal Musk

I like this quote because I cook almost all my meals, either in the form of meal prep once a week:

I have in the past bought pre-made meals, but there’s something very satisfying about fresh food and you know every ingredient that goes into it.

Also I enjoy the process of taking a few minutes to grill up some steak or chicken on the grill. There’s something very fun about it.

Math and the stages of life

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This graphic shows that learning to use a spreadsheet is probably far more helpful than many advanced math subjects 😂

Subjects like calculus were hard to get excited about in high school because they never told you WHY it was helpful.

If you give zero evidence why something is useful, it’s hard to dedicate time to it.

This is the same for your product marketing. Are you telling your customers all the reasons your product/service will help them?

Local business marketing A-Frame

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I love local-business marketing, and I saw this in a neighborhood while driving in Houston:

It’s a simple A-Frame (much like my Shoe Hospital Experiment sign) this window cleaner puts out in front of a house they were cleaning.

A great way of drumming up business is letting people in the neighborhood know you’re helping out one of their neighbors.

If you’re a service provider like this, spend the $150 to get a nice A-Frame made and stick it in front of your service sites!

Fiction at night, Business in morning

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A cool pattern I’ve found with regards to reading:

10 pages of a fiction book at night helps me go to sleep.

10 pages of a business book in morning helps me wake up and have my brain thinking about work.

I’ve noticed I read too much fiction in the morning, it’s exciting but then I don’t really wanna do work. So this hack is pretty neat!

The current business book I’m reading is this: Read Write Own

The current fiction book I’m reading is: The Three Body Problem.

Apparently the Three Body Problem just came out as a movie or TV trailer….AND I’M PURPOSELY NOT WATCHING THE TRAILER SO I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN!

Two motivational quotes

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Here’s two quotes I really love:

This is a quote about having a goal you’re working towards:

“When things are hardest, a clear goal is the most important thing. To have a fountain of energy to draw from. Establishing a worthwhile goal is the hardest part. It gives you a place to go and a reason to get up.”  – Earl Nightingale

This one is about building confidence, and that it comes from having a bunch of smaller experiences of success:

“Confidence is built upon an experience of success.”

This letter made Gary Halbert a millionaire

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This is the exact letter that made Gary Halbert a millionaire in 1971.

It was one page, sealed in an envelope, selling them a “Coat of Arms” picture and report based on their last name, and it peaked at making 20,000 sales per day (and these were physical mail orders) 😮

This particular letter was sent to every “Macdonald” in the phone book across the United States:

For $2.00 (in 1971) this is what was sent back to you:

1.) A coat of arms picture of your family last name, you could then frame it if you liked. Like this (without the frame, it was just sent to you on paper):

2.) A small report explaining the coat of arms: (h/t to @eston_esau for taking this pic of this in his grandpa’s house)!

Tesla Model S Test

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I was thinking of buying a Tesla Model S, and wanted to try it out for a multi-city, mulit-destination trip, so I rented one with the specs I wanted off Turo (I would’ve preferred a black one but couldn’t find that with my specs).

Almost all my friends have variations of Teslas, and the only one I really love the look of is the Model S:

The only reasons I’d want to switch cars is: FULL AUTO DRIVING.

That’s it.

That’s the killer feature to me.

Pro’s:

  • Stupid fast. Like….so fast you don’t really need all that speed. It’s unreal.
  • Everything is controlled by phone, it’s kinda neat to cool the car or heat it up remotely, or just not have to have a key (just your phone) to operate everything.
  • You can see all the cameras from the phone app..it’s like having an 8-camera security system wherever you’re parked!
  • FSD (Full Self Driving) is amazing….I have some gripes with it, but it’s an awesome safety feature to have, and is really relaxing to drive on.
  • FSD is so good at directions, if I was ever in doubt of which freeway or exit to take, FSD nailed it every time.
  • I love + don’t love that everything needs to be controlled from the screen. Like changing directions of the air vents requires a few clicks to do.

Con’s:

  • For passengers the Full Self Driving is kinda jerky when slowing down….even with “Chill Mode” on the way it breaks sometimes is like a bad Uber driver.
  • You kind of have to babysit the FSD….it definitely does the job, but you’re not totally doing nothing, you still have to pay some attention.
  • It’s a total lane hog. On the highway the Tesla will very frequently try to move into the left lane then just stay there, which is a huge pet peeve of mine.
  • The yoke steering wheel looks cool, and is nice for visibility (you can see right over it which is neat), and for the most part feels good….but the buttons stink. The turn signals are not intuitive, and you have to reach your thumb to touch them each time. Same with the horn, definitely not in an intuitive spot.

 

Hope for the future:
I frequently go back and forth between Austin and Houston for family stuff, and I think of the countless hours of driving I’ve done that could’ve been used for something more productive or fun.

I wish I could do work, or read, or listen to podcasts AND take notes while driving….currently you can just passively consume information in a car and not much more.

My goal is that I can drowsily hop in the car, fall asleep, and safely wake up in a different city. This seems roughly 5 years away.

Business Models

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  1. Subscription Model
    • Example: A streaming service charges $10/month per subscriber. If the cost to serve each subscriber is $4/month, the profit per subscriber is $6/month.
    • Real World Company: Netflix.
    • Revenue: Netflix reported revenue of approximately $29.7 billion in 2022.
  2. Freemium Model
    • Example: A productivity app offers basic features for free and charges $5/month for premium features. Assuming 1000 users with 10% upgrading, the revenue is $500/month.
    • Real World Company: Spotify.
    • Revenue: Spotify reported revenue of approximately €9.67 billion ($10.9 billion USD) in 2022.
  3. E-commerce Model
    • Example: An online store sells a product for $50 with a COGS of $30. The profit per product sold is $20.
    • Real World Company: Amazon.
    • Revenue: Amazon reported revenue of approximately $514 billion in 2022.
  4. Affiliate Marketing Model
    • Example: A blog earns $10 for each sale through its affiliate link, with a conversion rate of 2% from 100 clicks, earning $20.
    • Real World Company: Wirecutter (A New York Times Company).
    • Revenue: Specific revenue for Wirecutter is not publicly disclosed, but it operates on affiliate marketing revenue.
  5. Ad-based Model
    • Example: A website earns $0.50 per 1000 views (CPM). With 500,000 views, the revenue is $250/month.
    • Real World Company: Google (primarily through AdSense).
    • Revenue: Alphabet (Google’s parent company) reported revenue of approximately $282.8 billion in 2022, with a significant portion from advertising.
  6. SaaS (Software as a Service) Model
    • Example: A tool charges $100/month with a COGS of $20/month. The profit per customer per month is $80.
    • Real World Company: Salesforce.
    • Revenue: Salesforce reported revenue of approximately $26.5 billion in 2022.
  7. Dropshipping Model
    • Example: A store sells a product for $20, purchases it for $10, with a $10 profit per sale.
    • Real World Company: Wayfair.
    • Revenue: Wayfair reported revenue of approximately $13.7 billion in 2022.
  8. Consulting Services Model
    • Example: A consultant charges $200/hour with costs of $50/hour. The profit per hour is $150.
    • Real World Company: McKinsey & Company.
    • Revenue: McKinsey reported revenue of approximately $10 billion in 2022.
  9. Franchising Model
    • Example: A franchisee pays $10,000 upfront plus 5% of monthly sales of $20,000, making $7,000 after fees.
    • Real World Company: McDonald’s.
    • Revenue: McDonald’s reported revenue of approximately $23.2 billion in 2022.
  10. Digital Products Model
    • Example: An e-book sold for $30 with a $1 transaction fee has a $29 profit.
    • Real World Company: Adobe.
    • Revenue: Adobe reported revenue of approximately $15.79 billion in 2022.
  11. Marketplace Model
    • Example: An online marketplace takes a 10% commission on a $500 transaction, earning $50.
    • Real World Company: Etsy.
    • Revenue: Etsy reported revenue of approximately $2.3 billion in 2022.
  12. Direct Sales Model
    • Example: A distributor buys products at a 25% discount and sells them at retail price, making $10 on a $40 product.
    • Real World Company: Amway.
    • Revenue: Amway reported revenue of $8.5 billion in 2022.
  13. Crowdsourcing Model
    • Example: A platform takes a 5% fee on a $100,000 project, earning $5,000.
    • Real World Company: Kickstarter.
    • Revenue: Kickstarter’s revenue is not publicly detailed but operates on this commission model.

 

  1. Subscription Model
  2. Freemium Model
  3. E-commerce Model
  4. Affiliate Marketing Model
  5. Ad-based Model
  6. SaaS (Software as a Service) Model
  7. Dropshipping Model
  8. Consulting Services Model
  9. Franchising Model
  10. Digital Products Model
  11. Marketplace Model
  12. Direct Sales Model
  13. Crowdsourcing Model
  14. Data Monetization Model
  15. Economy Sharing Model