Thursday Thoughts - 04/20/2023
Here are my Thursday Thoughts, a short list of the most interesting things that I’ve read, heard, and/or watched over the past week.
Programing Note: Thursday Thoughts will be on hold for the next two weeks.
purple laser by Stable Diffusion Dream Studio
What I Read:
How ’light the beam’ became a Sacramento Kings rallying cry
I’ve been watching a lot of NBA since the start of the playoffs over the weekend. My favorite series has been the Golden State Warriors versus Sacramento Kings. The atmosphere at the Golden 1 Center was electric. I loved how the fans went wild to light the beam after the King’s victory.
I was glad that ESPN released a story about the beam’s history. I scrolled through the memes on Twitter but had no idea of its origin. I liked how the players and fans embraced this marketing gimmick.
Convenience Store Woman
This short novel follows Furukura, a woman who has worked in a Japanese convenience store for 18 years. As expected, she gets pressured from her family, friends, and coworkers about moving on and doing something more with her life. But Furukura has never quite followed or understood social norms. She thrives in the convenience store because everything is laid out with explicit instructions.
The themes around culture and social norms has stuck in my head. What or who defines what is normal? Furukura is right to be confused because there is no clear cut instruction manual. She does her best to fit in by copying her coworkers. But to a larger degree, everyone falls within the norms of their social circle. This topic brought up two quotes that I often think about:
“You are the average of the five people you most associate with”
“People like us do things like this.”
What I Watched:
Ether Rally, Shapella Upgrade: What’s Next for Ethereum? $ETH $ARB
This conversion is an excellent recap of the recent Ethereum update. It also frames the future of Ethereum in easy to understand terms. One of my favorite analogies used in this talk was comparing optimistic rollups to zip files. This cleared up what layer two protocols are actually doing.
This video also reframed my view of Ethereum. I mainly look at Ether as an asset in my portfolio, currency to be spent for NFTs, or a token to pay for gas fees. However, this video reminded me that Ethereum is a technology platform. It gets updated regularly to make the experience a lot better than it is now, similar to Android, MacOS, and Windows.
Tags: #books #basketball #crypto #japan