Finding Context in the News
1/ Despite being a millennial I have always been a fan of physical reading: newspapers, books, magazines, etc…most recently I have abandoned pure digital note taking and supplementing it with a physical notepad much like I did as a United States Military Academy at West Point cadet or Junior Military officer in the US Army with a green notebook.
2/ While walking to the gym this morning I read the cover of today’s San Francisco Chronicle and saw that it was about the epic rain storm. The cover provided context on both the perils of the rain storm and the opportunity. The perils being flooding, high winds, mudslides, etc…The opportunities being: “Although responsible for significant flooding, mudslides, and even fatalities, the wet weather in recent weeks has been good for drought relief. Reservoirs are filling, groundwater tables are rising, and California’s fields and forests are getting a needed shot of moisture.”
3/ Much of the news in our lives is similar to the news on the cover of the SF Chronicle today. There's an event and there’s a good and a bad associated with the event. Increasingly I’ve been thinking of the yin-yang of life.
There’s also this fantastic quote from Jerry Seinfeld about how bad news can result in good events later: “And that’s another thing I try and teach the kids. When something horrible happens, I think, of all the things I would trade, if you could take your experiences and ask to trade them in, the last ones I would trade would be the failures. Those are the most valuable ones.”
4/ I’ve been such a fan of news that many of my personal investments have been media related: Morning Brew, 6AM City, The Hustle, Girls' Night In, beehiiv etc...
One of these days I’ll write more about modern media, email newsletters, and why I made those investments.
Context VC invests in military veteran founders and also in consumer startups. So if you are a founder building a consumer startup, then please let Carina Cho, Brendan Aronson, and me know!
5/ At Media Mobilize we also acquired two newsletters: Daily Pnut and The Sportsletter. Both are growing and have strong audiences/readership. cc Matthew Cahill, Jeff Yoder, Kayli Woods, Marcus Gee-Lim, Lauren Fry, Janine Lyons, Polly Schaefer, Kelsie King, Helen King, Alana Millar, Danielle Ibrahim, Thomas Stella, Kelsi Durci, & many other teammates.
6/ I hope everyone’s 2023 brings fantastic news. But even if it doesn’t, then I hope Jerry Seinfeld & mom’s advice growing up plays out and “we can turn lemons into lemonade.”
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