Welcome to Z-Pack - because your brain could use a good scrubbing.

If this is your first Z-Pack, welcome - I'm Zach.

I’m chronically online, finding out how the world works.

⬇️ Let’s get it.

🤗 The definition of happiness

The great Daniel Kahneman passed away recently. He was a pioneer behind behavioral economics - making economists rethink how people don’t always behave rationally or choose what makes the most sense for them.

Based on his research, he found that most people experienced the height of their happiness in remembering, not actually experiencing.

🧬 The truth about cancer

Our World in Data out here with another banger 💥

Despite lots of talk these days about rising cancer rates in younger people, countries like the U.S. have experienced a major decline in the cancer death rate since 1990 - a roughly 40% decline.

There’s lots of work to do still, but I hope you’re as optimistic as I am with the tech breakthroughs happening with mRNA vaccines (like vaccines for cancer!) and CRISPR (gene-editing).

It looks like the next 5-10 years with tech innovation are gonna be nuts.

🇮🇳 The country that will rule the world

If you haven’t heard, the progress of India since 2000 has been 🍌’s

• massive expansion of Internet access

• huge decrease in poverty and inequality

• big increase in solar power

• improving air quality

• increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, as more companies transition their manufacturing from totalitarian China to neighboring democratic countries like India (safer and cheaper)

Guess how much electric rail the U.S. has?

… nearly 0%. 

💸 The cost of investing

Did you know that when you invest in stuff, like index funds, they charge you a fee?

The percents look pretty low/insignificant, but we’re talking about Warren Buffett’s true love - compound interest.

Look at what happens in the graph below -

What looks like a small number actually costs you a TON of money over time, in this case 20 years, leading to massively different outcomes.

In the graph above, you have three people who made the same initial investment, but the one who was charged 0.3% in fees had an investment worth $100,000 more than the person who was charged 2.3% in fees, after 20 years.

I love index funds just as much as the next guy, but avoid fees that charge more than 1%.

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.