Welcome to Constantly Curious, Edition #23!

This week at a glance:

• The Wild World of Modern Day Roller Coasters

• Can’t Miss Links of the Week 🔥

• Are All “Hard Things” Worthwhile?

• Three (3) Quotes/Thoughts

If this is your first time reading - welcome! Let your curiosity run wild with us every Thursday at 12pm EST.

With that said, let’s get into it -

The Wild World of Modern Roller Coasters

Did you know that the WORLD’S TALLEST Roller Coaster is located in New Jersey at Six Flags Great Adventure?

This past weekend, for the first time in over a decade, I went and rode it - and it was just as amazing as I remember. If you’ve never ridden Kingda Ka and want to experience what it feels like - click this…

Kingda Ka launches you 456 feet in the air, and goes 0 - 128 mph in 3.5 seconds. There’s nothing quite like it anywhere else.

This experience got me thinking - what are the BEST roller coasters in the world? That question brought me here…

Captain Coaster, the preeminent authority in coaster rankings, has reviews and rankings for nearly every Roller Coaster in the world - and THOUSANDS of rider reviews.

Here are the Top 5 in the USA, along with POV ride footage of just what it’s like to ride these beasts…

1. Steel Vengeance (Cedar Point, Ohio)

2. Iron Gwazi (Busch Gardens, Tampa FL)

3. VelociCoaster (Universal Studios, FL) _{I have ridden this - it’s the best ride I have EVER been on!}

4. ArieForce One (Fun Spot America, Atlanta GA)

5. Lightning Rod (Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee) This might be the coolest of them all

CAN’T MISS Links of the Week

PRO TIPS: For any articles that are paywall’d, refer to CC #11 or CC #19 for a way to bypass. OR, utilize your iPhone’s “Reader View” in your browser (this works occasionally)

🤔 How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Elite Parents Enabled His Crypto Empire (Bloomberg) _{I already bypass’d the paywall in the link!}

🏡 Off-Grid Super House in the Hill of the Californian Coast - House Tour (Youtube)

💊 The Booming Business of American Anxiety (WSJ)

🏈 The First Official Proposal for Promotion/Regulation in College Football (Front Office Sports)

🤯 This is How a Roman Aqueduct Worked (X/Twitter)

Are All “Hard Things” Worthwhile?

If you subscribe to Constantly Curious (thank you!), you probably consider yourself a go-getter…

Someone who pushes for what they want, thinks outside the box, and takes as much from life as it has to offer.

Previously I wrote about the value of doing hard things (you can find that in CC #14) - but, here’s the other side of the coin…just because something is hard doesn’t automatically mean it’s worthwhile…

Thought Experiment: Think about your job (whatever it is) - now, imagine your boss comes to you and asks you to rebuild the critical infrastructure that is crucial to your job.

This is certainly a hard thing, and, if done right, would impress your co-workers and managers.

But, what if there’s a better way? What if building from scratch is NOT the most optimal? What if outsourcing this task to software/hardware/systems (that you don’t control) is actually the best way?

Conclusion: Hard things matter - it’s important for human beings to be challenged and have lofty goals to strive for. But, hard for the sake of hard is not usually worthwhile

Takeaway: Here are some questions to consider in evaluating if your “hard thing” is really worthwhile:

1. Opportunity Cost - What am I “passing up” (now and in the future) by pursuing this “thing” right now?

2. Upside & Downside Outcomes - Is the upside of completing (or downside of failing) worth the effort the task requires?

3. Alternate Options - Are there other ways of doing the “thing” that are better than the way(s) I’m about to try?

Three Quotes & Ideas to Consider

See you next week!

Stay Curious, Friends!