Lots of things happening in the world to start off 2020: an Iran crisis that already resolved itself after a scary standoff, wildfires ravaging most of Australia, the Houston Astros cheating scandal, a new flu virus throwing the world into a panic, the Corona virus originating from Wuhan, China, is already drawing comparisons to previous deadly strains like SARS and Ebola. TSLA stock is up around 60% JUST THIS YEAR and we're not even 3 weeks into the new year, carried over from year end 2019. The consensus is that this is just a lot of short covering, no fundamental movement, thus the rally is short-lived and it's not wise to buy TSLA at daily all-time highs. But it sure doesn't feel good waking up to TSLA being up double-digit percentages every day feeling the opposite of buyer's remorse (maybe FOMO?- fear of missing out) just like other stocks I hesitated on getting like AAPL, ROKU, BYND (Beyond Meat), and Luckin' Coffee. I considered all of them and don't have a substantial position in any of them. Sigh.
The news is coming in fast and furious, like it's catching up on lost time. For some reason January usually seems to be a pretty news-driven month from my anecdotal memory, whether it be winter storms or new beginnings (presidential inauguration, movie awards season, etc., etc.) This year's been no different.
Trump's senate impeachment hearing kicked off this week and if anything it made me sympathize with some of the senators who were caught playing word puzzles, checking out their Apple Watch, or sleeping. They all had to put their cell phones away in a locker, so they were trapped in the deliberation room for hours and hours (even through dinner break) without internet access, one of the worst things that can happen to someone in today's society. I've worked on jobs where there was no cell phone access or internet access on my work computer, and it actually.........made me concentrate on my job, which the Senators should be doing, but I also can understand falling asleep during a boring meeting.......it happens.
Maybe I sound like a grouchy old man recently, but I have..... surprise! Another gripe, or "Chansori" in Korean, about modern customs. The lack of responses to emails, texts, phone calls, and any other types of messages makes everyone seem a bit callous. Sure, I do it too, like not picking up the phone for spam calls, not responding to emails and promotional offers I have no interest in, but there should be exceptions made for marketing contacts. I'm talking about messages from acquaintances, friends, even immediate family. My sister RARELY answers texts I send her, only when I ask her a direct question will she respond. And when she's on a group chain with my mom and wife MJ, she'll let somebody else respond. But her style seems to be the prevailing trend among most adults: only respond when you feel like it or have something to say. It's the lack of commitment we have in our society today, or better put, the fear of commitment. If we respond back with anything at all, it shows that we are engaged, we're putting ourselves out there, we're enthusiastic about whatever it is that's being discussed, and it's not reflecting the courtesy of just replying something back.
MJ has these issues too at her school, where a classmate sent her a Facebook message that was a kind of urgent message, even though that classmate had MJ's phone number. The prevailing standard seems to be 1.) calling on the phone is almost NEVER acceptable, 2.) texting is OK but feels like you're encroaching a bit and desperate, and 3.) email and/or Facebook message is a little less clingy and appropriate. Luckily, MJ and I call each other and even use Google Facetime to see each other, and she always 100% responds to my texts. But it is pretty frustrating to contact people and have to wait hours, even days, for a response, wondering if they got the text, did I offend them, are they on vacation, etc. I don't think they're doing it intentionally (maybe I'm just someone no one wants to talk to?), it's just the culture nowadays, no strict requirement in courtesy to just give a reply right back.
Weirdly, I blame it on online dating. Dating has all these rules about how long you have to wait to reply to someone without looking too desperate, keeping the responses to a minimum to not give away too much, all these rules that make communicating online really shallow and not a real conversation, and somehow those rules carried over to interaction with EVERYONE. I, for one, pledge to try to be as diligent as possible to give some response as quickly as possible. (but even I sometimes totally forget to respond to something if I read it and think I'll get to it later, then forget about it after doing 18 other random tasks).
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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