Jack's March 2024 Recap

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Welcome back to my monthly update! As a reminder, at the end of each month, I’ll send a few brief updates about what I’ve been working on/thinking about, as well as links to any interesting books/content I’ve read, watched, or listened to over the last month. Let’s get started.

General Update

A few updates, but first, a request! I just made a new Instagram page to better distribute my blog content, as well as everything that I’ll be publishing with Sherwood (my new employer, Robinhood’s media arm) to a broader audience. If you’re on Instagram, do me a favor and follow my new page, @jackraineswrites, to help me kick-start this thing. If you click the link via iPhone, you may have to go through Safari, then select open in app.

Many thanks, now on to the bigger updates.

One of my favorite parts of Columbia Business School is our “CBS Matters” tradition, where students have the opportunity to share their personal stories with their classmates. I turned 27 on Monday, and I figured that between celebrating another trip around the sun with some of my favorite people and approaching the end of my time in school, it was time for me to do a CBS Matters. After some reflecting, I shared my story with close to 100 classmates yesterday.

I forget, sometimes, that people that I’m close to now may only know small fragments of my life from before we met. It was cool taking my friends and classmates through my background, and it was fun for me to look back on my journey. In related news, I think I should write a proper piece on my takeaways after two years in business school.

Back to the birthday stuff. 27 is an interesting year. I think I’m now firmly in my late 20s, even though I don’t physically feel much different from 26, or, for that matter, 25. This is also, in some ways, an ending of a chapter. I got into business school in 2019 through a deferred enrollment program at 22, so for the last 5 years, I’ve had a bit of a blueprint: ~three years of work/travel before business school, two years of school, then the rest of your life. I’m now a month away from “the rest of your life” part, and I’m okay with that. I have had, without a doubt, the most fun early to mid-20s possible, and I came out on the other side with a fantastic job that I love. I’ll take that all day.

In case you missed last month’s update, I started working for Sherwood Media, a new media venture launched by Robinhood. Our new site is going live soon, and you’ll see me publishing more markets and business content shortly. Working with editors and other writers has been a new, but interesting experience thus far, and having someone else review my work has done wonders for the quality. Related, if you’re a writer (freelance or full-time), and you’re interested in working with us, shoot me an email.

And, most importantly, my Spanish proficiency has improved notably over the last month. I’ve been taking 1 on 1 lessons on italki, a site where you can schedule foreign language lessons with people from all over the world, and I was able to chitchat with two of my Colombian and Argentinian friends without codeswitching back to English mid-convo. I have come to realize that, unfortunately, the only thing preventing my improvement was a lack of focus on my part. There’s something to that.

- Jack

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