Sam Petralia’s 2021

Themes

Apparently setting goals every year is a fool’s folly. All the self-help podcasters and authors say that a reset of a calendar should not bring about a sudden change in a person or their actions. Instead, it's recommended you should live out themes that allow you to adapt and create new goals as life happens.

My themes

1. Education: Learn new things but take things I already know to a deeper level. Admit when I don’t know things and be humble and try to learn from others. Try to be the stupidest person in the room.
2. Intent: Action should have meaning and thought behind it. I want to act with intent and attach thinking and commitment to everything I do. Should treat every action with the thought “Am I willing to let this define me?”
3. Discipline: Discipline, planning, routine, and pain need to be added to my life. Stick to the plan and self improve by keeping myself accountable and.
4. Conversation: My conversation and personality online or through text is sometimes better than in person. I want to flip that. I find joy talking to certain people, I want to become one of those people for others.
5. Influence: I want to try to create content instead of constantly consuming content. Even if no one reads it or listens I think it would be a great journaling experience.

Goals

Casting away the recommendation of self-help gurus, I still want to make goals for myself. Most goals or resolutions are usually vague and lack clarity which ultimately makes them unachievable and likely to discourage and actually harm your improvement. The best goals are SMART; Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

My goals

1. Read 12 books a year
2. Write 12 Medium articles (this one counts)
3. Scuba Certification
4. SQL Certification
5. Agile Certification
6. Get on the Forbes 30 under 30 list (explained more later on)
7. Create a youtube video

Cool New Things I Like

Using this section to prove that I was an early-ish adopter

1. Angels Baseball My optimism will never die. This is our year.
2. JoinToucan (https://jointoucan.com/) This cool chrome extension allows you to learn a new language while browsing the internet in your daily life.
3. Consumer 3D Printers Just got one, really enjoying it. The idea that you can print anything you can imagine would be hard for 10-year old me to comprehend.

Predictions

Using my knowledge, bias, and ego here are my macro and micro level predictions.

Short

1. Wearing corded headphones will become really cool and rustic
2. Beards will stay in style
3. DragonballZ will come to Netflix
4. Exclusivity/FOMO marketing will continue to dominate even if the product isn't really exclusive. Examples: Clubhouse and Raya
5. A “Netflix of nightlife” will launch as bars will give you access to cut the line if you pay a subscription their bars. Like Ikon pass but for bars.
6. Oat milk lattes will continue to slap
7. Meme stocks are here to stay
8. Gamestop stock will drop and be replaced by other meme stocks
9. Clubhouse will flop (jealous — what could have been of Bullhorn)
10. Russia and China will butt heads

Long

1. California’s death has been greatly exaggerated. The great migration of Californias to Austin, Nashville, Boise, and other yuppie cities is one of the media’s favorite topics. California and Californians are deservedly despised. Any signs or predictions of downfall is welcomed by nearly everyone. There is some truth to it though. Housing, living, taxes, socializing, and having fun in California is very expensive and the state is very crowded. People are leaving the state in record numbers, including celebrities and businesses flying East for favorable taxes. However, I believe California is too much of a titan to be unseated. The state's GDP and population continue to grow. In reality, this migration of out California is needed and will make the state a better place to live… Now we just need some competent leadership #ChamathForCa
2. SPACs day of reckoning will come. SPAC IPOs raised a recording breaking $82.6 bn in 2020. I personally don’t fully understand SPACs. After reading articles and watching youtube explainer videos, each time I walk away thinking, “this sounds illegal and probably shouldn’t be happening”. I think that the SEC will catch on and either outlaw them or cripple them increase regulation.
3. America will collide with authoritarian regimes and enter another war. America’s outward power expression has been crippled under the Trump admin. This change and challenge to our sole superpower status isn't directly Trump’s fault. Since the fall of the USSR, we have been the lead character in our own play. It is only natural that America was going to be met by ambitious regional powers like Turkey, Russia, and China as the vacuum was filled. But Trump and his ironic “America First” nationalism had his part in creating this vacuum. His actions of hampering alliances and communications with the EU and Nato, and his inaction to counter Russia, Turkey, and China’s growing aggression and land grabs are the best examples. Things will eventually come to a boiling point and I predict America and Turkey will face-off small skirmishes via proxy wars in the Middle East. (not that original of a prediction)
4. Airport Hotels will boom. I'm sure you've heard by now that COVID is going to change travel forever. I predict that travel and tourism will bounce back quickly as people are very eager to leave their homes. But you should expect to use a little more PTO in order to go international. I predict that many countries will institute a temporary bubble program where if you are arriving to the country you must 1. test negative before landing 2. stay in a monitored airport hotel for 1–3 days and 3. test negative again.
5. The “Forbes 30 under 30” list will get even more annoying. There’s probably going to be a reality TV show around these shitheads all living in the same house. I find this list and group of people to be incredibly insufferable. The best people never make it and instead its filled with people younger and uglier than me. I can’t tell if it's my it's righteous to hate this glorified clickbait or if I'm just jealous. I want to join it, expose it, and ruin it from the inside.

My Stock Picks for 2021

1. IPOE (soon to be Sofi)
2. LAC
3. UPWK
4. EB
5. ABNB
6. DAL
7. PLTR
8. MTCH
9. ARKK