There are certain skills in life that you probably should’ve live without. Things like learning to tie your shoelaces, learning to swim, and being able to tell time on an analog clock come to mind. And for some that list runs much deeper. For me it also includes knowing how to shuck an oyster. Truth is I taught myself the same way we all learn these days - YouTube videos. And with an oyster loving wife, it could be quite possibly the most valuable skill I’ve learned to date.

Aside from my ability to put together a random newsletter every week.

These days I can shuck oysters with the best of them. Why go out and pay $3/oyster when you can buy your own and pay $1 or less per oyster and eat them in the comfort of your home. BUT, what if I told you you may want to second guess eating oysters at all. I know, I’m sorry to those who love oysters.

It turns out with the oceans getting warmer each year, a potentially deadly bacteria found in oysters called Vibrio Vulnificus is thriving, staying alive longer in warmer conditions. The longer the waters stay warmer than usual, the more likely oysters are to hang on to the bacteria. For humans this means potential illness ranging from nausea and diarrhea to extreme blood infections that could lead to limb amputations or even death. Bruh - as I read about this my life flashed before my eyes.

There are alternatives to eating raw oysters - you can cook them. But then that may defeat the purpose of why you eat oysters in the first place. It’s only a matter of time until we see a Russian Roulette Tik Tok trend with oysters.

This week's issue is a 4 minute read:

🤑 The salary wars

🎟️ A billion dollar ball

📺️ Netflix’s gains

S&P 500 CEO’s are underpaid

Just when you thought you weren’t making enough at your job, I’m here to tell you, you’re still right. In fact, I’m about to make it a whole lot worse for you. If you thought not being able to eat oysters was bad, wait til you hear about what’s becoming the salary wars between corporate jobs, the NBA, and a newfound player in the game - streamers. Yes, you read that correct, streamers are making LeBron James money now for showing up on camera and talking about nonsense.

To put things in perspective, the average player in the NBA now currently makes around $9M/season, which is nuts. Whereas the average S&P 500 CEO makes $18M/year, which is also nuts. Meanwhile in the streaming world, we have now started to see some serious money thrown around to creators who basically live in front of a camera sitting on a gamer chair.

The latest streaming platform, Kick, has lured over some of the biggest streamers in the world and is paying them top dollar. For example streamer xQc signed a non-exclusive deal with Kick for a reported 2 year $100M contract - yes that is more than what LeBron makes. Check out a full list of some of the biggest deals here.

Kick was created by the online gambling mega site, Stake, so that creators could stream themselves freely gambling on Stake. This is how Kick has been able to lure major creators like Adin Ross and RiceGum over to the platform - pull money from the casino business and put pro athlete-type contracts in front of them. A casino taking funds to fund other ventures, hmmm. In summary, another reason to ask yourself, “what am I doing with my life?

Did you win that $1B Powerball jackpot?

No you didn’t, because you’re probably Canadian. That said, the winning ticket was sold in a Los Angeles convenience store. And as much as it sounds pretty cool to win ONE BILLION DOLLARS, the winner chooses between a pay out spread across 30 years or a one time lump sum of $516.8 million, which then gets taxed at 24% leaving the winner with $392.76 million. WHICH IS STILL PRETTY COOL.

The woman below went to the convenience store to thank the owners for allegedly selling her the winning ticket and all hell broke loose. Technically she needs to go to the state lottery customer service center to claim the prize, which would’ve been the first thing I did the morning after I knew I won. Then again, I’ve never won hundreds of millions of dollars so perhaps my thought would be to do the same thing she does below too?

No more password sharing? No problem

Netflix’s recent gains were more surprising than a 16 yr old who joined the gym for the first time. After not allowing me to use my parent’s password to stream (I have a workaround though!) Netflix surprisingly beat analysts expectations with a gain of 5.9 million new subscribers. This means close to 6 million new people or just people who decided to give up and pay for the service now get the fun experience of scrolling forever looking for something to watch before they land on an episode of The Office.

In all seriousness, in the very uncertain film and TV industry these numbers shine very bright for Netflix. However, now that basically the entire industry is on strike it will be interesting to see what happens as employees of the industry want a cut on streaming revenues. The catch is in order for employees to be compensated fairly off of streaming revenues, official streaming numbers would need to be leaked somewhere, which has typically been a giant black hole, even for the people who make the content. And I don’t know about you but something tells me Netflix would not be proud to share their streaming numbers for the new Black Mirror season.

Surprise Weekend Extras

In the spirit of surprises here’s a YouTube dump of things that I frequently watch, unlike Netflix. (I don’t know why I’m sh*tting so much on Netflix today 🤷‍♂️ )

I love Japan. There’s actually a lot of content creators that I follow from Japan but here’s the first that came up for me in my feed. Like me, you also may know a bunch of people going to Japan this year - or you’re just going yourself. Check out Paolo’s stuff - it’s like a video version of a Lonely Planet Japan guide.

If you’re from Toronto you probably already know who this is but if you aren’t check out Master Chef / Iron Chef Sursur Lee. His son Jet produces all of his content and it’s all super enjoyable to watch.

I somehow stumbled across JiDion last year before he really blew up. If you’re looking for a laugh and don’t care how you get it, watch his stuff. He’s famous for prank videos but his pranks tend to be these innocent things that get blown way out of proportion - like sleeping front row at a WNBA game 😆 

And lastly I watch this man religiously. He’s hilarious and very informative around real estate. Ben Mallah’s show looks like something you would watch on Discovery or A&E, which is a compliment to its production and story. Or just the simple fact that he’s a loud mouthed New Yorker living in Florida may be enough for you (it is for me!).