Apex Money Posts

I went to the Masters a few years back for one of the practice rounds and it’s absolutely beautiful there.

I bought a ton of souvenirs and even got autographs on a pin flag as the players did the Par 3 contest… so I know the allure pulling on this guy. Though he took it to a whole other very criminal level.

Masters treasures went missing, then the FBI showed up [Golf Digest] – “The first item the young man stole from Augusta National was a green and white golf towel. This was just after the 2007 Masters, when he had come to understand it was customary for warehouse employees to take one or two small things—a hat, a flag, a shirt, a mug emblazoned with the iconic club logo—from piles designated for destruction. The 22-year-old was a college dropout whose previous job was waiting tables at nearby West Lake Country Club.

So was set into motion the most brazen thefts the game has ever known.”

The office building in the hit Apple TV+ show Severance is real – it’s formerly Bell Labs in Holmdel, N.J., now Bell Works.

It’s a mixed use development with 2 million square feet.

The average in 2019 was 44.1 hours.

In 2024, it’s 42.9 hours.

(note both figures are over the “typical” 40)

Why Americans Are Working Less [Gallup] – “The decline in hours worked is more pronounced among younger (those younger than 35) than older workers (those aged 35 and older). Between 2019 and 2024, older employees have seen an average reduction of just under one hour per person per week, while younger employees have reduced their hours by nearly two hours.”

I really like Bill Perkins’ idea of “memory dividends.” We fill our life full of memories and experiences that continue to bring us happiness as we age. They’re memory dividends.

Six Ways to Thrive Before You Die [Wit & Wisdom with Tom Greene] – “A few years ago my wife’s best friend and mentor was diagnosed with terminal Cancer. On her death bed she looked deep into my wife’s eyes and said, “I have some advice for you.” After a dramatic pause, she whispered, “eat the fried chicken”.

My wife asked her why eating fried chicken was important.  She responded: “because you love fried chicken. And, when your days on this earth are numbered, you’re really going to wish you’d taken more time to enjoy the things you really love….like fried chicken”.“

There are a lot of good lessons in this post. Good reminders like this one – “The fullness of your life won’t be defined by the amount of money in your 401(k) or the kind of car you drive. After all, isn’t the point of making that money to create the flexibility to enjoy the things we love with the people we love? Figure out who and what you truly love and then go create some memories.”

I’ve never fainted but I’ve caught my daughter once at a festival and that was scary enough as it is.

One second she’s ok, the next she’s woozy and I can only imagine what would’ve happened if I wasn’t standing next to her.

I don’t know what it would be like if I had fainted instead.

Lawrence Yeo did. In front of his young daughter. And (temporarily) messed up his face. And he writes about it.

Everything Will Be Okay [More To That] – “The Buddha once broke down the distinction between pain and suffering through the analogy of two arrows. When we experience a setback or negative event, we are struck by the first arrow, which is pain. But shortly thereafter, we are then struck by a second arrow, which is our emotional reaction to that pain. This second arrow is where suffering is born, and while we can’t avoid the inevitably of pain, we have more control over whether we want to suffer as a result.”

Happy Monday.

Smart Nonsense is a fun email I get where they describe all types of things to you.

It’s quite entertaining and today’s covers how stores sell you more stuff:

How Stores Are Designed to Sell You More 🛒 [Smart Nonsense]

What happens when you find £3m in treasure?

What happens if you never got permission of the landowner to metal detect on their land?

Oops.

How two friends found £3m treasure and ended up in jail [BBC] – “”There was a lot of comments supporting George, saying he didn’t do anything wrong [and that] he shouldn’t have been in prison,” said local reporter Holly Morgan.

But what Ms Morgan did not immediately realise was that Powell, alongside his friend Layton Davies, had been convicted of stealing one of the biggest treasure finds in the history of the British Isles, worth £3m.”

The Last Decision by the World’s Leading Thinker on Decisions [The Wall Street Journal] – “I think Danny wanted, above all, to avoid a long decline, to go out on his terms, to own his own death. Maybe the principles of good decision-making that he had so long espoused—rely on data, don’t trust most intuitions, view the evidence in the broadest possible perspective—had little to do with his decision.”

I didn’t know that the Irish Pub Company has designed more than 2,000 pubs in over 100 countries…

The fun little opening story makes me wish we walked more places. (or more accurately, I wish we were able to walk to more places)

How the Irish Pub Became One of the Emerald Isle’s Greatest Exports [Smithsonian Magazine] – “But founder Mel McNally is not in the business of just shipping pub-in-a-box packages around the world. Each one is custom-designed to fit a specific space in collaboration with the local owner, who has creative control over the many, many, many details involved. The company’s stock-in-trade is not the Irish pub as a commodity; it’s the Irish pub as a vibe. You can’t sell the history and lore and memories intrinsic in a community’s longstanding institution. But you can sell the craftsmanship inextricably linked to a nation’s cultural legacy.”

Irish pub as a vibe. Gotta love it!

1. I did not know train heists still happened.
2. They do.
3. Ten heists occurred between March 2024 and January 2025 in California and Arizona.
4. They made off with millions of dollars of limited-edition Nikes.

Wow, right?

Experts Break Down the $2 Million Nike Train Heists [Outside] – “On February 23, the Los Angeles Times published a detailed report about ten train heists that occurred between March 2024 and January 2025 in California and Arizona. Thieves boarded freight trains operated by BNSF Railways, cut open the locks to shipping containers, and then tossed cargo off the side, where follow vehicles scooped up the loot.”