I have been working in venture capital since August of this year. Physically, it’s your pretty standard office job. I have a cubicle and sit at a desk all day. I haven’t been doing a great job of finding time to exercise, which has translated to me being the most out of shape I’ve ever been I think.

Here and there my back will be sore, which is expected since I barely move. This got me thinking, “sittings for years of my life may not be that great for my health”. One of the partners at the firm (around 35 years old) just tweaked his back doing ordinary chores and was out two weeks. He’s been sitting the 9-5 for at least 10 yeas. Hmmmm. This got me thinking, and googling. This is what I found.

If you’ve ever worked an office job, keep reading.

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

I’ve decided to update my about me section. For those who don’t know, I’ve been working in Sydney, Australia since August, 2011 for Boston University and Driftwood Capital. It’s been a great balance of gaining valuable work experience in venture capital and working the best job in the world as a senior RA for BU’s study abroad program.

In undergrad I founded my first startup, Hangchillparty. Built for the cracked-out social ecosystems of college dorms, it was an instant way of letting groups of friends know when you were free to socialize. This experience taught me keys to design, pitching to angels/VCs, and how to file patents.

I then worked as the Director of Marketing for two successful mobile development startups, Dokogeo and Retronyms. Dokogeo is a leader in geo-location with apps such as Dokogeo. They spoke at SXSW 2011 on the Future of Location Based Games Beyond Check-ins. Retronyms focuses on music production apps and has done work for companies such as Justin.TV and Adobe. I learned the power of utilizing social media to build cult followings that market products for you.

After my mobile stint I was then persuaded to join Kar.ma, a social marketplace for buying and selling goods for the benefit of charity. I saw why most startups don’t succeed and the pains of raising money with the team and product just isn’t there.

This instance helped me realize the importance of joining a startup with strong execution and a talented team. Before I left for Sydney, I spent some time at Grubwithus, the YC startup backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Ashton Kutcher, and more. To be surrounded by a team that hustled so hard showed me what dedication it really takes to build value.

If you’ve read this far, you may be wondering why I’ve hopped around so many companies. I’ve always had the goal of co-founding a startup of my own in the back of my mind, but to do this, a hodgepodge of startup experiences is important in understanding what has made companies succeed and fail.

My current gig in venture capital has shown my how to dark side thinks, which will come in useful when fundraising. Developing modest modelling skills to test out returns on different ventures doesn’t hurt either.

While browsing the latest hip hop album releases in Amazon, I stumbled upon the album below.

There comes a point where silliness becomes outrageousness and outrageousness becomes obsurd. After obsurd, that point just becomes a feeling of despair. I love the first two, but am disappointed when music hit the third.

Anyone who knows me understands I listen to rap and hip hop constantly. I don’t think N.W.A. should be reprimanded for their explicit lyrics, Jay-Z should be regarded as one of most talented musical artists of modern music, and Gucci Mane’s Lemonade is a song I enjoy listening to on repeat because of how catchy it is.

But the excessive flaunting of wealth in such an influential culture of our youths is crippling to see, especially in a world that is on the brink of collapse because of it.

Album covers like the one above exist all over hip hop and rap, but for some reason, this one pushed me over the edge.

Look at it. It’s the most obsurd album cover ever. It’s stupid. First off, the title of their album.

Ferrari Boyz

Are you so dumb that the most clever name you can come up must include a fast, fancy car? Gucci Mane & Waka Flocka Flame, may I ask the origin of this name? I’m just gona take a stab at it, but maybe you boyz rap about speeding in your Ferraris with attractive, supple females by your side as you point at your detailed rims with bottles of assorted champagnes by your side. Real artistic.

What scares me about this is how formulaic pockets of hip hop have become. There is no art in this whatsoever. It’s rude to judge a book by its cover, but not when the cover contains no thought or creativity at all.

Fancy Car + Shiny Bling + Word spelled incorrectly with Z replacing S = Awesome album cover!!!

Now, maybe the Ferrari Boyz are smarter than I think and are receiving an excessive amount of royalties from Gucci and Ferrari. That’s cool and pretty smart if so. But they must realize that they are crippling listeners with the most blunt forms of materialistic showmanship one can imagine.

Of course, I haven’t listened to this album, so I may be wrong. The Ferrari Boyz may not rap about how fly they. Maybe the album cover is a satire of those pockets of the hip hop industry. I hope so.

One of the reasons I love hip hop is how well it expresses the ego and individualism.  Great artists and songs can make you feel like the shit, which is a definite appeal to the genre. But there comes a point where it becomes obsurd and the content is so superficial that you have to slot Ferrari into the album title because you’ve already said it too much about fast fancy cars in your songs. This album has hit that point.