# Birthday Gifts

**Last week I turned 28.** I recently discovered that my health
insurance allows me to get 30 free massages a year from my
chiropractor's office. So on the morning of my birthday, I decided to
take them up on that. I had been to the office before. My doctor, Samuel
Tarrant, was a spry older man. He told me to take care of myself because
he was over 50, and felt great. He looked like he was in late 30s and
would bounce off the walls and ask me about my week and check in on
me—basically everything you'd want from a doctor. But when I visited the
office that morning, I was greeted by another doctor, a younger woman.\
\
"Where's Dr. T?" I asked. Her expression went blank. "He passed away,"
she said, emotionless from a month's worth of grieving. "Hit and run. He
was my buddy, and it's honestly been really tough around here lately."
Dr. Tarrant was visiting his sister in N.J. when a driver struck him
exiting the bus. [He died a few days
later](http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/northjersey/obituary.aspx?pid=172264239).
The guy who hit him [had
his](http://www.northjersey.com/news/mahwah-man-faces-new-charges-after-ramsey-hit-and-run-victim-dies-1.1075760)
[license](http://www.northjersey.com/news/mahwah-man-faces-new-charges-after-ramsey-hit-and-run-victim-dies-1.1075760)
[suspended multiple times
before](http://www.northjersey.com/news/mahwah-man-faces-new-charges-after-ramsey-hit-and-run-victim-dies-1.1075760). I'm
not going to act like I was particularly close to the doctor I only saw
occasionally. But to hear about the death of a perfectly healthy man on
the morning of your birthday granted me (and, in turn, I hope you) some
perspective. I know you didn't know Dr. T, but if you'd like to do
something good and are feeling charitable, his family is asking for
[donations to the Fender Music
Foundation](https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/fendermusicfoundation).
When you donate, there's a little space where you can write Dr.
Tarrant's name. \
\
And now, the links.\
\
**Chris Rock once said "Shaquille O'Neal is rich. But the man who signs
his checks is *wealthy*.** Well, Larry Ellison is *freakin' wealthy*.
Dude just purchased an entire island with 3,200 residents. How's that
work? Well, [it's
complicated](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/magazine/larry-ellison-island-hawaii.html).\
\
As editor of 99U, it's my job to find actionable advice from successful
people. But lately I've grown fatigued with the odd hero worship that
happens in lazy, click baity, lifehacky articles like "8 lessons to be
learned from insert-famous-person-here." Thus, my latest: [The Narrative
Fallacy: Why You Shouldn't Copy Steve
Jobs](http://99u.com/articles/32521/the-narrative-fallacy-only-idiots-copy-steve-jobs).\
\
**"The 1%" isn't some intractable group of pseudo-royalty** that will
never be breached by us mere peons. Surprisingly, 12% of the population
will find themselves in the top 1% for at least a year and a 73% of us
will spend a year in the top 20%. That's straight from the IRS. So lets
[stop acting like this is an "us vs. them"
thing](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/from-rags-to-riches-to-rags.html?_r=1).
**Related**: 27% of first time home buyers [receive help form their
parents](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-19/mom-and-dad-banks-step-up-aid-to-first-time-home-buyers.html).
That's lower than I expected. \
\
**The Guardian [starts accepting "members" as a revenue
stream](https://membership.theguardian.com/)**. Events are the way
forward for monetizing content. \
\
**Today in absolutely ridiculous essays**: Writer leaves town. Writer
returns, discovers a new sports bar on her street. Writer writes: "I was
horrified ... [because the bro element had invaded my
neighborhood](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/12/sports-bar-women-no-bro-zone)."
That faint crashing sound you hear is me flipping a table.\
\
**James Victore is one of my favorite people** and I'd even watch him if
he were just reading ingredients from a box of cereal. But for now,
we'll settle with [his analysis of signs throughout Queens and
Brooklyn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnhBgpd0y1Q).\
\
**Building a community online through content is much easier when you
have comments enabled** on your articles. But there's a budding movement
[to remove comments from the web all
together](http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/why-were-shutting-our-comments).
A look at some sites reveals the dregs of humanity in the comments
section (hi YouTube!). My take? Thoughtful content and a narrow niche
are the elements that create great discussion. If you're a "general
interest" site or are just pumping out clickbait, no comments. But if
two lines from me in a newsletter doesn't satisfy your desire to learn
every freakin' thing you possibly could about comments, [API has you
covered](http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/strategy-studies/choose-commenting-platform/single-page/).\
\
**On the internet, fame is something that happens to you**. So what
happens when the internet famous stop being a person and start becoming
a symbol? Jason Kottke, explores being internet famous and how common
dynamics [change the moment we have a
"public."](http://kottke.org/14/09/this-is-phil-fish) **Related:** [The
business of hating Kanye
West](http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/the-business-of-hating-kanye-west/).
What we choose to "get outraged about" says a lot about ourselves. (*h/t
[Sasha VanHoven](https://twitter.com/sashavanhoven)*)\
\
**Startups are hard. Business is hard.** And rarely is someone in the
trenches willing to give us real talk about how hard it can all be. You
should read Rand Fishkin's gripping essay on [having depression as the
CEO of
Moz](http://moz.com/rand/long-ugly-year-depression-thats-finally-fading/).\
\
**We romanticize the small company that makes a physical good.**
We often marvel that only a few people can run a business making iPad
cases. Or jewelery. Or furniture. But often there's a entire ecosystem
that supports businesses like these. [Why do we always forget about the
factory
workers](http://quietbabylon.com/2014/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-making/)?\
\
You're awesome,\
--Sean\
\
P.S. 99U Conference ticketing is now open. It's 4/29-5/1 in NYC. [You
should apply](http://conference.99u.com).