One Good Thing, Snowflake madness and Levelling Up, Up, Up

The future ain’t what it used to be – Yogi Berra

Morning all! I shall quickly muse upon the passing of the ages and maybe even get very philosophical, we shall see. Regular readers will infer that my eldest son has departed to Uni…and I’m completely smacked of gob (sorry, inane, I know) because his self-cooked evening meals have consisted of chicken ramen, salmon teriyaki and breaded chicken. I think he’s ok food-wise! And, as they say, he’s definitely levelled up beyond my equivalent of beans on toast, cheese on toast and kebab a la mode.

Just One, Good Thing

So, I watched Just One Thing last night. The last series from Dr Michael Mosley, that lovely man who simplified the complexities of our health, popularised the 5:2 diet and given we’re all too busy to reorganise everything, pioneered that if we only have time for Just One Thing, then let it be a Good Thing. Last night, it was the cold shower. Start with 10 seconds and max out at 30 seconds, when you’re a pro. This morning, not 45mins ago, I wimped out. I damn well wimped out. I ran the water, I saw the water, I turned off the water. I missed my good thing.

Last week, I met with BlackRock, our team at NT, FundGuard, Calastone, Schroders, Exobrain and The Disruption House all by Tuesday. Some ‘run the bank’, some ‘change the bank’, some trying to skirt round the bank entirely.

The Mad Mad World of Snowflake.

On Thursday, I attended the Snowflake World Tour. Bonkers. Loads of data geeks with far too much facial hair and gadgets. Eye-opening. On one hand, there were some great talks with Schroders, JPM & Hastings on how they’ve leverage Snowflake but on the other hand, the longest queue of the day was for one of those ‘cuddly-toy-claw-grabber-machines’ to win a snowflake teddy bear. Skiing arcade games. A 30ft high, 50ft long death slide. Makes TSAM look a little pedestrian. Bonkers. There were scores of small vendors, Accenture, Deloitte & EY all riding the same quicker-faster-bigger-data wave, but if Snowflake is as successful as it claims, surely you just won’t need them.

And the other thing that struck me was that the traditional world of WAM will definitely be overtaken. WAM is built on two things: data and clients. All of those ETFs, funds and derivatives are made of data and parcelled up for those clients, wherever and whoever they may be. All that other stuff we currently rely on, give labels to and pay good money for, will slowly/quickly erode. Standing next to the 360-degree turntable-video-tinsel-balloon-popping stand at Snowflake, it all seemed inevitable.

Back to Levelling Up

My Friday was spent with IMPulse, Rimes, Fundipedia & more NT. More traditional, phew. But my week set me thinking. My son is a better man than I was. Dr Michael Mosley, with good humour, tried to educate us and present us with better choices. Whether you’re a fanboy or not, Snowflake is presenting & working hard to provide a better data future. They are all levelling up, sometimes with a grand plan of world domination, sometimes just muddling through, but always looking to the future and trying to get better.

Let’s put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children – Sitting Bull

That’s a group of people I love mixing with. Tomorrow, Michael, tomorrow I’ll get in that cold shower, I promise. Try hard & level up.

Have fun out there!

Audere est facere.