I flew to Los Angeles today to stay with family before I head down to San Diego to finish up a few final tasks with the Navy. I have flown a lot this summer as I bounce back and forth between the West Coast and the Midwest. I don’t really mind it at all. On the plane ride this morning I listened to podcasts. I mainly listened to The Daily and Acquired. Acquired is a really interesting podcast that goes into extreme depth in telling the stories of different companies in the United States. 

The podcast I was listening to today was talking about Visa. The episode started out with a series of questions that the founder of Visa used to ask audiences at public speaking events. Who uses a Visa card? Nearly everyone raises their hands. All hands went down for the following questions: Who knows where Visa was founded? Who knows who is in charge of Visa? What does Visa actually do? How does Visa work? 

Visa is the 16th largest company in the world. It is everywhere. Here are some fun facts: Visa is not a bank. Visa does not issue credit. Visa doesn’t even issue credit cards. Visa is simply the payment network that binds all the banks and financial processes together. A small four-letter stamp of trust, network access, and third-party verification. A stamp worth 678 billion dollars. 

Now, that is a gross oversimplification (said in sal khan’s voice). But it is true that there is a massive web of credit and banks and communication that churns on a daily basis. I typically do not ever think about it. Credit and payments is somewhat like air and breathing – a naturally occurring process that is foundational to our humanity and society. But it is not natural, nor is it essential. It is simply a massive, intricate system that dictates so much of our behavior and action. 

On a broader scale, I think there have just been so many fundamental changes to how our society functions in the past couple centuries that it is impossible to be aware of everything changing how we behave. Industry, food, technology, all accelerating in an exponential explosion of development. It is a fun thought experiment to think about how I would have lived my life 100 or 200 or 500 years ago. So many of my perceived problems of today did not exist back then.

Some more rambling today. Travel days always leave me not quite as sharp mentally as I would prefer. I am sure traveling commercially with efficiency and no loss of energy is an acquired skill over time with practice. I am still working out the kinks and developing the habits that make traveling smooth. That’s it for today. Back in San Diego tomorrow.