Billion-dollar question

How much money is too much? Plus reading, writing, and more

Welcome back to Thinking Is Cool, the podcast and newsletter here to make your next conversation better than your last. I’m your host Kinsey Grant. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here.

Good morning and happy Friday, everyone. I have to be completely honest with you. I’m writing this newsletter on arguably one of the most gorgeous summer days NYC has seen in months, maybe years. All I want to do is dramatically slam my laptop shut, run out my front door, guzzle a bottle of rosé, and frolic. Is that too much to ask?

I don’t think it is, because we here at Thinking Is Cool are vocal proponents of working when it feels right and stopping when you want to go outside and play. So today, I’m keeping things brief. My hope is that you enjoy your Friday (hopefully a summer Friday) and go do the same. Work will always be there...sunshine? It might not.

Let’s dive in.

What I’m doing this week

Planning Season 2 of Thinking Is Cool. Hard to believe that we only have a handful of episodes left in our inaugural season of this show. I’m pulling no punches with the final three episodes—and readying my lawyer to hear from Mark Zuckerberg’s.

But I can't help myself from thinking ahead to our next season. The episodes, the events, the show formats, the guests. I am committed to doing literally everything in my power short of dark magic to ensure that Thinking Is Cool avoids the sophomore slump.

I think that starts with the topics. I have some very spicy ideas that I’m very excited about, but I’d love to make an episode inspired by one of you. Reply to this email with topic ideas. Winner gets the front seat. Wait, no...winner gets bragging rights? How about winner gets Thinking Is Cool merch 👀

Getting back to writing for fun. Keeping with today’s theme of complete and total honesty, I’ll tell you this: I’ve been feeling a little creatively uninspired lately. As someone whose job is literally “creator” it can be really terrifying to feel anything but creative.

I love to write, but doing what I love for my job can sometimes make my relationship with writing more tense than I’d like—I put pressure on myself with a convincing inner monologue suggesting an inability to write for fun means an inability to write for work.

It’s weird, because I can say with certainty that it’s hard to remember a time in my life when I’ve been happier (aside from the day we got our first family dog in 1998) and I’m usually brimming with ideas when I’m happy.

Maybe I should talk about this with a therapist, but I think this creative roadblock stems from fear that speaking my happiness and fulfillment into existence on the page means I’ll have something to lose. Putting it into words makes this feeling something tangible—and something that feels more fragile.

No more. I’ve spent some time this week writing for fun, outside of this newsletter and the writing I do to pay my bills. Writing that doesn’t make any sense. Writing that feels like the first chapter of a bad romance novel. Writing that opens me up.

And I’ll tell you what—it changes things. I’m happy to report that I’m conquering that fear of putting feelings into words, and it’s so freeing. Maybe I’ll even get back to vintage Kinsey Substack during our break between seasons.

Even if you’re not a writer, I hope you remember that 1) yes you are anyone can be a writer and 2) it’s time to stop putting pressure on yourself to do things that are supposed to be fun—it really defeats the purpose.

What I’m reading this week

Last week, I told you I was reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Finished it Wednesday night, and it was pretty enthralling for the kind of book that gets “omg I loved that!” as a response from everyone in the college girlfriends group chat.

This week’s novel: Animal by Lisa Taddeo. I’ll report back once I finish, but fair warning that summer reading is leisurely reading in the Grant household (which is just me and my potted plant from Trader Joe’s).

I also have a long list of open tabs this weekend—these are some of the pieces I’m looking forward to scrolling through with a cup of coffee (with half and half, we don’t play around with dairy alternatives in this household either) tomorrow morning:

Subtle plug: We talk a lot about books and high quality content in our Thinking Is Cool Slack community. If you want to join, I’d love to have you! Only rule is no gatekeeping good content and no virtue signaling about how many pages you read this week. Click here to join.

What I’m thinking about this week

Billionaires. I mean, I’m kind of always thinking about billionaires. But this week especially, they’re occupying quite a considerable amount of mindshare.

That’s because I’m working on an upcoming episode of Thinking Is Cool about the existence of billionaires...and whether people should be able to accumulate that much wealth. My research and interviews so far have been an illuminating traipse through issues like wealth inequality, nepotism, responsibility, and more.

But truth be told (again), I’m not sure where I fall on the existence of billionaires. So like the real type A nerd I am, I’m making a pros and cons list.

Pros of billionaires existing:

  1. Capitalism works in mysterious ways

  2. The word “billionaire” is a lot more fun to say than the word “millionaire”

  3. As most billionaires might tell you, it gives those of us with a net worth of one potted plant from Trader Joe’s something to aspire to

Cons of billionaires existing:

  1. Literally no one needs that much money

  2. The odds are not stacked evenly as far as wealth-building is concerned

  3. This many billionaires and still no Tony Stark? Useless greed

I’m curious to hear what you think—should billionaires exist? Why or why not? Would you want to become a billionaire (really think about this one), and if you were to become one...how would you act? Are there good and bad billionaires? Smash the MF reply button and let me know your thoughts.

Things that are hard to understand: bitcoin, decentralization, cryptography, defi :(

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Things to do this weekend:

  1. Listen to the episode of Thinking Is Cool I put out earlier this week about bitcoin, decentralization, and the future of crypto on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your pods.

  2. Tune into my live discussion of the episode tomorrow on Instagram. I’ll be popping a bottle and talking crypto starting at 12pm ET. Follow me here so you can come join in and ask some questions.

  3. Chime into the conversation about billionaires and their existence here on Twitter. Can only imagine what kind of pots I’ll stir with a question like that.

Thank you for reading. Now go do something fun!

’Til next time,

Kinsey