#13 mRNA, FOMO & Memento Mori
Hey there 👋
Hope you’re all doing well. It’s been a while since I sent a newsletter, so this one is a bit longer!
Articles I’ve loved
RNA vaccines might help in the fight against malaria - Vox (8 min read)
Malaria kills each year more than 400,000 people, most of them children. RNA vaccination, the same technology as the Moderna & Pfizer covid vaccines, could be a way to fight this! This article from issue #10 already touched upon mRNA vaccines:
The ability to encode and deploy arbitrary mRNA in our bodies sure seems like a game changer—it allows us to essentially program our cells to make whatever proteins we want.
We sure haven’t seen everything yet in the biotech!
Short Fat Engineers are Undervalued - Jeff Schwab (3 min read)
In terms of knowledge, depth helps you move fast, but breadth helps you move in the right direction.
My framework for dealing with FOMO - Jay Vasantharajah (4 min read)
This article gives some tips on a thing I’m often also struggling with: FOMO (fear of missing out). The lesson is not to focus on other people’s events, but their processes. Stay focused on your own processes, leading to those events & results in the future.
Really liked the Michael Jordan video in the article as well!
People Don't Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Themselves - Zander Nethercutt (7 min read)
People don’t buy products because of what those products do, they buy products because of what they can do — or what they imagine they can do — with them.
Similar idea: When people see you driving in a Ferrari, they don’t picture you as a cool person - they’re busy picturing themselves in the Ferrari.
Four lessons I learned after my first full-time job after college - Chip Huyen (10 min read)
It’s not about the company. It’s not about the product. It’s not even about the money. It’s all about the people you work with. 🐺🚀
Valuable insights inside this blogpost!
Tweets
After military victories, the heroes were paraded through the streets on chariots. They may have felt like Gods...
But the Romans would place one person in the chariot whose sole responsibility was to whisper in the hero's ear throughout the parade.
"Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento. Memento mori!"
Translation: "Look behind. Remember thou art mortal. Remember that you must die!"
Podcasts I’ve Loved
Books I’ve read
The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)
Fast-read with 20 lessons on money & happiness. Highly recommend this one!
Alchemy - The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense - Rory Sutherland (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)
The main message of this book is that it's easier to have a 10x improvement psychologically than on an engineering level. For example, it's way easier to make a train ride 2x as pleasant than 2x as fast.
The book also elaborates on irrational & rational decision making, similar to the book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Kahneman. (Spoiler: the first one happens a lot more than we think)
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami (⭐⭐⭐⭐)
Wonderfully written.
Thanks for your most valuable resources, your time and attention! Which article did you like the most? Let me know!
Until next time,
Matthias