Jay Legere became a professional YouTuber in mid-2024, after quitting a 20-year career as a content producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. When he made the jump, he already had 200 000 subscribers, but now he posts a lot more often because it's his full-time job, and his audience has grown by 50%.

Legere's channel is a charming combination of outdoors scenes from the Northwest Territories of Canada, and his own attempts at cooking, construction, gardening and home-making. It's largely self-narrated and self-filmed, and he has a refreshingly humble and humorous personality.

This is what he said when he resigned: "I told my boss I just need to see what I'm made of. I'm a newsman. I make news every single day. I've been making news for over 20 years. It's been a long time. I've had enough of the same thing, the same 9-to-5 job. I dream about YouTube. I dream of being my own boss. I dream of making videos, I dream of challenging myself, I dream of going into the woods."

I read about Legere on a Substack called Doomberg. Here's their comment on why Legere has done so well:

"Legere's success was all but guaranteed for one powerful and overriding reason: he traded spending his time on things he felt he had to do for things he feels he gets to do. When a talented person has the courage to make such a transition, the sky is truly the limit. Productivity soars, work becomes play, and money almost always takes care of itself. It is staggering how much can get done with no meaningless meetings clogging up your calendar."

I have one more point to add. If you have savings, and you aren't living from pay cheque to pay cheque, you can make mid-life changes like these more easily.

On the 16th of September 1920 a horse-drawn wagon loaded with dynamite blew up outside the headquarters of JP Morgan on Wall Street in New York City; 38 people were killed and 300 were injured. Trading on the exchange was suspended for the first time ever due to violence.

The perpetrators were never found, but it was believed to have been Italian anti-capitalists. John Pierpont Morgan Sr (the founder) decided not to repair the damage to the building, so that the horror of the incident would not be forgotten. I saw those holes in the walls of the building with my own eyes, when I first visited Wall Street in 2013.

Why am I telling you this? Because history is cool, but also because I think we currently need some perspective. The world feels pretty crazy right now, but it's always been a mad place. 1920 was a time wedged between the two world wars, the Great Depression was around the corner and infant mortality was still between 10-20%.

Be grateful you live in this era, don't get too caught up in the daily news. Focus on the things you can control, like your family life, your community, your personal interests and your career.

About three years ago, I was one of many South Africans rushing to install a solar system at home. We had a new baby in the house, and loadshedding was a nightmare. Not to mention all the damage done to my electronic appliances by the interruptions in the power supply.

At the time, I decided to go for the solar rental option because I wanted to see what would happen with loadshedding, how equipment prices would change, and what my usage patterns would be. I reasoned that after 3 years, I could make a more informed decision about what setup to buy. It was also a side bet that solar component prices would continue to fall.

I have now purchased and installed my own system. Solar equipment prices have plummeted to the point where, for the same amount of money as three years ago, I can now get a system that is 2.5 times the size.

Prices have dropped because green energy supply is now a global priority, which allows for more technological research and economies of scale. The graphic here shows how spending on solar has gone from $142 billion to $441 billion - Global investment on electricity.

As a side note, owning an EV means there is a good chance it is being charged by coal-generated electricity, but things are changing quickly for most power grids around the world. As EVs become more commonplace, they are also becoming greener.

Google's Gemini app has knocked ChatGPT off the top of Apple's App Store, driven by two flashy new features that have gone viral.

The first is Veo 3, which lets users create short cinematic videos from a simple text prompt. The second is Nano Banana, a playful image tool that allows you to reimagine photos - from dressing pets in Halloween costumes to turning yourself into an action figure.

The rollout was swift. Veo 3 landed on iOS in late August and sent Gemini climbing from 66th to 38th place overnight. A week later, the Nano Banana update arrived, and social media buzz did the rest, propelling the app to number 1.

We didn't always have a single set of banknotes. Institutions and regional banks used to issue their own money - Victorian-era banknotes of the South Western Cape.

When your kids' bestie is a big problem. A natural impulse is to forbid contact, but that's likely to backfire - This is how you solve it.

Asian markets traded mostly higher this morning. Japan rebounded strongly, while Australia lagged on weaker oil and tech; China, South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan also gained ahead of Friday's Bank of Japan meeting, where no policy shift is expected.

In local company news, Naspers closed up 2.5% after the very successful listing of its subsiduary, Urban Company, on the Indian stock exchange. Elsewhere, Momentum Group posted record annual earnings, with normalised headline profit up 41% to R6.26 billion on stronger results across investments, life, corporate, insurance, and Guardrisk.

US equity futures are nicely higher in pre-market trading. The Rand is at R17.46 to the US Dollar.

Things are looking up.