Vintage car adverts were opinionated and confident

Ads back then, had Guts!

Ads today, don’t.

They talked about the why and the how and weren't afraid to talk about the details

The adverts were intelligent and usually funny

The ads were beautiful

Punchlines. Punchlines. Punchlines.

The genius is in the copy.

Advertising today

• Looks the same
• Says absolutely nothing
• Copy written by 8th graders
• All they have is a shiny picture
• and the pictures don't say all that much

I'll leave you with this, a quick comparison of two Porsche adverts from different time periods. One has so much character and the other has none at all.

Masters of Scale

"Masters of Scale is a podcast hosted by LinkedIn Co-Founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman showing how companies grow from zero to a gazillion."

I love listening to Masters of Scale because Reid and his team does all the hard work for me. He'll interview a guest, figure out what are the best bits of the story and cut the episode to a shorter length without compromising on the big ideas and takeaways.
He'll also go as far as interviewing people that the guests mention in their stories. That adds incredible depth and perspective to a story that I just haven't seen other podcast interviewers do. These podcasts are closer to audio documentaries than a radio host interviewing a celebrity. Start with the Howard Schultz Episode to get a feel for the quality.

Richard Branson's Finding My Virginity

"Fifty years after starting his first business, Branson shares the candid details of a lifetime of triumphs and failures and what he really thinks about his unique life and career."

Happy Mother’s Day to my biggest inspiration, most encouraging champion and greatest sounding board #happymothersday

A post shared by Richard Branson (@richardbranson) on Mar 11, 2018 at 3:30am PDT

The book is thick but it reads like a movie that plays in your mind. In one chapter Richard talks about trying to stop a war, in another he talks about sailing an ocean, in a third about starting an airline. Every chapter in this book could be a book on it's own.
I'm learning how to live big from this book. I have no intention of living a normal life, if people look at my life and think, boy this guy fucking insane to have done that, I'll have lived a good life. Richard is drawing out a map in my mind. Really glad I picked this book up.

Jamie Oliver's & Gordon Ramsay's cooking videos

Learning how to cook well is the highest impact thing I've ever done. And I attribute most of that learning to Jamie & Gordon.
They cut out the crap and treat you with a lot of respect as a student. They move quickly through the steps and assume you're smart enough to build up an intuition. These cooking videos are not like those of the past.
Most of the time I cook one of their dishes to learn the techniques they use. Whether it be grilling veggies, seasoning a salad or cooking a steak. They always turn out great and over time I use those techniques to create my own recipes.
The great thing about learning how to cook is that you will never have a bad meal. You'll also save a lot of money because you don't need to go to an expensive restaurant to have a well cooked steak or beautifully flavorful salad.

Sampson Boat Co

Leo is a boat builder and sailor who's rebuilding a classic Sailing Yacht. It's a wonderful project and a dream-like adventure. You can follow along on Youtube.

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

As a rule of thumb, long boards (Usually 7+ feet long) are easier to ride than shortboards. It also lets you catch smaller waves so you don't have to face the wrath of a tonne of water falling on you like a brick wall. But don't let that stop you from giving a short board a try. I know it'll be harder but in theory, once you start catching waves on a short board, you'll progress quickly.

If you live in a climate where the water is cold, then I'd recommend learning about the Wim Hoff method. It's a set of exercises that help improve your ability to withstand cold. I've tried it and use the breathing technique before I enter cold water.

For your first few times out on the water, go out on a flat day (no waves). Get comfortable with your board by paddling distances. See how far you can go before you get really tired. The spot I surf at needs atleast 30 meters of paddling before you're out back. Also a good time to practice diving underwater while a wave passes you from above (see Turtle Roll and the Duck Dive).

The biggest rookie mistake you can make is holding the board in between you and the wave. It sounds obvious but I've done this a time or two when I just wasn't thinking about where my board was. It goes without saying, always keep an eye out for the next set. They have a habit of coming around when you aren't looking.
The hardest thing for me has been dealing with the fear of wiping out and having my board slammed on me when I do. The other thing I'm afraid of is other surfers who might be too eager to catch a wave and are willing to (almost) run you over for one.
If you're a bit afraid of the bigger waves, there are two things you can do to help. Go out without your board and just get a feel for how strong the waves are. Sometimes big looking waves don't pack a punch and other times what looked big from the shore is actually beyond your ability when you get out and see it up close.
The second thing you can do is catch white wash. That's the wave that carries on after a wave has broken. Here's an example of a broken wave. However, it's a terrible example because a beginner should never be out in waters that big. But hopefully you get what white wash is.

Photo by Thomas Ashlock on Unsplash

This is a good time to remind you that surfers that look good in pictures like that are surfing waves well beyond your ability as a beginner. When you're just starting out, try to find wave heights of not more than 1 meter and raise that bar as you become better.

MagicSeaWeed is amazing for surf forecasts. Here are some conditions to look out for as a beginner:

• Low Tide to rising tide
• Wave height of 0.6 to 1.2 meters
• Swell period of 6+
• Wind below 10kmph

As you get better at catching white wash, learn how to catch them on the green. It'll look something like this rising behind you. Start paddling as it travels closer and try to get the feel for it lifting you up.
Photo by Michael Pfister on Unsplash

Try the popup on your first day. This is kinda like letting a new programmer commit something to production on day 1. You'll very likely fail to stand up but you'll also get a feel for the end goal you're aiming for. I didn't do that and I wasted a lot of time learning things that were not adding up to that goal.
Catching waves has a lot to do with intuition. I used to think I had to follow a certain set of steps to catch waves but now I think you just need a feel for it.
That's why it's so important to go out there and start standing up on day one. I wish I had known that sooner.

And finally, learn to safely bail out. When I started learning, I wasn't afraid of waves and didn't think they could hurt me in any major way. However, a few wipeouts later I realize they have deadly force and even if they don't, the 7 foot fiberglass board you're tied to can crack you open. Surfing bigger waves is not as hard as learning to surf them safely (which are two very different things). So when you're a beginner and in safer conditions, learn to fall off your board. Research how to fall safely on your butt or bailing when you know you aren't going to catch the wave.

I stayed in Sandton, a wealthy suburb of JoBurg where many corporations are headquartered. I found out very quickly just how early the city goes to sleep when I entered Checkers Hyper at 8pm and they were prepping to close up for the day.

The markets in JoBurg had a fantastic energy to them, it's a shame they only really open once a week.

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One of my favorite moments in JoBurg was in Braamfontein. I'm a big fan of acoustic music and met this guy singing Bob Marley's "Don't worry about a thing" outside a coffee shop. Coincidently, that coffee shop served the meanest in-house bean to coffee cup I've had.

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You can't see all of South Africa until you learn about its darker past. The atrocities committed during Apartheid has left the country with deep scars that are only beginning to very slowly heal. Depending on who you talk to, that might be accurate or overly generous.

To see for myself how black prisoners were treated around the time I was born, I went to Constitution Hill.

Here I learned how Passbook offenders were imprisoned for months. Their crimes were as simple as being in a white area after permitted hours.

The prisons were not what you'd think of when you think of a normal prison. Thousands of humans were forced to use around 4 showers, bathrooms were undersupplied and overflowed often, men were made to dance nude to inspect for hidden items on their body, solitary was used often and harshly.

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Johannesburg is the largest manmade forest in the world. With millions of trees planted hundreds of years ago, the city looks incredible around spring.

Cape Town

Oh Cape Town, how pretty you are!

I took the City hop-on/hop-off tours which are great value and cover a great deal of the city in just a couple days.

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Here on Long Street I had the most delicious Hot Chocolate at Honest cafe.

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The best way to see table mountain is to hike up the Platteklip Gorge. It takes 2.5 hours; I'd recommend carrying water and snacks. Go up on a Sunday when many locals are climbing up too, that way you can ask for help if you need it.

And when you finally make it up, you'll be rewarded with this view. Ofcourse, in classic Cape Town fashion, the sky changes every minute.
It's even more spectacular IRL.

And back to the desert.

Quartz watches are accurate and cheap to manufacture. They have artificially grown quartz crystals in them and have an interesting habit of vibrating (very consistently) when a voltage is applied. Quartz watches use these vibrations as a reference to measure how much time has passed.

Mechanical watches have hundreds of parts, are less accurate, harder to manufacture and cost more. They are also more interesting to wear because of their mechanical nature. Mechanical watches use a spring as its energy source which gets wound up as you move your wrist. The spring is held under tension and slowly releases energy to move the clock forward.

When buying a watch, make sure the watch fits. A well fitting watch is one whose lugs fit comfortably on the top of your wrist. If you have a smaller wrist, look for watches with a dial of 34-38mm in diameter. If you have a bigger wrist, you could sport a 38 to 42mm watch. 44mm is massive, I'd stay away from them (unless you're a giant).

My suggestions for great mechanical watches

Steinhart Ocean 1

I've owned this particular watch and it's gorgeous! You'll be hard pressed to find a watch with a reputed ETA 2824 movement, Sapphire Crystal display and stunning build (marine grade stainless steel) quality for the price.
If you decide to buy, get the Ocean 1 with the Ceramic bezel which is a real stunner.
This watch will run you $480 and it's worth every bit of that.

Seiko SKN Series

The SKN series is an anomaly. It's the perfect everyday watch and retails for much less than it should. Built to last many decades. It comes with a see through-back so you can look at how the watch functions and the dial is incredibly easy to read at a quick glance (you'd be surprised how often watches fail at this fundamental design requirement).
This watch is a no brainer. It's a workhorse and it will deliver every day.
It costs $60 but it's worth a lot more.

Seiko SKX013

A dive watch is one you can take diving but most buy it for how it looks.
The SKX013 is one of the smaller, lesser known Seiko dive watches. It's classy, simple and functional. The watch is on the heavier end of the spectrum and tends to look better on larger wrists.
This one runs around $200.

Orient Bambino

The Orient Bambino is about 4mm larger than it should be in my opinion but if you don't hold that against it, it's a great looking dress watch.
I especially love the domed mineral glass top and the roman numerals.
Goes for $150.