Three things from this week:
Trip to Boston! A visit to Tatte, Time Out Market, Flour Bakery, and Chicken and Rice Guys was appropriate.
There is no rational reason anything should be this funny, but it features one of my favorite TV shows and a bit of economics humor (link): BECAUSE I CUT THE BRAKES
Beware of hot dogs in Cabo. No context, just caution.
Storytelling
I’ve hit on this lightly before, but many aspects of business and personal life require storytelling. Some are better than others at it, but people who choose to take up consulting or sales & marketing as a career are paid to be exceptional at it.
We have a huge load of information, but must get it across in a way that:
Gives the right amount of information at the right time
Is understandable
Compels someone to feel some way or do something
Well, what IS the right amount of information, and how do I make sure I’m giving it at the right time, and how do I know how to make someone feel something about it?
That is a tougher question to answer than most think, but is an absolutely essential skill for most individuals going into the workforce. Working on storytelling helps us with effective communication in a corporate world where increasing amounts of data-driven insights are pouring in due to an increased emphasis on data collection and data-driven decision making.
*Note: There’s a cool tool I wrote about a while ago that does some of the heavy-lifting for you by turning data into digestible information— Narrative Science
Geography
On a related note to the storytelling piece, I’ve been interested in how to up my infographic game. For individuals doing cursory research on a topic, infographics can provide quick, digestible information on complicated topics. I may not have time to piece through three 30-page reports on a topic, but a good infographic tying together the main takeaways from report A can entice me to read report A instead of report B.
Now, to geography. Living out in Chicago for school, many people assume that you want to stay there after college. I found this fairly odd, since many kids from my high school chose to go to schools all over the country with location being a very small factor in comparison to academic factors, athletics, course offerings, and so on.
This said, many Northwestern graduates stay in Chicago, while others travel to the east or west. Here’s a graphic breaking it down from Northwestern’s Class of 2018 report:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F301c8a1d-a802-43cb-91bc-37f554c30281_1572x944.png)
Many of my friends interested in tech or VC think they HAVE to go to the west coast to do it. And, for some the sun and beaches may be attractive, but for others the high-cost of living, or long-flight back home acts as a deterrent. While many people sacrifice location preferences for a good job opportunity, that isn’t always as necessary as we may think.
Practicing my own infographic skills… Here are some stats I’ve come across on VC funding in various geographic regions:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feae482b2-e9c0-46ee-99b8-ffcaaf85a90f_786x1072.png)
Source: Axios, Source: Crunchbase *exact statistics vary by source
On the tech side, Silicon-Valley (or west coast) based tech firms are building out locations across the country. Amazon is moving their second HQ into Arlington, VA. HP and Dell have massive offices in Texas.
This all said, just because Tech Company A has locations in Montana doesn’t mean that those locations have job positions in your area of interest. Some offices may hold “back-office” type positions, service centers, etc that you aren’t interested in. It may well be that if you want to be a successful software engineer for Tech Company A, you need to be in California to make that happen.
Do some research into roles and companies that fit your interests, and don’t always let the “common knowledge” rule your thoughts on location and what you have to do after school. Johnny from your fraternity *may* be a reliable source, or he may know less than you. Do some research for yourself, and see if you can find your best fit.
Coffeehouses
I spoke to my love of coffee in my last blog, but this time I have a historical reason to talk about it again. Bear with me here…
The Ottoman Empire
There’s a lot to explain here, so I’m not even going to try. I am taking a course on Ottoman history from 1300 - 1700 AD, so in honor of the end of the academic quarter here, I am covering a fun topic that completely ignores wars, religious development, fratricide, devshirmes, and educational-system advancement.
Coffee as a social drink
This was a thing in the 1600s, and it still is today! How often is your first meeting with someone over coffee? The comfortable feel of a coffee shop combined with the warm cup to wrap your hands around (who else doesn’t know what to do with their hands during interviews?!) eases tensions and lets the conversation roll more naturally. Or, it’s a great excuse to meet up with friends and talk.
Coffee as a mobilizer
In the Ottoman Empire, Sultans eventually made moves to close coffeehouses, or discourage people from going to them. Coffee was cheap, so individuals of almost any social class could go and partake in drinking coffee and participating in discussion.
The resulting sharing of information was dangerous to the Sultanate, which relied somewhat on social exclusivity and hierarchy to maintain power. Further than that, social discussion often led to political discourse in common areas. This was far less frequent before the rise of coffeehouses, because regular people would not have a typical mode of gathering outside of religious or judicial practices.
I don’t know how much political power is derived out of coffee shops today, but it’s an interesting thought. The gathering of people to focus on discussion provides a potential catalyst or forum for power. Now, we gather in other places for political discourse, or for workforce development, or technological advancement… but nonetheless, there is a cool history to it.
Fun, Interests, & Feet
We always want to put our best foot forward in interviews, or in simply getting to know other people. There’s always the question of “what do you like to do?”, and when you’re a student, that typically comes with the implication that school should not be included.
I have a few things I like to do. General socializing—but how do you really talk about that? Movies—Christopher Nolan is a favorite, so check out TENET, coming out this summer. Athletics—cycling, but when you’ve done NCAA athletics, people don’t often expect it to be “fun” for you.
I could keep listing interests, but there’s always the question of “what do I talk about to put my best foot forward?”
For me, and (I think) a lot of students, “interests” can mean so many things. Sometimes, there’s a feeling that it’s a bit taboo to mix activities and interests together. As someone that really enjoys the social and experiential aspect that I get out of student organizations, I don’t think this needs to be the case. I’ll explain why:
When you spend a lot of time with people, you develop trust, and with that trust comes a less formal way of interacting. Jokes arise out of common experiences, and there’s typically more fun to it, whatever it is.
Accomplishing something feels good. It is so much easier to gush on and on about a time you felt really proud of something you did, because while it sometimes means a sacrifice of time, you probably excelled because you liked doing it.
“Interests” don’t need to be a “release” or a break from something. They can just as well be an engagement in something, because engagement doesn’t always mean a sacrifice or a burden. Think about what you spend 50% of your time HAPPILY talking about out of your own volition. If it’s the Bachelorette, good! If it’s your Astronomy research, good!
So, I guess this is all to say that maybe we shouldn’t worry about coming off as “nerdy” by sharing our interests. Your interest can be travel, it can be your social impact organization, it can be dancing, it can be your robotic team, it can be various types of popcorn, or whatever you genuinely love spending your time doing.
That’s it for this week, but here are some nice pictures of food until next time:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F701ccd96-246b-4117-8fbe-bd64ef1b29e4_4032x3024.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4affeb93-70da-49dd-a928-b6fc956406ed_4032x3024.jpeg)