Jas Johnson

All things Equity | Gen Z | she/her | @HarvardHBS 2+2 | alum: @fiskuniversity @vanderbiltowen fmr: @hustlefundvc @ubs @score3vc @hbcuvc

[Jas Johnson @jasminvests]

I think that a problem that exacerbates other problems in the fundraising community for black people is that sometimes entrepreneurs and investors speak two different languages.

Allow me to explain. 1/

[Tricia Dearborn @TriciaDearborn]

If you're thinking about using gen-AI to "write" books, this 🧵 is for you.
I’m a highly experienced editor who’s been in the biz a long time. Recently I’ve had manuscripts come to me where the author has used gen-AI – not for writing, I’ve been assured, but for

[Jemele Hill @jemelehill]

Don’t nobody say nothin’ 😂😂😂😂😂

[Sarah Katilyn @Sarah_Katilyn]

I remember when my childhood best friend was in a car accident. I was ten years old when the call came. A corded yellow landline at 2 a.m. They were hit by a drunk driver and her mother went through the windshield. She was decapitated. My friend awoke upside down and crawled through the back to reach her mother. She held her head as the ambulance arrived.

I remember attending the funeral. It was weird and uncomfortable. Everyone around me wept and it smelled like lillies, which was supposed to be a happy smell, but from that moment on...it was death, and decay.

While the families mingled and shared sad platitudes, I convinced her to sneak upstairs to the funeral director's office and steal the buttermints from the fancy silver footed bowl on his desk. We laughed breathlessly as we stole down the stairs, pockets full of pastel pillow mints. Giggling at our criminal mischief, oblivious to the mourners and the lillies.

We sat in the front row because that's where family sat and she wouldn't let me leave her side. She let out a gutteral scream and threw herself on the casket "mommy mommy mommy". I grabbed her and hauled her back. Her horrified family gasping for air. I physically held her down while the preacher said words. Words that didn't matter because her mother was gone and the casket was closed and none of it fucking mattered.

We went out back back to the cold empty playground and we swang. We swang on the stupid swings and I made her laugh with my stupid jumps and my stupid voices. And she cried. And I sat there. Upside down on a rubber swing. And we were quiet. And 30 years later she still messages me and talks about those mints, and the swings. Because the words don't matter. The platitudes and the sad side hugs. The emotions don't matter. I sucked at it. I could replicate it but it was never real and I learned that day that what matters is presence. Companionship. A steady anchor in the raging fucking storm of broken humanity. And that has always been me. I may not get it. The weeping. The screams. But I will sit with you in the darkness. I will steal the buttermints and I will swing with you in silence. And I will be. I will be.

[Dan Hightower @Danhightower]

Want to go faster? Bring fewer people.

I learned this the hard way one long night during Army Special Forces Assessment & Selection.

Our team of 10 guys had to carry a full-length telephone pole (1,200lb) for double-digit kilometers.

Imagine holding 120lbs in one hand. The weight was impossible to carry for more than 20 seconds at a time. So we built a process:

- 10 count rest, lift
- walk for 20 count, drop
- 10 count rest, lift
- x 3, then switch sides (grip fails)
- repeat... for xx Km

We had a rythym going, but hours into it, we were far from finishing.

At the lowest point, we were yelling and blaming each other. Debating the process. Taking time to vote to increase the rest periods. Basically inventing reasons to not do the work. We were barely progressing.

2 guys quit during that time. Only 8 were left to carry the same load. Huge blow to morale.

When we were about to lift and walk again, someone blurted out, "F it, let's try running with it". Too tired to argue, we lifted and started shuffling, then jogging.

Turns out, it was actually NO harder to run with the pole than walk. We looked at each other like we just struck gold.

Now we were covering 2x the ground with 2 fewer people. The momentum 2x'd our morale, which snowballed into one guy spontaneously changing the carry count from 20 to 30 seconds, so we were moving even faster.

One guy said something I'll never forget, "shit's pretty easy if you just... let it suck, y'know what I mean?"

We laughed bc it was so true. We were so hyper-fixated on trying to 'engineer out' the discomfort that we hadn't considered trying an idea that we thought would increase discomfort (running).

All of the 8 guys left on our team got Selected.

[Jas Johnson @jasminvests]

@Dro2H @CleoElisse He is def not from Long Beach lol.

[Sparkle Lynn 🇧🇿 @Sparkle_Lynn]

Dear non west coast people…those weren’t all “crip walks” 😂

[Michael J. Miraflor @michaelmiraflor]

The NBA has honestly suppressed the fact that Jaylen Brown is a modern polymath.

Some NBA GMs said he was “too smart” for the League during the 2016 draft.

Great role model. UC Berkeley chess team. MIT Media Lab Fellow. He is such a League asset. He should be a cultural icon.

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

Ultimately, the best way to lower your environmental impact is to buy less, buy better, use what you own, wash only when needed, and vote for ppl who will enact environmental policies. Reducing this discourse to natural=good, synthetic=bad can lead to worse purchases.

[Idv @Idv1337517]

Since this is the topic of discussion now because of a certain fanbase, these are ways Kendrick Lamar has given back to his community and his fans (a thread)

[Jas Johnson @jasminvests]

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but people absolutely do call San Francisco “Frisco” just not the parts y’all are in hahaha.

[Marc Randolph @marcrandolph]

I’m Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix & 6 other companies.

This is my definition of success:

[M @mgxmauve]

all the fun things u wanted to do as a child. im out here running, swimming and indoor climbing weekly. learning electric guitar. about to pick muay thai. maybe next year i’ll even do ballet bc why not, i can do it all!

[Terri Burns @tcburning]

just the beginning. now the real work begins.

[South Centraleño @IkeMoses]

it became respected. canonized. put on the pedestal of American classical music. removed from the ongoing conversation of black style and sensibility. made a static thing that no longer belonged to the people. sanitized. placed in glass. left pristine, unchanging, and lifeless.

[Eric Bahn 💛 @ericbahn]

I did exactly what this guy advocates below, and I regret it. Spent the last decade trying to rebuild my health, after triggering chronic illnesses from over indexing on work during my 20s…

[Morgan Cheatham, MD @morgancheatham]

what if prior auth was just back and forth diss tracks

[Tokamak @GrandTokamak]

Serious post

Reading about the FIG associate dying on the job, because he was working too hard really hits close to home

When I was an associate, a guy in my banking class committed suicide. The firm didn’t even acknowledge it, there was no media coverage and no support

[Ab-Soul @abdashsoul]

US, THEY ARE NOT LIKE.

[Jay Rock @jayrock]

“They not like us”

[Chef Anthony Thomas @ChefAnthonyDC]

It seems like Prince Georges County is worthy of unlimited Chick-fil-A’s Wawa’s Royal Farms and Arby’s, but not worthy enough for a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Sprouts or Balducci’s