Arman's Antics (#055)

The latest from the below average Arman Khodadoost

Hey everyone!

Coming to you live from Austin, Texas. Here is your weekly dose of Arman’s Antics. Five things I’ve been pondering and exploring that will make you think, laugh, cry (or a nasty combination of the three).

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Essay I wrote last week

We live in a world chock-full of overconfident fools (I’m no exception). That can often lead to disappointment and heartbreak when our beliefs about ourselves and our abilities are quite different from reality.

So, as a thought experiment, I decided to flip my beliefs upside down. Which could be the best decision I’ve ever made. Hence:

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Commencement speech I’m listening to again

Most commencement speeches consist of an old dude (or dudette) shouting platitudes at a room full of youngsters who are just counting down the seconds until they can get drunk with their classmates.

In other words, they are usually a waste of everyone’s time.

But I found one where I would have gladly paid to be in attendance. Because instead of sharing advice, he shares his most potent anti-advice.

And no, it’s not the Steve Jobs one at Stanford. Or the David Foster Wallace one at Kenyon College.

You’ve likely never heard of this gem, but it contains wisdom worth internalizing:

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Short Netflix movie I loved so much I watched it twice

After UGA blew out their over-matched opponent this past weekend for their 23rd straight win, I convinced my wife to watch the same movie I had watched the night before.

She fell asleep half way through, but don’t let that deter you because I was just as riveted as the previous night. So much so that I’m thinking about watching it for a third time — it’s that good.

It’s the perfect combination of entertaining, captivating, and unique. But I can’t do it justice with words alone. So here’s the trailer instead:

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New personal finance app I’m using

Have you ever wanted a personalized (and accurate) view of your entire financial picture without paying an overpriced financial advisor?

I’m a sucker for all things personal finance. So I’ve tinkered with a bunch of net worth tracking apps over the years.

This is the best one I’ve found so far. And it’s completely free.

It’s called Empower. Easily the most seamless net worth tracking app that has a 4.7 star rating with over 140,000 reviews in the app store.

PS - Net worth is not self worth.

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Random thought

I’ve never read The 5 Love Languages so I’m not sure if this is on the list, but mine is having food cooked for me.

I don’t know if it’s just a reflection on my cooking, but I swear food tastes better when it wasn’t prepared by me.

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That’s it for the 55th edition of Arman’s Antics. Thank you for spending a few of your attention points with me today. Now back to your regularly scheduled nonstop scrolling.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Cheers,

Arman

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