Overdue October Updates

Sales is mentally tough, especially if you have a predisposition to competition. There’s this new guy who’s killing it after just two weeks on the job—it gnaws at you a little. I also got cussed out by a driller in Quebec, which was funny in hindsight (with his French accent) but 🫠 in the moment, as one starts regretting all prior life decisions.

Does spontaneity get anyone else pumped up? A few weeks ago, I got a call at 10:30pm for a hike at 6:00am the next day. I don’t think I’ve woken up more energized in the past year than that very next morning. I also befriended the co-founder of Steve’s Poke at a random house party that I had no reason to be attending. Please invite me to shit with zero notice because it brings me so much joy.

Lastly, I found out yesterday that my manager unironically believes in Kung Fu Panda quotes as rules for life. So I guess I’m indirectly getting mentored by Po himself? Hmm…

Latest Happenings

• Glass Animals Concert: This was a huge miss. They did not sound anything like their tracks on Spotify. I paid $70 bucks to sit in front of some screaming teenagers and to end up falling out of love with this band.

• Slogged up Mount Brunswick: To confess, I convinced a friend with a deathly fear of heights and zero hiking experience to join me on this eight-hour crusade up 1500m in elevation. That’s almost twice the height of the Burj Khalifa. If anyone else has a “send it” attitude like that—let me know so I can loop you into future adventures.

• Gnu Gnu Board: Copped an old Rider’s Choice snowboard from 2019 in preparation for ski season. This thereby cements my commitment to snowboarding. This video was all it took…

• Youth Meditation Session: Attended a mini meditation retreat for 18-30 year-olds and had a blast. Lotus pose got my feet feeling like TV white noise, and then eventually like nothing at all. Forebodingly for myself, I also met a guy who converted to Buddhism after he escaped a near-death situation of getting impaled on a hike.

Content for Consumption

• Written humor is quickly becoming extinct after short-form video took off, but I really liked this piece called “I Thought I Would Have Accomplished a Lot More Today and Also by the Time I Was Thirty-Five”

• Varun Rana - Stumbled across this guy on my recommendations, really funny satirical videos on modern tech culture and lifestyle!

• Everyone obsessed with strategic life planning needs to know what they’re solving for… here’s some inspo:

  • Incredible short film around how awe can inspire joy, I can attest to this after all the hiking I’ve done this summer.

  • The Happiness Trinity: The Atlantic continues to produce great pieces on the science of happiness. Worth a read!

Hou’s Hacks

• If you want to go down a deep deep rabbit hole that will save you up to $5000 a year, r/awardtravel is for you. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze for me though.

• UBC Alumni can score some cheap(er) Canucks tickets and get some networking done here.

Joint Ventures

1. My friend is hosting a Halloween party at Fortune, October 27th as part of SFU Forum, come through to see my rat costume. DM for ticket deets.

2. Making a ski group chat…

3. Anyone have experience with or looking to take the GRE?

Thanks for reading! How’s everyone doing?