Andres Max Salmeron

Category: Thoughts

  • Yiddish

    • schtup – have sex with (someone).
    • tuchus – buttocks.
    • chazir – greedy person.
    • hakn a tshaynik – rattle on loudly and insistently.
    • kinahora – don’t tempt the evil eye.
    • kvetch – complain.
    • chutzpah – extreme self-confidence or audacity.
    • mazel tov – congratulations.
    • mentsh – good guy.
    • mishegas – nonsense.
    • oy vey – dismay.
    • schlep – haul.
    • schmuck – a foolish or contemptible person.
    • spiel – speech.
    • tsuris – aggravation.
    • shtick – comic routine.
    • shmooze – rub elbows.
    • schmutz – dirt.
    • kishkas – guts.
    • bubala – darling.
    • tchatchke – a knickknack.
    • zei gezunt – be healthy.
    • mechaye – enjoyment.
    • dreykop – be slow.
    • rachmones – compassion.
    • shvitzing – sweating.
    • schissel – a lot of.
    • koyekh – strength.
    • putz – a stupid or worthless person.
    • gufreilach – bad. (not so bad, not so gufreilach)

  • Lisbon

    All Day

    • Manteigaria – the best dessert in the world – Pasteis de Nata
    • GROM – pretty good gelato
    • Castro – next door to grom, Pasteis
    • Beher Lisboa – solid jamon sandwiches, all day (top five)
    • Bettina & Niccolo Corallo – solid hot chocolate
    • La Boulangerie – solid pastries
    • Bike Bakery – very good tomato brioche

    Lunch (usually dinner too)

    • Cova Funda – very good octopus, skip tuna, almost all day
    • Sinal Vermelho – solid, skip octopus, basically all day
    • Taberna da Rua das Flores – sometimes excellent
    • Lupita – pretty good pizza (better than the other place) (top five)
    • Tasca da Esquina – very good lunch/dinner, ask for a lemon wedge
    • Solar dos Presuntos – solid but pretentious spot, get the octopus
    • O Magano – classic lunch/dinner, get the tuna belly for takeout
    • Cantinho do Avillez – solid lunch/dinner – skip scallops, get tuna
    • M’arrecreo Pizzeria – solid pizza, get the panna cotta
    • Forno d’Oro – solid pizza
    • O piteu da graca – solid fish, skip veggies
    • Bistro 100 Manerias – solid food

    Dinner Only

    • Tricky’s – surprisingly excellent spot (top five)
    • Omakase Ri – $100 per person but very good (top five)
    • Senhor Uva – popular wine bar with very good food (top five)
    • Essencial – solid
    • A Nossa Casa – solid spot
    • Come Prima – solid truffle pasta (to go options!)
    • Da Noi – solid but skip tuna

    Skip

    • O Velho Eurico – solid lunch/dinner, email in advance (food poisoning)

    Recs I Haven’t Tried Yet

    • Sakemico
    • Âmago
    • Nunes Real Marisqueira

    Outside the City

    • Vila Joya
    • Sublime Beach Club
    • Rei das praias (lunch on beach)

  • sheet

  • Best Desserts 2021

    Europe & US

    Dark Chocolate Lovers

    • Boston – Giulia – Chocolate Panna Cotta
    • Boston – Blackbird – Chocolate Donut
    • Boston – Clear Flour Bakery – Bouchon
    • Boston – LA Burdick – Hot Chocolate
    • NYC – Sant Ambroeus – Hot Chocolate
    • NYC – Mel – Sourdough Chocolate Croissant
    • NYC – Boucherie – Chocolate Mousse
    • Chicago – Jeni’s – Chocolate Ice Cream
    • Bologna – Cremeria Cavour – Chocolate Gelato
    • Global – Laderach – 80% Chocolate Bar
    • Global – Endangered Species – 88% Chocolate Bar

    General

    • Lisbon – Manteigaria – Pasteis de Nata
    • Genoa – Fruit & Ice Cream Factory – Mango & Pistachio Gelato
    • Zurich – Grand’in Osteria – Panna Cotta
    • NYC – Sweet Rehab – Honey Pastry
    • NYC – Sadelles – French Toast
    • Boston – Modern Pastry – Cannoli
    • Providence – Pastiche – Fruit Tart
    • Providence – Pot au Feu – Creme Brûlée
    • Austin – Waltons Fancy and Staple – Golden Egg

  • poupon

  • Breck

  • Austin2

    • Dolce Neve (one of the best ice cream places in the country)
    • Uchi (go at Happy Hour for reasonably priced and excellent sushi)
    • la Barbecue (I think this place is better than Franklin Barbecue, but feel free to try both)
    • Turf N Surf Po’ Boy (terrific fish)
    • Waltons Fancy and Staple (go have a golden egg here)
    • Launderette (excellent food in general)

  • Investments

    A series of financial disclosures, both previous and current holdings, with my thoughts. Updated Nov 3, 2021

    1. Tesla (2010)— First stock I ever bought. Also the most successful. Also the only reason why there’s the list below. [Update: I sold when it hit $419 at 21x ROI. Had I held for another couple years, it would have been a 210x ROI. Just add a zero!]
    2. Microsoft (2011)— I’m a big fan of the innovation at Microsoft over the past five years. Seems like they’re investing heavily in interesting projects.
    3. General Motors (2011) — Read an article about how GM was Tesla’s most formative competition. Wanted to invest to cover my bases.
    4. Ford (2011)—Covered my bases.
    5. Nokia (2012)—Thought Microsoft would buy them and expand Windows Phone. They did.
    6. Pandora (2012) — Figured Apple or Google would buy them. I was wrong. Google instead bought Songza, and Apple bought Beats and Lala. Ah well.
    7. Jamba Juice (2012)—This was a stupid investment. I saw the rise of the juice craze, but didn’t realize Jamba wasn’t seeing the same success as other juice brands. Also, Jamba started shutting down stores. Don’t invest in seasonal businesses.
    8. Bitcoin (2014) — Like Tesla, I wish I had invested far more when I could have. [Dear Past Self: you could have then too.]
    9. Nuance (2015) — As I watched the rise of Siri and Google Now, I figured Nuance would be ripe for acquisition. Instead, companies developed their own voice recognition tech. Such is life.
    10. Twitter (2014 & 2015 & 2016) — Definitely losing my money on this. [Update: I did not lose my money on this.] I’ve doubled down on Twitter a couple times, as I still believe in the company’s future, despite the mediocre leadership. It’s a great tool that’s highly sticky and useful, at least in the media/tech industry. Also, it’s the app I use the most, by a long shot.
    11. 21st Century Fox (2015) — Should have got Disney instead, but that was a bit too costly.
    12. Yelp (2015) — I thought it would get acquired by Apple or Facebook honestly. It’s got a lot of data. Though now maybe I should look into getting some Yext. Yelp feels slimy to me.
    13. Shopify (2015) — Noticed their rise thanks to Tim Ferriss. [Sold this too early…. Then got in again in 2020, loathing my sell and vowing to never sell again]
    14. King (2015) — I got this because of a Planet Money episode about overvalued stocks.
    15. Facebook (2015) — Zuckerberg is smart, and the company is a money machine.
    16. ShakeShack (2016)— Thought it might be the next generation of McDonalds. Probably wrong.
    17. GoPro (2016) — DJI ate their lunch.
    18. Corrections Corporation of America (2016) — Owning this made me feel bad about myself. Had to sell it quick. Scum.
    19. Netflix (2016) — Reed Hastings is a smart guy. Not sure how I feel about all their debt though.
    20. Square (2016) — Quietly great company. Too bad Twitter hasn’t seen the same stock success. [Update: they did eventually.]
    21. Coca-Cola (2016) — I think beverage companies will grow in popularity as we destroy our public water sources.
    22. Bank of America (2016) — Got these on the advice of a friend. Should have got Goldman instead.
    23. [One of my worst sell events, almost everything listed prior to this – thought Trump would win and the markets would tank. They did… for like… two hours… Had I stayed in, I would have made a stupid amount of money. Live and learn.]
    24. Direxion (2017)—Got this because of r/wallstreetbets or r/robinhood. Probably not a great idea to get advice from internet forums. But I only got a couple shares.
    25. Inverse Natural Gas (2017) — Also got this from Internet people. Again, don’t listen to people on the internet.
    26. Twilio (2017)—Interesting tech company that seems to fly under the radar while powering much of mobile tech. [Update: Insanely good investment!]
    27. Snapchat (2017) — Instagram is going to crush Snapchat, and I’ve come to realize that Snap’s performance will most likely end up looking much like Twitter. Both are useful, addicting, and feature a loyal user base, while struggling for Facebook’s meteoric expansion rates and income.
    28. Activision Blizzard (2017)—This purchase happened after I heard that eSports will become a huge industry.
    29. Everspin (2017)—Remember how I said don’t take stock advice from Reddit? Well sometimes it pays off.
    30. Ethereum (2017)—Not as big as Bitcoin, but seems like the tech behind this is more interesting. [Great investment!]
    31. Whole Foods (2017)— Thought they might get acquired. They did.
    32. Applied Materials (2017)—Another Internet people recommendation.
    33. General Electric (2017)—I think a family member recommended this pick.
    34. Houston American Energy (2017)—Recommendation from Internet people. Just put in a little bit.
    35. Blue Apron (2017)—Oooof what a terrible investment. Only got two shares though. Amazon is going to crush them.
    36. Target (2017)—Got this around the time Amazon acquired Whole Foods.
    37. Micron Technology (2017)—Internet people recommendation.
    38. LTC, ZEC, ETC, BCH, DASH, EOS (2017) – A hodgepodge of altcoins I grabbed just in case. Radiolab has an interesting story about ZCash if you like podcasts.
    39. Cisco (2017)—Another Internet people recommendation.
    40. Taiwan Semiconductor (2017)—Despite stiff competition, chip makers in general will do well as the future progresses.
    41. AMD (2018)—Ditto.
    42. Cronos Group (2018)—Was interested in buying something in a marijuana company. Perhaps this wasn’t the best choice.
    43. Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (2018)—When MoviePass’s parent company cratered, I decided to buy low on the off chance there was a miracle.
    44. NIO (2018) – Electric car company in China, let’s see if they can compete with Tesla.
    45. CRWD (2019) – ~~~ Cybersecurity ~~~
    46. CHWY (2019) – People take care of their pets. I see Chewy.com boxes everywhere.
    47. WORK (2019) – I’ve used Slack at almost every place I’ve worked.
    48. HAIR (2019)
    49. AQUA (2019) – Looked up water companies and bought randomly.
    50. CRON (2019) – Weed will be legal everywhere eventually.
    51. TGT (2019) – Target and Walmart aren’t dead yet.
    52. XLU (2019) – Utilities sector is allegedly recession proof.
    53. UBER (2019) – Yes, they are a Bad company. I also think they might take over the world and I might as well profit from that.
    54. ACB (2020) – Another weed company.
    55. PINS (2020) – I don’t use Pinterest, I don’t know many who do, but those who do use it quite a bit.
    56. PRPL (2020) – Saw a tweet about how they were so much better.
    57. KF (2020) – Purchased when I saw how well South Korea was dealing with the pandemic.
    58. ENZL (2020) – Purchased when I saw how well New Zealand was dealing with the pandemic.
    59. BHR (2020) – Hotels! Travel was struggling, and I think it’ll come back.
    60. AUPH (2020) – Pharma
    61. NLS (2020) – Similar to Pelaton.
    62. VXX (2020) – S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN.
    63. TWN (2020) – Taiwan was doing great with COVID so I searched up “taiwan” and bought randomly.
    64. KODK (2020) – Asinine investment. Sometimes meme stocks are just memes.
    65. SLV (2020) – Price of silver.
    66. RIOT (2020) – cryptocurrency mining operation in North America
    67. PFE (2020) – The “best” vaccine.
    68. LUV (2020) – Southwest Airlines has a great reputation and people will fly again.
    69. GPK (2020) – Packaging corp –
    70. GDRX (2020) – Love this company! Saves people money on medicines. Great marketing.
    71. PLTR (2020) – Don’t love the company but I do have confidence that the Paypal Mafia will continue to be profitable.
    72. SPH (2020) – Propane and gas will be needed as we do more outside (space heaters, grills, etc)
    73. Opendoor (2020) – Real estate is booming!
    74. FTCH (2020) – “luxury fashion goods”
    75. MGI (2020) – “cross-border peer-to-peer payments and money transfer services” wonder if Square will acquire them, or something…
    76. ADPT (2020) – “immune medicine”
    77. APHA (2020) – Cannabis! Merged with Tilray.
    78. TPC (2020) – “one of the largest general contractors in the United States”
    79. INAQ (2020) (now MILE) – “leading digital insurance platform and pay-per-mile auto insurer” I got this before the merger, not particularly optimistic about this one
    80. NWL (2020) – household purchases are up! “manufacturer, marketer and distributor of consumer and commercial products with a portfolio of brands including: Rubbermaid”
    81. UL (2020) – Unilever, a massive conglomerate.
    82. SHOP (2020) – I hate that I sold this early. Got back in. Amazon competition.
    83. INGN (2020) – “develops, manufactures, and markets portable oxygen concentrators to patients” (COVID!!!)
    84. LAZR (2020) – “vehicle sensor and software company for passenger cars and commercial trucks”
    85. BEAM (2020) – “precision genetic medicines for patients suffering from serious diseases in the United States”
    86. GME (2020) – One of the only stocks I’ve sold since my 2016 debacle. Smart sell.
    87. ABNB (2020) – Maybe overvalued (like most stocks during the later half of COVID) but interesting company. I try to invest in things that I use regularly.
    88. NEE (2020) – sustainable energy
    89. QS (2020) – “lithium-metal batteries for electric vehicles and other applications.”
    90. UPST (2020) – “aggregates consumer demand for loans”
    91. SI (2020) – “bank holding company for Silvergate Bank that provides banking products and services to business and individual clients” common tech bank
    92. CNST (2020) – what is this
    93. ARKF (2020) – ARK Fintech Innovation ETF
    94. ODT (2020) – “therapeutics for the treatment of cancer”
    95. BILI (2020) – “entertainment services for the young generations in the People’s Republic of China”
    96. Masterworks.io – Basquiat (2020) – Love this artist; love the concept of investing in art.
    97. NVTA (2021) – “medical genetics company, integrates genetic information into healthcare decision-making by clinicians”
    98. IPOE (2021) (Now SOFI) – Really bullish on SoFi; they’ve done a great job of thoroughly expanding their product suite and brand recognition in the space.
    99. ACEV (2021) – Convergence Acquisition Corp
    100. AFRM (2021) – Max is so thoughtful; I have a ton of confidence in his efforts.
    101. WOOF (2021) – Once heard that people will always provide for their pets versus buying things for themselves.
    102. IPOF (2021) – Chamath! Might be snake oil, might be something great (like SoFi). A tiny gamble here.
    103. PRCH (2021) – services for home inspectors, homebuyers and homeowners
    104. DM (2021) – 3D printing systems
    105. TLRY (2021) – weed!
    106. POSH (2021) – One of my colleagues uses this service so made the best.
    107. AMC (2021) – got in on the reddit fervor and incredibly made money
    108. BB (2021) – ditto except for the making money
    109. Dogecoin (2021) – made me some money but a garbage coin
    110. WISH (2021) – garbage company, lost money
    111. HOL (now ASTR) – Rockets to space!
    112. DMTK – non-invasive genomics tests to diagnosis skin cancer
    113. VGAC (now ME) – 23andMe is interesting, if not unnerving.
    114. CTRM – ocean transportation of dry bulk cargoes worldwide
    115. STIC (now BARK) – Things for dogs. People love their pets more than their children.
    116. ZYNE – “clinical stage specialty pharmaceutical company” with weed!
    117. TCEHY – Tencent! China!
    118. AIRT – “overnight air cargo, ground equipment sale, commercial jet engines and parts”
    119. F – Ford!
    120. PLG – exploration and development of platinum
    121. Ethereum – great investment, should have gotten more
    122. SUMO – Don’t remember why I got this so I must have seen a tweet.
    123. CVS – In a world without competent governance, private companies like CVS are going to be making a killing off the health care market.
    124. RKT – I’ve heard enough ads for Rocket Mortgage to make this move.
    125. CPNG – “largest online retailer in South Korea, focusing on the speed of delivery” (Amazon rival?)
    126. BIGC – saw a twitter thread about this Square competitor. More bullish on Square still.
    127. HIMS – leading telehealth company, good brand recognition and marketing
    128. EVFM – “biopharmaceuticals”
    129. RHHBY – getting into some medical diagnostics stocks
    130. HOLX – “diagnostics products, medical imaging systems, and surgical products for women’s health through early detection and treatment”
    131. DGX – Quest Diagnostics – COVID and STD testing, both things I expect will continue to grow.
    132. FIGS – Similar to Allbirds in proliferation in the upscale medical apparel industry. If they’re smart, there’s a lot of room for collaboration and growth.
    133. RVLV – “next-generation fashion retailer for Millennial and Generation Z consumers” lol probably garbage
    134. CQQQ – “provides broad, vanilla exposure to Chinese tech firms.”
    135. H – Hyatt! Hotels are interesting to me right now thanks to COVID, traveling, and the future of remote work.
    136. ATAI – “Life Sciences”
    137. ACWI – An ETF someone must have recommended.
    138. SPT – I have a new rule; if my work uses it, I buy some. Sprout is what we use for monitoring and responding on social. It’s fine.
    139. PAYO – Not sure why I bought this, more bullish on TransferWise.
    140. GNOM – ETF for genomics!
    141. WCLD – ETF for cloud companies.
    142. DUOL – I used this app back in school and found it helpful; now half of my family uses it.
    143. HOOD – Robinhood is a clear leader right now; let’s see if it’ll last. I’ve heard good things about Public. Plus the DOGE debacle is not inspiring confidence.
    144. ASAN – I don’t like Jira but everyone uses it.
    145. IAU – Gold! Who knows!
    146. AA – Aluminum is likely to become a more sought after material.
    147. ZEV – e-Bikes are becoming a big thing, will probably become even bigger.
    148. FTT – Did little research here, but have heard enough to get a little.
    149. AGLD – The latest meme crypto. Probably garbage.
    150. SOL – Allegedly the next Ethereum. We’ll find out together I suppose. [Update: wow shout out to myself for getting in June 2021}
    151. XRP – Twitter is abuzz.
    152. SRM – Again, a few tweets.
    153. MAPS – Weed stock.
    154. BNTX – Listened to a podcast about the future of vaccines.
    155. TTD – Tip from a feller in a restaurant.
    156. CRM – Ditto.
    157. KNX – Saw some tweets about the supply chain and wanted to invest in trucking.
    158. Enjoy – I’m a bit neutral here since I’m not convinced of scalability or interest but I bought because I applied to work there a few years ago.
    159. LendingClub – Mentioned in some fintech circles I’m in.
    160. NerdWallet – A major player in the finance space. I see them as The Wirecutter but for everything finance which seems more lucrative.
    161. AllBirds – I own enough pairs to invest a bit too.

  • Ben Ellman’s Guide to Sourcing Music

     

    The following is quoted verbatim for posterity, and easy linking. via publicradioNYC

    Here are a few suggestions:

    • FreeMusicArchive – I have to admit, I was wary about FreeMusicArchive for really silly reasons. My opinion was colored by the countless evenings I spent in middle school searching the rough, honestly pretty crappy sound effects library websites of the early 2000s.

      The quality of what’s available for free (under Creative Commons) has CHANGED DRAMATICALLY. A lot of the music available is professional quality or spitting distance away from it. It’s good and you should use it

    • BK College: Graduate School of Cinema – I got a private message on this topic from Leah Shaw, a student at the newly-established Brooklyn College Fierstein School of Graduate Cinema.

      This program is full of musicians learning to score for media and they’re just posting tracks! Not only is this a resource for your immediate needs, it also functions as a list of local people who’d probably LOVE to score your podcast for a very fair rate. It’s amazing!

    • Will’s List: Music and Sound Effects – The ever helpful radiofriend Will Coley made a list of resources for this very issue a couple of years ago. Check out the Blue Dot sessions, it’s a great bunch of acoustic music.
    • Will’s List: Composers – Will also made a list of composers available for scoring. This list is also a few years old, so keep that in mind if you’re thinking of contacting anyone off of it.
    • FreeSound.org – You know them for their sound effects (if you don’t, you really should). FreeSound also hosts music. A lot of it is shorter and probably fits in the category of ‘stings’ but it might be just what you need.
    • AudioBlocks – An archive of music and sound effects available for $99 for the first year ($149 every year after).
    • Pond5 – Royalty free music that you can license for cheap. They have mood categories that you can choose from, just like what I was originally looking for.
    • Podcast Music: Spotify – My radiobud Randy Carroll suggested this long playlist he made full of music that might be good for podcasts. A lot of it scoring for major media properties and major label artists, so it might be better as a way of figuring out what style you want before searching elsewhere.
    • Will’s List: Music Google Doc – Yet another huge list from Will Coley on music resources that gets down to smaller websites and really nitty gritty stuff. Will is the MVP.

    That’s what I’ve learned, I hope it’s helpful to some of you.

    However, if I know myself, I’m just going to end up trying to make Trent Reznor’s soundtrack for The Vietnam War fit into everything anyway.

    End of quote

  • Podcasts

    What I’m Listening To (2018)

    Archives

    • The Impact
    • Something True
    • The Hilarious World of Depression
    • The Dinner Party Download
    • Pitch
    • Freakonomics Radio
    • High Resolution
    • Sound Show
    • The New Washington
    • The Memory Palace
    • Endless Thread
    • a++
    • Origins with James Andrew Miller
    • Scriptnotes
    • Under The Influence
    • The Pulse
    • Rocketship.fm
    • Conversations With Tyler
    • Rationally Speaking
    • Venture Stories
    • This Is Product Management
    • More or Less
    • User Defenders
    • In Our Time
    • Track Changes
    • Projectified
    • Flash Forward
    • Hurry Slowly
    • Curiosity
    • Slow Burn
    • Blue Planet II: The Podcast
    • Seriously…
    • Broken Record
    • State of the Art
    • Hi-Phi Nation
    • The James Altucher Show
    • Containers
    • Invisible City
    • Surprisingly Awesome
    • Uncivil
    • Burnt Toast
    • Hungry
    • No Such Thing as Fish
    • Why We Eat What We Eat
    • WSJ The Future of Everything
    • Here Be Monsters
    • Modern Love
    • Hardcore History
    • a16z
    • DecodeDC
    • Presidential
    • You Are Not So Smart
    • Recode Decode
    • Sincerely, X
    • Work in Progress
    • Note to Self
    • Revisionist History
    • BackStory
    • Acquired
    • Making Oprah *
    • Tim Ferriss Show
    • TWiT
    • MacBreak Weekly
    • Apple Phone Show
    • The Truth
    • TED Radio Hour
    • This American Life
    • TL;DR *
    • You Must Remember This
    • Criminal
    • Reveal
    • Serial
    • S Town
    • Side Hustle School
    • 2 Dope Queens
    • The Takeaway
    • Where Should We Begin?
    • Detective
    • Snap Judgment
    • The Moth
    • Slate’s Negotiation *
    • You Are Not So Smart *
    • The Dollop *
    • WTF With Mark Maron
    • Science Vs
    • How To Do Everything
    • Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
    • Song Exploder
    • This Week in Startups
    • Ear Hustle
    • Undiscovered
    • The Outline World Dispatch
    • Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything
    • Love + Radio
    • The Heart
    • Crimetown
    • Here’s The Thing
    • The Sporkful
    • This Week in Google
    • Back to Work
    • Roderick on the Line
    • The Pipeline *
    • A Prairie Home Companion
    • Marketplace
    • Marketplace Morning Report
    • NPR News Summary
    • Old Radio Detective
    • Sam Spade
    • Phillip Marlowe
    • Richard Diamond *
    • The Lone Ranger Podcast
    • Old Time Radio Superman