Contrarian ideas & research for the discerning misfit.

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I'm Gil. The world doesn’t really need another newsletter, but I send it faithfully into the ether anyway. The Iconoclast talks about weird ideas like:

  • Insights into emerging markets, after traveling to over 50 countries and living in more than a couple of them.
  • How to use rare trading card price indexes to gauge the disposable income/overall health of the economy
  • Launching a Cubesat to low earth orbit starts at around $60,000
  • How I spent a week in Liberia in 2014 documenting Ebola
  • Tobacco/nicotine positives and negatives
  • Why I’m bullish on the uranium mining and refinement industry, especially considering geopolitical developments since 2022.

Past silly topics

  • How the luxury watch market tracks with meme stocks & disposable income
  • Overlanding & camping with a Gwagen
  • Restoring a 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle into a Baja-style bug
  • Pros and cons of getting into venture capital & angel investing
  • Subcultures: where did the goths and emo kids go?
  • My 40-day round-the-world trip (Iceland, Morocco, Dubai, Cambodia, Bali, New Zealand)
  • Building & selling online internet communities
It's free. Just do it.
💸
I’m just an average guy who reads a lot and takes abnormal risks. The stuff I talk about doesn’t require special access or secret knowledge: it’s just experience and unique insights gathered from being on the ground. In the arena, so to speak.

A little bit about me:

Here's the top-line bullet points:

  • Self-made via an unorthodox career trajectory
  • Don't know how to make hundreds of millions, but I'm confident anyone with half a brain can make a few million
  • Traveled to 50+ countries
  • I've invested in every asset class from stocks, bonds, crypto, venture capital, art, collectibles, real estate, jewelry, and precious metals
  • Actually just kind of a country boy

Even though I’ve been writing for years, I’ve yet to be canceled (despite my best efforts). This newsletter is opinionated, biased, and a bit bizarre: but that’s what makes it worth it.

My sincere hope is that you will disagree with things I write about, but who wants to be in an echo chamber, anyway?

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Zig when they zag

Stuff in my truck console, my dog, bush pilot on safari in Namibia