5 Questions — I'd like your thoughts
Hi Everyone!
I'm using this email to share a few things I've been thinking about a lot recently. One has to do with friendships. The others with business. I'd love any thoughts you have on the topics.
First, a bit about me. I'm 22. From Cali. Went to Wharton in Pennsylvania. Dropped out to start a company in New York that sold this spring. Worked briefly in India and now I'm headed back to Wharton. I'm interested in most things.
With that, here are the questions. Would love to hear from you.
1. On Friends — I have a bunch of longtime friends I've known since grade school who are like family. We hang out a lot, but most of what we do is kill time — watch movies, talk about sports (I don't watch sports), gossip, etc. How do I transition the dynamic so that we start doing more productive activities together? (ie reading, writing, drawing, making beer, taking dance lessons.) Do you do any stuff like this with friends?
2. On jobs in the US — What will jobs in the US be in the future, assuming manufacturing continues to move to Asia and software continues to replace broker/admin/information jobs? Could it be that there is no solution within the national-industrial-market economy framework we've used the past 200 years? Do you see hints of an answer anywhere?
3. On the US, China, and India — The writing is on the wall that India and China will replace the US as the most important economically and politically -- relegating the US to a Britain-like role of seniority or Japan-like role of next best. Given that assumption, how do we capitalize as western business people?
4. On culture — Being exposed to foreign cultures is so valuable -- not for goodwill, though that too, but for helping people avoid narrow minded thinking about how things should be. How do we get more people exposed? Most people I know don't even leave the state they're born in. What if there were a way to connect with someone your age, gender, and profession in another country to chat?
5. On picking where you live — It seems to me that it is statistically impossible that most people are born in the optimal city. I think it's even more true as you get older that given your profession (banker, watch maker?) and preferences (outdoors, cold?) and such that there is a more optimal place you could be living. Why is it harder to find and move to a more optimal city in say Canada, or any foreign country, than your own. Why don't people shop for the right country? If you work on cars, wouldn't it make sense to at least consider living in Italy or Germany?
Would love to hear from you!
Sincerely,
Hunter Horsley
@hhorsley
hunter.horsley[AT]gmail.com
Menlo Park, California
I'm using this email to share a few things I've been thinking about a lot recently. One has to do with friendships. The others with business. I'd love any thoughts you have on the topics.
First, a bit about me. I'm 22. From Cali. Went to Wharton in Pennsylvania. Dropped out to start a company in New York that sold this spring. Worked briefly in India and now I'm headed back to Wharton. I'm interested in most things.
With that, here are the questions. Would love to hear from you.
1. On Friends — I have a bunch of longtime friends I've known since grade school who are like family. We hang out a lot, but most of what we do is kill time — watch movies, talk about sports (I don't watch sports), gossip, etc. How do I transition the dynamic so that we start doing more productive activities together? (ie reading, writing, drawing, making beer, taking dance lessons.) Do you do any stuff like this with friends?
2. On jobs in the US — What will jobs in the US be in the future, assuming manufacturing continues to move to Asia and software continues to replace broker/admin/information jobs? Could it be that there is no solution within the national-industrial-market economy framework we've used the past 200 years? Do you see hints of an answer anywhere?
3. On the US, China, and India — The writing is on the wall that India and China will replace the US as the most important economically and politically -- relegating the US to a Britain-like role of seniority or Japan-like role of next best. Given that assumption, how do we capitalize as western business people?
4. On culture — Being exposed to foreign cultures is so valuable -- not for goodwill, though that too, but for helping people avoid narrow minded thinking about how things should be. How do we get more people exposed? Most people I know don't even leave the state they're born in. What if there were a way to connect with someone your age, gender, and profession in another country to chat?
5. On picking where you live — It seems to me that it is statistically impossible that most people are born in the optimal city. I think it's even more true as you get older that given your profession (banker, watch maker?) and preferences (outdoors, cold?) and such that there is a more optimal place you could be living. Why is it harder to find and move to a more optimal city in say Canada, or any foreign country, than your own. Why don't people shop for the right country? If you work on cars, wouldn't it make sense to at least consider living in Italy or Germany?
Would love to hear from you!
Sincerely,
Hunter Horsley
@hhorsley
hunter.horsley[AT]gmail.com
Menlo Park, California
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