Last Sunday I went out in my backyard and thought, “Oh, smells like the neighbours are doing a backyard fire” and thought nothing of it further. The next morning when I was taking the kids to school it still smelled like the neighbours were doing a backyard fire. But still thought nothing of it. I finally put two and two together later in the week when I saw THIS map:

The whole world saw the wildfires in California a few years back and how those got to the point where it looked like it was literal hell on earth. But as crazy and abnormal as those wildfires were, it’s still expected that California has wildfires yearly. I don’t think anyone expected smoke from thousands of miles away in Ontario and Quebec to cover New York City.

Do we as Canadians owe Americans an apology for having our smoke float over to the US? Perhaps we need to build a wall…OK OK I won’t go there.

This week's issue is a 5 minute read:

🍎 Apple and their next status symbol

🤑 To tip or not to tip, that is the question

⚽️ Zlatan retires

Head(set) upgrade

Earlier this week your feeds were bombarded with Apple’s announcement about the Vision Pro and it’s $3499 price tag. Perhaps you saw the headlines and moved on. Or if you were like me, you scanned every possible Twitter post to validate that you weren’t crazy for doubting anyone would actually wear this thing.

Apple’s vision (pun intended) is that you can now wear a computer on your head and control actions through your voice and pinching(?) the air, enabling you to “seamlessly blend digital content with your physical space” - because if you weren’t buried in your phone or laptop enough, this will get you there. On the plus side our necks should be doing better not having to look down all the time.

Apple really wants to integrate mixed reality into your world. They had originally started doing this with their ARKit which allowed developers to build augmented reality apps on the iPhone. Besides Pokemon GO, name me an AR app that you actually found useful…or that you’re even aware of for that matter?

The idea with the Vision Pro is that Apple wants us to become even more immersed in the content we consume where it can be part of our everyday life. However the one piece they’re missing is that everyday life does not involve wearing ski goggles on your head all day long…unless well, you’re skiing. BUTTHATSBESIDETHEPOINT. Right now the true use case seems to be for gaming and maybe healthcare?

I highly doubt these expensive-ass devices will become part of your daily tech portfolio - just look at Google Glass, Oculus, Hololens, PS VR2 to see where this device is headed.

How much do I tip?

Is the question most commonly asked at a restaurant according to no study at all - but let’s be honest, what else is being asked/thought of when the bill arrives? We live in a part of the world where tipping is ingrained in our wallets. More often than not we tip (to some degree) for the service at a restaurant. But how much should you be leaving is the question. By the way, don’t you hate when they give you the options already and the lowest option is nowhere near what you would even attempt to tip them? Yeah - me too.

The BBC recently did a little summary of tipping around the world and here are some of the conclusions they arrived at, which you may already be familiar with but allow me to explain in my own way.

Firstly, you DO NOT tip in Japan. They pride themselves on exceptional service and to give them more money at the end of the service is considered insulting. You’re basically saying, “This wasn’t good enough, let me give you more money because you are struggling to do your job properly”. There’s this weird moment in Japan and Hong Kong for that matter where they come back with the little book thing that they put the cheque in and you take all of the change inside and hand them back book thing empty. Imagine doing that in North America!

In Egypt you tip but you do it in a way that allows you to do other things. In a sort of pay it forward type of system, tipping unlocks things for you like a sectioned off bathroom or access to an attraction that you would otherwise not be able to see. I like this because if you’re going to pay people off while you’re travelling, do it in a way that makes it more comfortable for yourself.

Another interesting example where tipping isn’t customary is Denmark but this is for a completely different reason. Their GDP is so good that people make enough money in service-based jobs resulting in tipping not really being needed. Imagine that, being a server at a restaurant and actually being paid a great wage.

In the US apparently the norm is now 20-25% but inflation hit us all, 20-25% sounds insane to me. I do the typical 15% and reduce it to 10% or even lower if the service was miserable. Don’t get me started on places that ask for a tip when you’re picking up takeout food!

Zlatan Ibrahimović has retired

OK - this may be the part where you stop reading if you could care less about European football - which is why I saved this for last. But I’ll have you know, Zlatan Ibrahimović was one of the best footballers to ever play the game. Given Zlatan comes from Sweden where individualism is considered undesirable, Zlatan did the complete opposite, embracing being an immigrant in Sweden and becoming one the more outspoken and flashier players on soccer pitches around the world.

I could go on and on about all of his scoring accolades and league titles but what you really need to know is this guy had a personality bigger than the Messi’s and Ronaldo’s of the world. I mean, who else takes out a full page spread in a newspaper to let the city know they’ve arrived.

Even though I know I’m not doing Zlatan justice, partially because this isn’t a newsletter solely about soccer or sports, I’ll leave you with one of his craziest goals that he scored against Toronto FC not that long ago that just so happened to also be his 500th career goal. If this guy was on the field you knew he was going to do something interesting - it made the game so much more fun to watch.