We're Just Riding the Ups and Downs of Investing in Bitcoin

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Okay yes, Natasha, Linh, Amy, and Hang do a HOT TAKE on the Friends Reunion for the first 5 minutes of this episode. 🙄 BUT they also talk about the most traded tech stocks, investing in Bitcoin, and local startup news. This Week on Planet Internet:

• Linh has FEELINGS on the Friends Reunion. But also, wtf was up with James Corden? 😳
• Hang goes over the 10 most traded tech stocks in 2021. She has mixed feelings about Tesla's stocks 📈
• Amy drops some Vancouver-based tech news about Dapper Labs, the company that is now valued at $2.6 billion 🚀
• Wait, people invest for reasons other than getting rich? Linh and Hang explain the latest ups and downs of crypto and the real reasons you would invest in crypto 💰
• Natasha can't stop thinking about Amsterdam-based, Gorillas, and how she'll never be able to catch up to the speedy cyclists that deliver groceries in under 10 minutes 🚴‍♂️
• Linh noticed that more and more businesses are moving their operations to rural Colorado, which is where HackerNoon is based 🏠
• Hang brings the Detroit-based startup into the mix - Autobooks - a financial/accounting startup that Hang has been following 🤓
• As they recount their tech joys of the week, Natasha recalls being "thanked for her energy" at Apple 💁‍♀️

Read the stories mentioned in this podcast:

• From Canada's Toronto to Netherland's Amsterdam, AI-enabled smart cities are making their way around the world. Check out Evelyn's HackerNoon story: https://hackernoon.com/ai-enabled-smart-cities-what-to-get-right-p01935r0
• How the city of Amsterdam uses AI: https://algoritmeregister.amsterdam.nl/en/ai-register/
• Amy discusses Dapper Labs - the Vancouver-based tech startup behind NBA Top Shot
• Which are the Most Traded Tech Stocks in 2021? Hang goes through Khunshan Ahmad's top 10 list: https://hackernoon.com/10-best-tech-stocks-which-are-the-most-traded-in-2021-vo3l34ks
• The rise of Colorado startups on the Western Slope by Jason Blevins
• Learn more about Detroit-based accounting startup Autobooks: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/autobooks-debuts-new-way-for-small-businesses-to-get-paid-online-301051629.html
• Are the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 Worth the Hype? Read Natasha's full review on hackernoon.com: https://hackernoon.com/are-the-bose-noise-cancelling-headphones-700-worth-the-hype-2fh342f 🎧

Podcast Transcript (Machine-Generated, Please Excuse The Errors)

Natasha: [00:00:00] This week on planet internet: how to lose your startup without losing your faith. Understanding the ups and downs involved in investing in Bitcoin. The 10 most traded tech stocks of 2021. So far a quick visit to a few AI enabled smart cities from Canada to Amsterdam. And the best internet reactions to the friends reunion.

Let's start there. We're joined today by our COO, Linh Dao Smooke, who I know has a lot to say on the subject of the friends reunion. So let's hit pause on that and go straight to Amy and Hang, who are also members of the hacker noon team with these two memes regarding Joey Tribbiani and James Cordon, respectively.

Amy, you're up first. Can you describe exactly what we're seeing on this James cordon meme for our audio listeners? 

Amy: [00:00:59] Excellent. So I'll start by saying to you that I have not yet watched the friends reunion. So I looked at this medium and I was like, okay. I feel like I understand a lot better now because it says, I'm sorry if this isn't a brand new information, but why in the fresh hell is James Corden hosting part of the friends reunion, hashtag friends reunion.

And it is. A photo of Rachel and Phoebe and Ross looking audacious. 

Natasha: [00:01:32] Perfect. Thank you for that now. Hi, I'm will you go ahead and describe the second reaction to the friends reunion roasting now? 

Hang: [00:01:40] It was just like Joey got the same haircut that he got 20 years ago. And it was a comparison to like what girl reacts to haircuts and guy react to their haircuts is I can tell it my barber cut my hair like this, like one millimeter shorter.

Then I said, I will be very upset about that because I love my hair, like I am obsessed with my hair, but I feel like he always just doesn't give a shit.

Amy: [00:02:11] He really does look the same too. Like nothing has changed.

Linh: [00:02:15] How can he do that. He does not eat. Maybe

Hang: [00:02:18] No. I feel like he is, but I feel like he did a lot of aging from season one to season 10 already. He was true. He looks so cute from the first two seasons. And I feel like because he ate a lot of pizza, I guess oh, the fast-food just got in on him. And my 10 I'm like, yo, you are no longer cute.

Linh: [00:02:39] Let me rephrase that. I don't think he has an age, but he certainly has kept the same page role and the same type of smile. And just certainly everything about him. You still can recognize that.

Amy: [00:02:58] he does have an iconic look.

Hang: [00:03:00] Yeah. I feel like he didn't have to act a lot in the Sitcom. I feel like they, they live in they are in character, so it's just like how they act in Friends is how they are in real life. I just feel like it I could tell if I made, like Jennifer Aniston or and I can say hey Rachel whats up.

Yeah, but he definitely looks the same at the time, the years. I know why. 

Natasha: [00:03:24] 100% Linh, what is your full debrief of the friends reunion? Let's hear it.

Linh: [00:03:31] My hot take is I don't hate it. In fact, I think if we just ignore the whole. Not mentioning of Fat Monica, because it's still problematic or the transphobic description of Candler's dad. It's pretty decent. It's a reunion, like to a friend. And you still worse, you feel nostalgic and then you feel like comfort it somewhat.

Friends resonates so much with a large group of people even to this day, despite all of this problematic. And I hate using the word depictions of things. I think there's two reasons for it.

A large portion of the friends audience. I see people whose language is not whose first language is not English. And for example, myself, I don't, I'm not the native English speaker. Friends is actually like the gateway for a lot of these people to understand English and learn English and understand American culture.

So a lot of I would say snooty, like comedy appreciating people is typically in the us would like, look at these. Friends admirers and be like yeah. Why would you like such a show? So my hot take is it actually: Better to understand friends from like an international perspective and how, like a bunch of beautiful people in bed, too many who speak perfect English and who have great chemistry resonate with international people.

And how as the culture, like moving forward, we can kinda. Empathize with that. Now I don't love friends anymore because I think I've become whitewashed to coming to America whole and like appreciating new kinds of comedies that I think over the weekend, I'm still going to try to write my. Love letter and my appreciation for this show, because it was so influential in my life as a 20  elite team. And as someone who tried to learn English. 

Amy: [00:05:38] So how long have you been in the U S for? 

Linh: [00:05:40] I've been Back and forth but I was 18 when I came here

Amy: [00:05:48] And are you watching friends? When it came out? 

Linh: [00:05:52] No, I was watching as I tried to learn English. Yeah. Yeah. 

Amy: [00:06:00] Pretty late. Like when you started come, when you started to come to the states, 

Linh: [00:06:05] Yeah.

Okay. 

Amy: [00:06:07] Yeah. Never thought about it like that in terms of, so I grew up in Coover, I'm Canadian, born and raised. And so this is, I've definitely been raised in the north American culture to begin with. I've never thought about it like that. And from an international perspective of having an attachment to it, Because you learn English from my, and I know that a lot of people do learn English from the show, but I didn't, I guess I never thought about how much of an emotional impact that would have as well.

So I think that's really cool. 

Linh: [00:06:38] Yeah. A couple of that with the growing pain of the 20 something like unable to date or dating too much and like just like relationship issues and how , like comedy wise improve, like the whole laughing track. And what have you that's if you like, take that away and just look into the romance?

I think it does a decent job. So a lot of 20 somethings resonate with them that way.

Natasha: [00:06:59] I know we could, and we'd happy to discuss this all day, but we must move on to the next segment of planet incident. I believe Linh is planning to write a story about friends slash love letter. So be on the lookout for that, but let's move on to the stories of the week. Read anything good on hacker noon, Amy.

Amy: [00:07:23] Yes. I read this story about an AI enabled city. It's about smart cities and How To Get It Right. I thought that was super interesting because it talks about this Canadian pride jet called Keyside. I didn't know about this before, but it got, yeah. Canceled quote unquote, due to COVID.

Yeah. This author really thinks that I had other issues before the project got counseled to COVID the project itself it's called Keyside and it was supposed to be an AI enabled city for Toronto's. Industrial waterfront. They are essentially saying that Keyside failed to build public trust. So that was one of the key aspects of building an AI enabled city.

And if you don't get that public trust, you won't have a successful AI Naval city is essentially what this author is saying. So thank you to Evelyn, who is our hacker noon contributor.

Natasha: [00:08:11] - nice. Yeah. This story actually prompted me to look at how Amsterdam is using AI in the city and classic Amsterdam. They have a handy website called the algorithm register, which describes exactly how they're doing that. And. Four of the interesting ways are automated parking control, which, it makes sense.

But then also the one wanna know of Misa social distancing control and monitors, and a can confirm we have been told to get out of the city center by adjourn when it becomes too crowded. So that was pretty intense. They also monitor issues around the city literal, garbage being put in the wrong place.

And interestingly monitoring illegal holiday housing rentals, because you're only allowed to Airbnb or sublet your place here for a maximum of city nights per year, per for a maximum of four people at a time, which is quite a. Sort of effective way to combat? I don't know. I guess the decay of communities that's tourist towns really suffer from when nobody there is a permanent resident.

Let's move on to the 10, most traded tech stocks of 20, 21 showy. Hung. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the story?

Hang: [00:09:25] Okay. So  basically talk about what are the most ten trade is stock in 2021 so far, because it's just like five months into 2021.

I don't know how he categorized the more traded, maybe like the most people who bought it or whatever, but if it's just list out 10, most popular tech stocks in the tech category. And first we have Apple. Who doesn't know Apple? If you are. New into the stock market. I feel like you should buy apple at some point in your life because I don't see apple going away anytime soon. My apple and every time equal down to 5%, I just bought it. And that also reinvest.

Tesla is a, an interesting case because I dunno I dunno if I should tell people should you buy a Tesla because I do adore Elon Musk. But I hate him. I don't like him, but sure. If you ever look at, I have the opportunity of go into Silicon valley and my roommate were like, fast stop obsessed.

So we technically visited all the tech campus you can think of. And I saw And he'd be going to Facebook campus. And after we got, before he got kicked out, I saw a whole lot of Tesla just chuckling over there and oh my God, they look spectacular. Like I'm like, if I become like, if tomorrow, raise my salary by five, I would definitely put some of my money into Tesla.

And then we have Intel. We have a couple more like Intel and insight enterprise they are okay. I don't let Intel because I bought it, but it keeps going down to the point. I'm like, whatever. I would just see if I can break even and I sell it away.

We have Microsoft. Number six, which is I love that stuff. Like I bought my first office. I bought my in 2018 for my 20th birthday and it just go up I don't care how people travel. I love it.

I don't know a photo. I don't know much about it, but if you are interested in like Chinese and Hong Kong stuff, I will say like Alibaba or 10 cent. Is a better, is a way better choice for you.

Alphabet is okay. Typical, basic at and T. Okay. I don't care a lot. I know Limarc, like ATNT because it paid dividends, so they are pretty good dividends, stock, like if you care about dividend at all. So that is you buy a bunch of stuff and you've got the dividend by quarter. Okay. I don't care much about dividends and I care all about growth.

So for me, this list is good. I have like more than two stock from this list. So I would definitely recommend you give this list ago. And is it enough to understand because if you go into like overly technical financial analyst analyst website, like second APA, Like you would those up after five minutes reading that I like to work in I don't know what strict, so I would really recommend the article for like always gives you a like new into stuff.

And you want to know like what tech stock to buy without having to like, if you're like a passive investor, definitely gives that article ago.

Amy: [00:12:53] Literally, my only comment is that I would also start investing, laying if you five X, my salary,

Linh: [00:13:05] I'll sit on it.

Natasha: [00:13:06] Nice everyone. That was to wrap up the 10 best tech stocks, the most traded in 2021 forecasts, apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Intel, and alphabet coming out top, according to hack a noon. You heard it first. So read it there. Speaking of startups, any startup funding or acquisition news in your area recently, Amy. 

Amy: [00:13:30] Oh, my gosh.

Yes. Okay. So I was just reading this article on the daily hive, which was written by an author  his name is Sam Chan and it's a very Vancouver based publication, which is really exciting. So this article is very Vancouver focused, which I love it. He talks about the Grizzlies and he talks about all of the different like Vancouver tech, startups

and then he specifically talks about dapper labs, which is a Vancouver based company. You might have heard of them. They are the company behind the NBA top shot, and they are also the company behind crypto kitty is super exciting that it's Vancouver based. They made the headlines again this week though.

Because Michael Jordan just invested in their company and he is joined by other NBA players. I don't know them, but they're there. Where's David, when we need him, the resident hacker noon, basketball aspirin. 

Natasha: [00:14:34] 100% language, probably have something to say about that, but also on the subjects of investments Lang had been talking this week about a story regarding the ups and downs of investing in Bitcoin.

Linh: [00:14:47] Absolutely. It's from one of my favorite Hacker Noon writers, Norm Levenson. And we went into details on what happened with the bear and the bull markets back in 2017, up until now we see a lot of crypto boom, and then we see the latest sudden kind of dip. And then it went into details about how they're like types of people that just want to get into crypto is to get rich, specifically to get into crypto to get rich.

And he does not think that all that it's a smart idea. You can scroll down to the summary, the TLDR at the end, 

Amy: [00:15:29] wait people invest to not get rich. Is that not the point.

Linh: [00:15:35] The thing about crypto is that everything is very unpredictable, both the blooms and the dips. Okay. So unless you are extremely lucky and get there at the exact right time chances. Sometimes you will. It's just like the coin toss. So the whole kind of pieces is surround. If you want to invest in crypto, if you want to invest in Bitcoin, go for it.

But don't expect to at least instantly get bids. Okay. You'll get disappointed. Bitcoin and definitely brought blockchain as you have to stay, but you should invest in it for the long term and for the technological kind of advancement, it will bring to the society. So I basically agree with it. We do have certain that's an interest in certain crypto.

But I don't think it should go this podcast. When I do learn some, the experience though, is it's like throwing shit on the wall. Like you never know, like you can do all the right thing and then you just become a day trader. And you can't really have time to do anything else. Just toss all your expectations, speculation aside, POS all of the, whatever experts, advice aside, and just like investment for the long-term results.

Yeah. And you'll feel a lot, this sense of peace and the sense of yeah. I have a little bit of like skin in the game and I'll trust that.

Hang: [00:17:12] Yeah, I want to add my 2 cents on this one is I like crypto is not a livestock or unlike any other currency, as you don't really have anything to base it on, like if you leave it as a stock. You can base the price and whether they buy or not buy aren't the industry and the financial report and like the product and like how.

How much it can grow in the future. Or if you want to buy, if you go into go global, you want to buy some foreign currency, you can... I go I deny that you still buy like a Venezuela. I don't know what is the currency, the currency of Venezuela. But it's not like a currency that you can like basically con the current economy.

Situation that a country on crypto, Bitcoin or cryptocurrency in general, it's very unstable. And I feel like 60% or like almost whoever by eco, I don't even know what is that for? So my, if you go into invest it, you shouldn't like in anything like stock currency or crypto Bitcoin even like Fiat money, you shouldn't expect to get rich like over the night and just don't put all your suffering into a portfolio from I feel like you still buy crypto when you want to diversify to assess. And do you think you're interesting, like my case, Utsav told me to buy it, I buy it

Natasha: [00:18:41] Can confirm. I think we can disclose by the way right, that we are one of the increasing number of companies that are offering employees, the opportunity to accept part of their salary in Bitcoin. 

Linh: [00:18:56] That is correct. We do have about. 5% or 7%, I believe total kind of holding money in cryptos, mostly Bitcoin.

And we offered up for anyone who wants to be paid instantaneously.

Natasha: [00:19:17] And I think that's pretty cool. So staying with startup news the startup that I concept thinking about this week is called gorillas. They are an undermine grocery delivery startup. They raised a 219 million back in March and some pasta, 1 billion valuation. The reason why I can't stop thinking about them is because I live in Amsterdam, as I mentioned, and these guys won't stop embarrassing me with their incredible ability to speed cycle on a, like these old bikes sometimes even.

And they just speed ride past me as a non-native cyclist and it's embarrassing, but they also do deliver groceries in under 10 minutes and their growth has been explosive. I'm seeing more and more of them on the roads. And I just think that's really an interesting. Indicator of the needs of our generation that we don't necessarily like to go outside too much when, and when not necessary.

And we prioritize convenience, even if it costs your own 15 cents extra or whatever the delivery fee is. So yeah, I thought that was a really interesting startup Lang do you have any responses to that? You had some  Colorado startups on your mind this week. 

Linh: [00:20:32] Yeah. So this month in particular, I've been approached by at least two or three lawyers about the prospect of moving some of their practices to go rural Colorado, which I thought was interesting.

And then there's this news coming out coming out of this week of two Western slope startups that actually exiting successfully to public companies. One of them, I do know, in fact is this Montrose, which is a rural place in Western Colorado. Startup con nomad reservations, the founder Patriots.

And she was actually in the same cohort as when you got the $150,000 investments from DCF way to Colorado sensitive. So yeah, I think the gist of the article, it's just kinda explain, why rural. Colorado startups start looking more appealing to investors. I think that a lot of it has got to do with honestly, people moving to the outdoors to like places with less density and people Meskers just like branch outside of Silicon valley.

And that side of like private. I don't know, New York, other, the huts of the world prefilled it. And so I thought it's very interesting. That Hacker Noon and startup started in San Francisco and now based in rural Colorado could totally work with a team of 40 people all over the world, all over the country.

And so it's like there's remote operation. I thought that. Good signal this trend to investors and to lawyers, like all these like practices surrounding startups, that there is more to the startup world than like a couple of hubs and yeah. Watch out New York, watch out silicon valley.

Natasha: [00:22:25] Awesome. And what about you Hang? How's the startup scene looking in Detroit. 

Hang: [00:22:30] Yeah. I felt like a lot, like a couple of startups, like I'd been watching for a long time, but I don't know they were made in Detroit.

And.  I'm not going to be a resident of the city of Detroit anytime soon. But  I know there's a company called Autobook is about the accounting and finance software, which is super lame compared to other startups we've been talking about, but like, 

Linh: [00:22:55] Why am I not surprised that you're not, 

Natasha: [00:22:59] you just mean unsexy?

Hang: [00:23:00]  But yeah. So like you work in accounting and finance, if I staff, you know things can get shitty real quick, especially like when you work for a high growing startup.

Like how I can recall how many times I had to categorize everything on quick book. It's just a pain. It just slip a label, focus. It's super manual. And I think Linh shared the same pain with me.

Amy: [00:23:30] Yeah, this is definitely the least sexy startup. 

Natasha: [00:23:32] We respect your commitments.

Amy: [00:23:42] The business analyst comes in. I love it. 

Natasha: [00:23:49] Let's check out. What would you say would be the keyword for that? How many stories of tagged accounting on hacker noon?

At least 29, Hang people care

Amy: [00:24:03] Those are your people. 

Natasha: [00:24:04] hot hacker noon tip for our listeners. If you go to hackathon.com forward slash tagged, you can check out all the top 27,000 plus - there's definitely more than that - tag pages and all of the stories. For example, blockchain, just as a comparison to accounting has 6,000. Okay. 889 stories. 

Amy: [00:24:28] Listen, I will edit. The accounting articles. Let's do it. Accountants, rejoice, submit your articles. I will edit them all. Then we will grow the accounting section of hacker noon to bigger than blockchain.

Linh: [00:24:45] Yeah. you heard it here first.

 Natasha: [00:24:51] I'm down for it. All right. So let's wrap this thing up with a final around the room, two questions, which tech product app or podcast, whatever is sparking joy for you this week. And. Which friend are you I'll go first. no pressure.

So in terms of which tech product is sparking joy for me this week, I've been using the Bose noise, canceling headphones, the latest version, the 700 for a week now.

Definitely sparking joy. Super sleek design feels just really good noise. Cancellation draws out the world. It's like being underwater plus really fun gestures and shortcuts, which remind me of my AirPods and bring me a lot of comfort. So overall 10 out of 10 and second question, I'm definitely a total.

Phoebe. How about you, Amy? 

Amy: [00:25:46] Oh, I can see you being a Phoebe for sure. I am getting into vac into my Kobo. Yes. I said Kobo, not Kindle. Suck it. Everybody. Listen, the Kobo is the only one, like an next with the Canadian library sister. What am I supposed to do? I'm using the Kobo team Kobo all the way.

I love it. Currently I am reading the Maya Angelo book. And then as for which friends, character, I am take a wild guess. I'm obviously Rachel Green. I am the center of attention and I have a comment about everything. Obviously I'm Rachel Green. Linh, Who are you?

Linh: [00:26:26] I love this question so much. I'm a total Monica top debt. Like I have no other friends character that I can relate to.

Okay. Oh, a hundred percent. No one or 50% Monica S for it, tech that sparking joy this week, I literally just got this apple pencil and the. Airport. No, not airports, iPad air like this morning messages on slack with my handwriting, which turns into.

Natasha: [00:27:09] am losing my mind for that really. That's interesting because I was debating the remarkable to you. Have you seen that? It's like a notepad that does the same thing, but if I could 

Linh: [00:27:19] get that as well. Oh, I need that. It doesn't do it instantaneously. So like you have to buy the thing and then convert it.

At least the remarkable one was, 

Natasha: [00:27:32] but I'll tell you guys a quick story about apples since we're on the subject of being ultimately loyal to apple case in point, it does everything got to get me that I iPod, whatever. But I went to the apple store. So the other day, and on the way out, the assistant who had entertained my debating, which apple watch strap would best suit my skin tone for approximately 45 minutes.

He thanked me for my energy and I just thought that was the most apple thing to ever happen, to be thanked for my energy on the way out of a store in which I just dropped off of my savings account. I was just so great. So apple for life. Absolutely. You have to make an appointment. They say it's 15 minutes long.

I'm like, you will hear me out and stand by me and sanitize everything. I touched for 45 minutes. 

Linh: [00:28:25] My AirPods stop working. Yeah. I'll give you a mom money. Absolutely. Just take my money a 

Amy: [00:28:34] Last week.  My tech. Recommendation was also the iPad. Erlang yes, 

Linh: [00:28:41] that's what I listened to it.

And I listened to it. 

Natasha: [00:28:44] Shout out to any potential sponsors listening to this podcast. This is proof. Put your shit on hacker noon. People are gonna buy it.

Amy: [00:28:52] Hung. What about you? 

Hang: [00:28:55] I was hoping you, I forgot about me.

This is not this great, but like one of my favorite app is Libby. L I double B Y, and that's why my room is not talking. It's coming to your library and you can check out some books about from your library to Giacchino. Libby is yeah, a touring company and touring app overdrive, Kobo.

You can also eat overdrive to borrow books. 

Linh: [00:29:23] I used to Libby. 

Hang: [00:29:25] Yeah. About what friend am I? I don't know because but later told me that I'm a Chandler. I can see you 

Amy: [00:29:34] being a Chandler. Yeah, because you're like goofy, but also like very anal about things.

Linh: [00:29:45] Humor as a coping mechanism. Yeah. 

Hang: [00:29:50] And tell her happened to me, like my most favorite friends character. So I'm okay with it. Like I'm a cello. 

Amy: [00:29:56] Yeah. Is he not also an accountant? 

Hang: [00:29:59] No. So he was

he's someone who would like data transporter. He was the richest of the sake until he quit the job and do some, but like he was the right chair because yeah, because does that job with his experience can go to less. Six-figure no joke in New York city. Imagine, like I can't use humor as a coping mechanism and I cannot stay say, I'm okay with that.

Natasha: [00:30:34] Okay. Cool. I think that's a wrap everybody. Don't forget to like share subscribe, review, do whatever you gotta do to make this thing a bigger green glove in the cloud and keep the dream of an independent Hacker Noon alive. See you on the incident. Thanks for listening and thanks for taking pod aisle panel this week on planet internet.

Bye 

Hang: [00:30:58] bye.