Saturday Cup of Joe: a lending and tech(ish) newsletter from Detroit
Saturday Cup of Joe #126.
Friends & Colleagues,
Week 126. Thank you so much for the kind works and messages after my mother’s passing last week. I had no idea the comfort of hearing from family, friends and colleagues. Thank you.
The 126 week in Detroit was an incredible one. Coming back to work after more than a week off had it’s own catching up. After Monday, the week included Kanye West’s visit to Detroit, new product innovation and planning for MBA’s Annual Meeting in DC next week. Anyone headed to DC? Let’s meet up.
Otherwise, it’s full-on Fall in Detroit. We’re headed to a wedding on Saturday and apple picking on Sunday. What’s your October tradition? Football, postseason baseball, candy corn, and sweathshirts. It’s all happening.
Have a great weekend.
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You must not fear, hold back, count or be a miser with your thoughts and feelings. It is also true that creation comes from an overflow, so you have to learn to intake, to imbibe, to nourish yourself and not be afraid of fullness. The fullness is like a tidal wave which then carries you, sweeps you into experience and into writing. — Anais Nin
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Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? The new app Upraze that allows homeowners to appraise their home. Many mortgage and real estate professionals scoffed or mocked this app recently, but the digital/automation movement is on. How will your business respond to tech advancements like this?
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“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” — C.S. Lewis
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I heard some advice this week. “When in doubt, do your job.” Meaning, when it’s easier to question the strategy, question leadership or complain about customers, the answer is often “do more of your job.” Work harder. A few days later I read a post by Ryan Holiday on Medium.com. Same message. Do your job. Work harder.
When in doubt, do your job.
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Future of work: Do you argee with the following quote? “To become one, you need to develop two skills: the ability to quickly master hard things and the ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.” This author/article defines it as “deep work” and whether or not you agreed, it is something to consider. We heard a lot about the future of work or how computers/robots will replace humans. Something that machine/robots cannot do is synthesize information and find creative solutions to disparate ideas.
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One woman’s experience in a one-woman town…and perhaps a view into our collective future. Here’s the article on Cisco, Utah. Could you live here? Here’s what the author wrote, “I asked Eileen why she thought so many people were drawn to the town. She was quiet for a moment. I like Farland’s thought that they like to peek into the future of humanity… Maybe Cisco compels them for the same reasons apocalyptic narratives about zombies and other disasters are so popular. They can look into the darkness of societal collapse from a safe vantage.”
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Black mirror now: The idea that social media platforms or even the government would rank our social media credit and provide “rewards” accordingly is a relatively new phenomenon. What’s fiction in the US is the reality in China. China is now measuring and rewarding social credit. Only a matter of time until this is our reality. Don’t believe me? What will stop us? How will this not expand here? Let me know, I’m all ears. Only a matter of time.
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Future is now…and creepy: It’s a weird question, but one that’s being implemented in China, and it’s called social credit.
How social credit works is that CCTV and other tech watch citizens 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If a citizen’s actions are deemed safe, and she is deemed trustworthy, her citizen score will go up.
An excellent social credit can be used to book luxury hotels, acquire cheap loans and be placed on the fast track for jobs and spots at top universities. If your score is low, though, you can be banned from travel and barred from getting certain jobs.
China will be using high-tech facial recognition technology, smartphone data and apps to collect information on citizens.
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Statutes of Otagi Nenbutsu-ji: there is something beautiful about these photos.
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“I have also been a victim:” This is the amazing and almost unbelievable (if it wasn’t for the social media world we now embrace) story about the incredible deception of epic proportions. Reading it makes it even more difficult to believe.
This actually happened!
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Bread is good again: If you like me, have been waiting for the research that vindicates bread, great news. It’s here. Bread…without guilt.
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Amazon is a constant source of conversation in corporate America. Tech. Consumer retail. Consumer finance. Amazon IS the company everyone is talking about. In this article, it’s so much more than just product. It’s direct source. It’s marketplace. How do you look at Amazon? How are you gonna respond?
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“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything,” — — George Bernard Shaw
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Fascinating profile of William James. I didn’t know what to think about an article titled “Is Life Worth Living? The Pragmatic Maybe of William James.” James writes about life and meaning and everything in between. “The American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes once joked that [William] James would turn down the lights in a room so that the miracles could happen.”
James’ belief in people and the story and the experience was expansive and deep. In fact, the profile goes into James’s perspective on what’s possible and what it all means. Maybe.
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Illustration by Julie Paschkis from Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown
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Where do you wanna work? If not you, where does your daughter/son/nephew/neice/intern want to work? Is it still where you think it is? Goldman Sachs remains #2, apparently. But Amazon, and other tech giants like Google, are becoming the new hottest employers. According to a study highlighted on CNN.com, new university grads have their pick and are leaning toward the new tech giants.
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Today’s thought: Listening to a podcast this week, I heard an interview with University of Alabama’s men’s football coach Nick Saban. Saban defines discipline with two hands. On one hand Saban holds out his hand and defines discipline as “knowing what you should not do and stop yourself from doing it.” On his other hand, Saban puts out his other hand and defines discipline as “knowing what you should do and making yourself do it.” A helpful reminder.
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Quote: “Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes.” –Liza Wiemer
Bonus Content: I was surprised to find this blog, Do-ist. It’s an interesting, positive look at some of life’s professional and personal issues. This post does not solve any of those issues but does ask some valuable questions that can make you think. How about you? Did this article make you think or rethink?
