It's Boring And Incredible How Modern Life Can Evolve

This week one of my boys decided to eat a snack and watch something on his Kindle Fire up in a tree in our back yard. This is a normal request. 

Fast forward a few hours and I asked, "Buddy, where's your tablet?" Still outside.

I was not surprised and did not react emotionally (something I've been working on as a parent), but on the inside I did have this feeling of bewilderment. Doesn't he know that electronics can't be left outside? Electronics! Valuable machines that could break! After all, we've had a dozen or so Kindle Fires because of this sort of carelessness. 

Then I realized how my lens was outdated. 

A dozen or so Fires ... 

Sure, my iPad tablet is awesome and rather expensive (less expensive all the time), but these little Kindle Fires are not uniquely valuable machines. You can get a new Fire 7 for $49.99 right now, and when you receive it (free delivery in a day or less), it will set itself up exactly like your old one in about 30 minutes. This is a nice soccer ball, a lego set, a pair of shoes, a night at the movies. There's a reason we've had a dozen Kindle Fires.

It's a regular old product that a boy, rightfully and understandably according to his view of the world, can leave in the yard. 

It's also a regular old product that holds multiple games, movies, apps, and oh yeah connects to a million internet sites for a million other products and experiences.

This is simultaneously boring and incredible.

And it will continue. When my boy is 45, his kid will do something that will be both boring and incredible -- like leave his personalized health and wellness watch at school. And my boy will focus his own son's carelessness while not really noticing that he just flew home from Buenos Aires in 2 hours on a hypersonic jet.

Speaking of Buenos Aires, there's a company called MercadoLibre (MELI) that is becoming one of my favorite stock picks because of the inevitable march toward online retail around the world as everyone learns to shop from their tablets. 

MELI is like the Ebay, Amazon, and PayPal of Latin America. I was worried, at first, that I was too late on this company. But, think how long we've known about Amazon's dominance, and now they are just getting more and more dominant. I remember when people laughed that I ordered toilet paper from Amazon. Now lots of people order TP online. Why drive to a store for TP?

Latin America is still in the early stages of the e-commerce transformation. I read somewhere that from 2010 to 2020, online retail in the US went from 4% of sales to 12% of total retail sales. In Latin America, online retail is around 4% today. Also, Latin America has double the population of the US. So ... lots of room to grow. And MELI is growing like crazy as the dominant e-commerce player in the region. 

The stock is soaring this year and I hate buying after such a huge move; I started MELI a few weeks ago and plan to add on any dips until I reach a full position size. Someday we will buy almost everything online or through a payment app -- Latin America included.

PERSONAL PANDEMIC UPDATE

The virus and the societal upheaval that goes with it is a drag. And yet, now that we've learned more, I have a hard time being alarmed anymore. I'm eating out, just less often. I'm traveling a bit, just using the car more and sticking to family reunions. I'm back at work, just with a different schedule. The kids are playing soccer, just without throw-ins. 

Where I feel the pandemic most is in future planning. I want to plan a trip to Buenos Aires ... uncertainty holds me back. I've always been a future planner so this has been an adjustment. How many years before we can plan trips without wondering if borders will close or quarantines will be imposed?

I feel for the kids. They are doing pretty well, and I think we've done a fair job showing that a worldwide pandemic does not need to be traumatic. We think things through and adjust and do our best. Old timers used to say they grew up in the Depression, and everyone knew what that meant. I wonder if this Pandemic will earn a capital "P". 

What I'm Watching: YouTube TV. For some reason I always ignored the YouTube streaming service. It's great. Once again, Google takes a service and makes it better.

What I'm Reading: More Don Winslow.

Stoic / Mindful Thought: We live as if every moment is connected to (and thus partially determined by) the previous moment. It doesn't need to be. Free will is the ability to break the chain of causality.