004 Newsletter - Jan 31, 2026

Frigid Weather and Snow

We had a LOT of snow this past week, not only on the East Coast, but even more snow is predicted this weekend in places like the Carolinas which are not accustomed to snow. A co-worker told me there was a sheet of ice in Dallas, Texas. I saw reports of snow in the Florida Panhandle. I'm so glad that my son is available to shovel the snow, which is too much for an electric snow blower.

TCL buys 51% stake in Sony TV

As mentioned before, I watch a lot of YouTube on two of our three TCL TV's, which are the inspirations for my blog posts. Often at 3 a.m., I am in the living room letting the YouTube algorithm serve me videos on our 50-inch TV in the living room. At 5 a.m., I watch 45 minutes of YouTube on a 49-inch TV in the basement while walking on the treadmill.

TCL is a little known budget Chinese brand where these mid sized TV sets can cost as little as $300. I bought them because they include Roku, which make it easy to stream from an iPhone or iPad, and to watch any number of internet Video channels.

The surprising news for me this week was that TCL bought a 51% stake in Sony TV, and they will be marketing the SONY Bravia TV brand. I remember when the premium Sony Bravia TVs were amongst the most expensive TV's available about 15 years ago.

Gemini as my second brain

The new Gemini tab in Chrome lets me easily locate videos I've watched in the past. In this post I also discuss two other cool use cases of NotebookLM.

What is UX Design?

In the post The Magic of UX Design, I share some findings from a 42Courses course I took in 2024, as well, as some tips from recent YouTube videos watched.

In creating a TikTok dance video, I share how easy it is to create this type of video. Copyright restrictions might prevent it from playing in certain countries though it presently works in the US.

In the blog post Deep Work, I discuss my key takeaway from Cal Newport's book of the same name.

In stop hiring humans, I reflect on a "Diary of a CEO" interview I saw and reminisce over some images from my trip to San Francisco last year.

Blueprint for Clarity is a blog post with some tips for reporting analysts to get better results for the work they do.

Two books I read last week were unfortunately not that impactful to me 😦

In "Suez to the Supermarket," I discuss how inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the dollar, and how diversification can help.

This week also saw the birthdays of the two of my newsletter subscribers, both of who are bloggers and inspired me to start blogging. Elizabeth's birthday was three days ago, and Medha's birthday is today.

That's all for this week...