It’s been a while since I picked up the virtual writing pencil for this newsletter.

You’ve probably been wondering what’s been going on and why you’ve not been getting your favorite newsletter these past months (or not - I get it, we’re all busy 😊!).

I took a step back from writing weekly to focus on a few other projects, and figure out where I wanted to go with the newsletter.

Note: For those who are new here, welcome! Here’s the quick summary:

• Started a newsletter in Jan 2022 focusing solely on web3 (blockchain/crypto etc)

• Wrote a weekly post for 15+ months about web3 companies, themes, and hot-takes

• Developed a range of other interests + became disillusioned with the web3 macro environment

• Started burning out from juggling multiple projects

• Took a step back and designed a better system for me to capture ideas

• Wrote a few guest posts elsewhere & started a content agency (more on this later)

So, what does that mean for Living In Beta?

It means…✨ we back! ✨ 

But, with a twist. This is no longer a web3-specific newsletter, but will now be focused on three areas: 🧘🏽‍♂️ Health, 💵 Wealth, and 😸 Happiness.

The new tagline:

Sound interesting? (Would genuinely love feedback)

I’m going to start posting fortnightly, so I can go deeper on topics that I think will provide a ton of value to you.

Anyway, let’s see how edition #1 (the rebirth) goes and we’ll iterate from there.

Let’s get to it!

P.S. if any subscribers wish to unsub because you signed up solely for web3 content (or an overloading inbox or any other reason), I’ll understand. I plan to write a web3 newsletter soon, as part of my new agency, but one step at a time!

On Wealth:

1/ Unlearning GTM “best practices”

I’m a fan of the GTM (Go-To-Market) newsletter, and came across this post, disputing some of the ‘best practices’ that are prevalent in the software industry, with actionable takeaways.

Some of the takeaways:

• Clearly define what Product Market Fit looks like for your business

• Don’t get fooled into thinking you’ve got ‘Product-Market Fit’ if you’re doing unscalable things to acquire those customers

• Focus on acquiring repeatable customers, through an efficient channel

• Deliberately undersell for better unit economics

• 80% of future revenue comes from 20% of existing customers (Gartner)

• The probability of landing a new customer is typically between 5-10% while the probability of selling more to existing customers is 60-70% (Marketing Metrics)

2/ Nike’s philosophy

I'm always trying to unpick some of the habits of world-class companies and leaders - what did they do in the early stages, to get to where they are now?

Came across this example a few years ago from Nike - I love this for a number of reasons:

✅ It’s short - easy to digest and understand
✅ It’s universal - many of these principles could apply to any successful business
✅ It says more about what you shouldn’t focus on, as much as what you should

(I also wrote about this on LinkedIn, you can follow me here!)

3/ The Story of GymShark (Part 1 & Part 2)

Andrew (from Net Income) is probably one of my favourite writers right now.

He wrote this epic two-part series on the rise and rise of GymShark - and it’s juicy.

Gymshark, a fast-growing D2C fitness brand, has a great outward narrative of its humble beginnings and it’s new status as an e-commerce behemoth.

However, something darker lurks behind the surface. This is a story of how a brand went from $10m to $500m+/year in revenue within a few short years, and some of the growth challenges they’ve faced along the way.

Would highly recommend reading both parts!

4/ Build your own LLM

Putting this in the ‘wealth’ column, as it’s a future opportunity.

I predict 2024 (given we still have six months to go till then) will be about providing tools to developers to build LLM-powered applications.

LLMs—aka large language models—refer to the type of software that powers products like ChatGPT, Bard, and Bing.

An LLM is ‘large’ in the sense that it is trained on massive datasets; ‘language’ in that it can ‘understand’ and ‘respond’ in the same ways humans communicate; and a ‘model’ in that it is trained to make predictions based on the patterns it finds in its training data.

With folks like Google and Meta making their LLM’s publicly available to independent makers, I forsee more companies making it easier for developers to build, deploy and monitor their LLM apps, without having to build that tooling in-house - this will be the new no-code.

Exciting times for developer platforms!

Further reading:

• What are Large Language Models used for? - Nvidia

• LLMs are the new CPUs - Every

• How ChatGPT and Other LLMs Work—and Where They Could Go Next - Wired UK

On Health:

1/ The Rise of Negative Media

I’m sure we constantly hear about how important the information we consume can be to our mindset and lives.

I don’t think I’d really internalised this, until I came across the above graphic.

We can all agree with the ‘bad news sells’ adage, but we’ve got to do better ourselves, by proactively crafting our information diet and shaping our minds for positivity and happiness.

On Happiness:

1/ 10 Life Hacks from 100 Years Ago

In the late 1880s, cigarette manufacturers began inserting cards into their paper packs of cigarettes to strengthen the containers.

It wasn't long before they got the idea to put artwork, trivia, famous people, and pretty girls (!) onto those cards, grouped into collectible series (one of these cards sold for $2.8m!).

In the 1910s, Gallaher Ltd of Belfast & London and Ogden's Branch of the Imperial Tobacco Co printed "How-To" series, with clever hints for both everyday and emergency situations.

Some of these are outdated, but a few of them are:

1. How to preserve eggs

2. How to stop a mad dog

3. How to keep plants watered while on holiday

2/ Change your Perspective

Rewind back to June 2020.

This was at the height of "social-distancing" mandates. COVID was still new, and the world was still freaking out.

Here’s an example of one image that was used by a national paper:

But that photo is wildly misleading.

Here's a picture of the same beach on the same day and at nearly the same time.

Why did the paper use the first image?

Emotion. Outrage. Being polarising. Getting clicks.

In a nutshell? Negativity Bias.

Humans are hard-wired to feel negative emotions (fear, anger, sadness) more intensely than positive ones (joy, acceptance, contentment).

That's why those papers used the photo they did: it elicits a stronger reaction.

The negative stimuli we're served up today is constant. Not only does this accentuate the bad, but it also crowds out space in your brain to appreciate the good.

That's why developing a practice of finding inner quiet and seeking a broader perspective is so important.

That’s all for today - see you in a couple of weeks!

Fahim

P.S. Feel free to hit reply and let me know what you think of the format / design / ideas / anything really!