Edge 28 - My Most Controversial Video to Date

Hans Chan -

What I’m watching

This is Going to Suck, is a short story told by Matthew Dicks, who is also the author of the book Storyworthy, which I highly recommend. He is a multiple-time world champion storyteller (yes, I didn’t know it was a thing either).

My main takeaway from the book is that:

  • Every story has a 5-second moment, with everything else building up to it.
  • The most exciting, outlandish things that have happened to you, don’t make the best stories. It’s because they aren’t the most relatable, but small things like having a ‘moment’ whilst eating breakfast with your family, or walking your dog. Just living your life.
  • We all have these Storyworthy, 5 second moments every day.

In the YouTube video above, you see Matthew in his element telling one of his most popular stories and using the techniques.

Resource of the Week

I’ve been a fan of Tim Ferriss’ work from way back when he released The 4-Hour Workweek. His podcast: The Tim Ferriss Show is something I still listen to when I’m journaling. He interviews high achievers from across the spectrum from movie stars, to athletes, to Nobel prize-winning scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians, you name it. He talks about their backgrounds, their stories, habits and what drives them.

Quote

“The easiest way to increase happiness is to control your use of time. Can you find more time to do the things you enjoy doing?”

Daniel Kahneman -  Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thoughts

My TikTok this week comparing gold and property prices is easily the most controversial video I’ve made so far. I know opinions can often divide people but didn’t expect a graph to do so. The culprit:

I expressed average sold property prices (from the land registry) going back from 1970 to 2022 in terms of kg of gold. Where we see that the average price of property remaining relatively stable from over 8kg in 1970 to just over 6kg in 2022.

The purpose of the chart was not to compare whether gold or property is a better investment, or to challenge the notion that property is expensive.

The point I was trying to make with this is that we are conditioned to see everything in terms of pounds and dollars but this ruler we are using to measure the value of everything, is constantly shrinking. Things are not mysteriously going up over 50 years. It’s not harder or more labour intensive to produce a loaf of bread today than in 1970 but the thing you get paid in, save in, transact in, is being devalued in front of our eyes.

Everytime the Bank of England prints money and ‘gives’ it (I mean buy bonds) to the government, it’s short-term stimulating and long-term depressing. It’s one of the flaws of our political system, the party in power is pressured to produce short-term results, and kicking the can down the line for their successor in terms of the consequences.

So we’re seeing our national debt rise, currencies are being devalued, savers and workers become worse off. While people who hold assets see their wealth increase, which widens the wealth gap.

A lot of commenters asked to see the chart showing average incomes to average property values. Ask and you shall receive. Stay tuned I’ll be publishing that next week and also comparing that to interest rates.

Other Stuff

In other news, I’ve finally got a release date for my Skillshare class! October 15th. This was probably the most frustrating project I’ve worked on in a while. I scheduled one month for it in July and it’ll probably end up taking me nearly 3. This is a classic case of when we plan projects like this we often don’t factor in the fact that life can get in the way and unexpected things coming up. The key is to stay consistent.

To be honest, there’s still quite a bit of editing and a bit of filming but committing a date to you guys gives me some accountability. Having an accountability buddy is something I recommend in general for those of you reading working on a side hustle. Sneak peek below.

Have a good week!

As always have a good week, hit reply if you have any thoughts, questions, or feedback. I respond to everyone.

Hans