A quick note before today’s letter:
I have a beta version of my market software available to subscribers for $5. The idea behind it is simple: headlines aren’t just news. They can be signals about markets, behavior, and where things may be heading.
Today’s post is actually a good example.
Two completely unrelated headlines caught my attention. Neither was about the stock market. Put them together, though, and I think they tell us something interesting about an entire generation.
That’s essentially what I’m trying to do with the software: read the headline, then look for what it might be telling us that isn’t in the headline.
Now, onto energy drinks and sports betting.
I had a draft of an idea from seeing this headline:
For me, this says that the younger generation needs something more than joy of a Coke, or shot of espresso, or that deep satisfaction of lingering in a diner finishing off a mug of coffee.
They want as much energy as possible, with the worst tasting beverage, and quickly. There is no innate desire to be awake. The objective is to be awake and buzzed artificially.
Then yesterday I saw another headline:
Put the two headlines together.
What does this say to you?
Energy drinks instead of coffee.
Sports betting instead of long-term investing.
Are they are dumb? Far from it.
Consciously or unconsciously, they are cynical about the future and cynical about their parent’s generation. What worked then, won’t work now. They are seeking passive profits that they can feel tangentially.
If you see the headlines and the shocking statements our politicians say then giggle away when they are in a losing position. Or the entire COVID fiasco.
The whole “Do as I say, not as I do” is blown wide open and a real problem.
What happens when the next generation stops believing that waiting will actually be rewarded?
Why wait thirty years for your money when the game settles tonight?
Why slowly drink coffee when you can get 200 milligrams of caffeine in a can?
And if you believe the traditional ways of getting ahead are disappearing, then taking a few more chances today starts looking rational.
The problem is that civilization requires people to wait and be patient. Historically, societies occasionally get reminded of this in unpleasant ways.
Like with depressions, military drafts, or full blown wars.
It may not be as fun, or shlocky as this song, but I hope so. Who wants to be depressed?
Of course, not all is lost.
I see a Gen-Z, giving a mindset on motivating yourself. We need more of this.
He argues that you don’t need catastrophe to discover hardship. You can choose it voluntarily to build something.
Some new concepts the younger generation should try to micro dose like take responsibility for somebody besides yourself and do something where the payoff isn’t tonight but in 30 years.
Maybe that’s the real meaning of Carpe Diem.
Eric
