Hey there Reader,
I know I missed the last two weeks' newsletter issues. Truth is, I just wasn't quite in the head-space to write the newsletter, between some personal life stuff and just feeling really busy all of a sudden.
But I'm back this week. We got some big crypto news, market analysis for GPU companies, and a big update on my career (the next step in become a "Professional Tinkerer").
Last week saw the long-awaited "Merge" for Ethereum which has officially transitioned the blockchain from its former GPU-powered proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a much more efficient proof-of-stake system.
Many have been surprised to see ETH's price decline post-merge, going from roughly $1,750 right before the merge to $1,250 today.
Here are my feelings on why this happened:
The broader crypto market is down as well, along with more inflation concerns and broader bearish economic sentiment, so ETH is certainly not alone, but no doubt there are many unhappy ETH holders right now...
Okay bear with me here, cause I'm going to get a little nerdy. If you're a PC gamer or into crypto, chances are you're well aware of the Great GPU Shortage of 2020/21. For those who aren't, when Nvidia released the 3000 series of GPUs and AMD released their 6000 series GPUs, both in 2020, they were immediately fully bought out. And then for the rest of 2020 and all of 2021, it was nearly impossible to purchase a GPU due to crazy high demand and lagging supply lines.
Well, it seems unlikely that this is going to happen again. Nvidia just announced their next-generation 4000 series GPUs which seem to come with a significant performance boost and a much more significant price increase over the 3000 series MSRPs. No word from AMD on their next-generation cards, but I would expect a similar trend from them too.
But it's not just the significantly higher prices (looks like $400-500 more expensive, in some cases nearly doubling the price of the previous gen comparatives). The move of Ethereum to PoS has made crypto mining essentially obsolete: yes, there are some other blockchains that are still based on GPU mining, but ETH was by far carrying the mining market. Combine the lack of mining demand with the higher prices and you have a recipe for significantly less GPU sales than the last generation, and I would not be expecting a GPU supply crunch like we did last time.
And a little cherry on top: EVGA, one of the largest GPU manufacturers for Nvidia GPUs, has decided to stop working with Nvidia entirely. You can read more about it in that article if you want, but EVGA's GPUs make up the vast majority of their sales, so this move is quite surprising to say the least.
It might be a decent time to snap up NVDA or AMD shares in the next year or two as they go through a little dip in business for now. Their products will always be valuable, and while I suspect they'll go through a little lull in their stock price for now, they'll come roaring back eventually.
My time out of Corporate America has been some of the best weeks of my life. I want to make this a permanent lifestyle and lean into the Professional Tinkerer career that I've mentioned before. In order to do that, I obviously need to make an income.
So to do that, I'm starting to offer consulting services. Initially, I'm focusing on building what I call "Digital Growth Platforms" for personal service businesses (think dance studios, fitness studios, healthcare services, educators, or subscription services). Essentially, I'm helping these businesses build a scalable technological basis using existing market software + some custom software + a custom website to help them acquire customers easier, convert more effectively, and increase lifetime value of existing and new customers.
So, if you run a business like this or know someone who does, send me an email at me@millansingh.com (or reply to this newsletter).
Most of the work I've been doing over the last 3 weeks has been related to this new consulting path. I've let my work on this newsletter/my writing as well as Odaat lay on the wayside in the meantime.
I hope to find a better balance in time, but I'm likely to continue prioritizing the consulting work, with my writing/audience-building being a secondary priority. I don't know if I'll have time to prioritize Odaat much, so that's sort of in the air right now.
But once I get the consulting work rolling, we'll have to see how my time ends up getting split. Right now, I've been doing a lot of prep work and getting started on my first project which I hope to share with you all soon.
So I'm going to keep this short this week, but hope to have more to share next week.
That's all for this issue. Thanks for reading, and you'll see me in your inbox again soon! If I can ask you to do just one thing, consider sharing this newsletter with a friend or family member. Here's the link so you can pass it along: https://aherosjourney.co/. |
I'm writing about my journey to build, learn, and grow as a Creative Entrepreneur and Software Engineer. Stories about my job (I'm employee #2 at a seed-stage startup), entrepreneurial work, investing (a personal passion), and personal growth—a blend of professional and personal content.
A Hero's Journey Sunday, May 11, 2025 Hey there Reader, Digital hygiene has been top-of-mind for me since the start of the year, and after a couple of weeks of research, I made my first big purchase of the year and the single biggest change to my computer habits, probably ever. I bought an ergonomic split keyboard called the ZSA Voyager. And in the process of purchasing my new keyboard, I learned that ZSA also sold a very well-made, premium set of playing cards (actually two sets that come...
A Hero's Journey Sunday, May 11, 2025 Hey there Reader, I'm going to take a break from PushBrand this week (except for another development screenshot and small development update towards the end of this issue) and instead focus on the title topic of AI, or as I like to say, "AI" (cause the name is perhaps the misnomer of the century). You've undoubtedly heard a lot about AI in recent months (years), with many predictions of doom and gloom on the near horizon. I'm here to tell you that it's...
A Hero's Journey Sunday, May 11, 2025 Hey there Reader, Hold on a minute. This can't be right. Am I actually writing another issue of A Hero's Journey one week after the last one??? No, that can't be. Let's see, the last issue was published on—checks notes—July 3rd, 2023...and today is...July 10th, 2023. Huh, imagine that... All jokes aside, it has been far too long since I last published two issues back-to-back, and it feels good to do it again. I don't want to jinx myself, but maybe I can...