Christian Reuben

Entrepreneur & Adviser

[Omobola Johnson @OmobolaJohnson]

Today there was a raging fire in a plastics factory next to my brother in law's printing press. I want to commend the LASG fire service...they worked relentlessly to put the fire out....firemen were exhausted but kept on working....tax payers money at work @jidesanwoolu

[Blain Crain @Blain_Crain]

ESPN definitely didn’t want this answer

[World of Statistics @stats_feed]

First product:

🇯🇵 Sony → Rice Cooker
🇫🇮 Nokia → Toilet Paper
🇰🇷 Samsung → Grocery store
🇩🇰 Lego → Wooden Toys
🇯🇵 Nintendo → Playing Cards
🇺🇸 Nike → Track Shoes
🇮🇹 Lamborghini → Tractor
🇺🇸 Colgate → Soap and Candles
🇸🇪 IKEA → Pens
🇰🇷 LG → Facial Cream
🇺🇸 Tiffany & Co → Stationary
🇯🇵 Toyota → Automatic Loom
🇺🇸 Amazon → Online Bookstore
🇺🇸 Apple → Apple Computer I
🇺🇸 Google → Search Engine
🇺🇸 Intel → Memory Chip
🇩🇪 BMW → Aircraft Engine
🇯🇵 Canon → Camera
🇺🇸 Coca-Cola → Syrup
🇺🇸 Ford → Quadricycle
🇺🇸 Harley-Davison → Racer Motorcycle
🇺🇸 HP → Audio Oscillator
🇯🇵 Honda → Bicycle Auxiliary Engine
🇫🇷 L'Oreal → Hair Dye
🇫🇷 Renault → Renault Voiturette 1CV
🇺🇸 Hoover → Leather Products
🇺🇸 McDonalds → Hot Dogs
🇺🇸 Pixar → Image Computer
🇨🇭 Nestle → Baby Formula
🇺🇸 Wrigley → Soap & Baking Powder

[Innoson Vehicles @innosonvehicles]

Made in NiGERiA. #InnosonVehicles

[BudgIT Nigeria @BudgITng]

4 key messages for @officialABAT Government.

📌 Fiscal discipline & responsible use of public resources.
📌 Productivity
📌 Support a private sector driven economy
📌 Unity: Nigeria silently fragments. He must demonstrate uniting leadership. - @seunonigbinde

#WhatsNextNigeria

[Bola Ahmed Tinubu @officialABAT]

This is the proudest day of my life. But this day does not belong to me. It belongs to you, the people of Nigeria.

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

Noise really hurts detailed work. With a little noise software engineers find fewer bugs, productivity drops, & many tasks are disrupted.

But moderate noise may help creativity by disrupting your thinking! It makes it harder to think, but that may actually prompt new ideas.

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

A lot of people are asking about music. The results there are not 100% clear, but recent studies have found a negative impact on complex and creative tasks.

No difference if the 🎶 was instrumental, foreign language, or a particular genre. Silence or low-level noise was best.

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

Noise is a secret destroyer of productivity.

It is secret because it impacts cognition, not effort, so we don’t notice, but a 10db noise increase (from a dishwasher to a vacuum) lowers productivity by 5%. Noise is also greater in poorer neighborhoods... https://t.co/RaIAsSudyY

[Timothy Keller (1950-2023) @timkellernyc]

Timothy J. Keller, husband, father, grandfather, mentor, friend, pastor, and scholar died this morning at home. Dad waited until he was alone with Mom. She kissed him on the forehead and he breathed his last breath. We take comfort in some of his last words...

[Paul Graham @paulg]

@engineers_feed That those who disagree with them are evil.

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

In the back of a comedy club, a struggling comedian got a chance to talk to Jerry Seinfeld.

He said he’d been struggling and sacrificing for about 10 years to “make it” as a comedian. Approaching his 30s, he was worried he’d taken the wrong path.

Seinfeld gave him this advice:

“This [pointing at the stage] is such a special thing,” Seinfeld says. “This has nothing to do with ‘making it.’”

“But did you ever stop and compare your life?” the struggling comedian says. “I see my friends, and they’re making a lot of money. They’re moving up. They’re all married. They’re all having kids. They have houses. They have a sense of normality.”

Seinfeld makes a disgusted face and then says, “let me tell you a story. This is my favorite story about show business.”

“Glenn Miller's orchestra is doing a gig...They can't land the plane because it's winter, a snowy night—they have to land in this field and walk to the gig.

They're dressed in their suits. They’re carrying their instruments. They’re walking through the snow—it's wet and slushy.

And in the distance they see this little house…They go up to the house and look in the window.

Inside they see this family.

There's a guy and his wife—she’s beautiful. There's two kids, and they're all sitting around the table. They’re smiling. They're laughing. There's a fire in the fireplace...

These guys are standing there in their suits. They're wet and shivering, holding their instruments, and they're watching this incredible Norman Rockwell scene.

And one guy turns to another guy and goes, 'How do people live like that?'

That's what it's about.”

Takeaway 1:

Comparison, it is said, is the thief of joy.

James Altucher has written about a cure for comparison.

Usually, when we compare ourselves to someone, we compare ourselves to a select few aspects of their life (their house, their good looks, or their professional success, etc.).

Instead, James writes, “picture that you can change places in every way with them. But then it’s forever...Would you do it.”

Usually—as Seinfeld’s story illustrates—the answer is…no, you wouldn’t want their whole life.

Takeaway 2:

One of the differences between Seinfeld and the struggling comedian is the way in which they view comedy.

The struggling comedian sees comedy as a means to some end—there’s some amount of money or celebrity that would make him feel like he “made it.”

For Seinfeld, comedy is an end in itself. “[It] has nothing to do with ‘making it,’” as he said.

For Seinfeld, as Ryan Holiday once told me, “The work is the win.”

- - -

“The set I get to do tonight at 7:20 PM is the win. I get to do comedy—I won. It being predicated on doing X or being bigger than Y—no, no, no. To me, it’s always just been about the work. I’m on house money, full-time.” — Hasan Minhaj

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Eyemark @EyemarkNG]

Federal Secretariat Ikoyi:

This abandoned 15-storey building in the heart of Lagos was once the site of bustling government activity. Today, it stands as a haunting reminder of what happens when development is derailed.

[Eyemark @EyemarkNG]

Rivers Monorail Project:

A dream of modern transportation, this ₦50B 12km monorail project in Rivers State, abandoned after just 2.6km and a whopping ₦33.9B spent, now serves as a reminder of the challenges of infrastructure development in Nigeria.

[Eyemark @EyemarkNG]

Ajaokuta Steel Complex:

A monument to what could have been, a symbol of Nigeria's unrealized industrial potential. Despite a budget increase from $650M to $8B, no steel has been produced in over 40 years.

There have been talks of recent to revive the project under concession.

[Eyemark @EyemarkNG]

Nigeria has over 11,000 abandoned government projects worth over N7Tr. Despite the enormous resources allocated to these projects, they have been abandoned, leaving behind half-built structures, idle machinery, and wasted resources.

Let us explore some of them.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

I grew up in a lower, transitioning to upper, middle income situation, but did not have a happy childhood. Haven’t inherited anything ever from anyone, nor has anyone given me a large financial gift.

My father created a small electrical/mechanical engineering company that was successful for 20 to 30 years, but it fell on hard times. He has been essentially bankrupt for about 25 years, requiring financial support from my brother and me.

That said, he does deserve credit for teaching me the fundamentals of physics, engineering and construction, which is more valuable than money, but did not support me financially after high school in any meaningful way.

Our condition of providing him financial support was that he not engage in bad behavior. Unfortunately, he nonetheless did. There are young children involved, so we continued to provide financial support for their well-being.

Regarding the so-called “emerald mine”, there is no objective evidence whatsoever that this mine ever existed. He told me that he owned a share in a mine in Zambia, and I believed him for a while, but nobody has ever seen the mine, nor are there any records of its existence.

If this mine was real, he would not require financial support from my brother and me.

[Chatham House @ChathamHouse]

Despite the promise of technology and legislation, Nigeria’s contested elections have resulted in mistrust and revealed deepening divides, write @HassanIdayat and Alex Vines (@AfricaProg). https://t.co/z3fQT9Xqq5

[Peter Obi @PeterObi]

A while ago, I spoke with my brother, Dr. Alex Otti @alexottiofr, the Governor-elect of Abia State and heartily congratulated him on his election. I am gratified that the will and wish freely expressed by the Abia electorates have been respected.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

I’m sure it will be fine