MacBook Spy Medical Almanack

You know what, Apple could do a few things to improve their MacBook Pros and I have a few ideas. Hopefully, Apple will steal them. There’s a museum in Washington DC I would love to check out, unfortunately, I’m nowhere near Washington DC. Then something I think is really important to be aware of if you need some sort of medical treatment and the last thing is a free book that is absolutely amazing, written by an intelligent and incredibly intelligent guy. 

I’m sure that you’ve seen a MacBook a million times. They look very modern, obviously designed by Apple, it’s one of their higher-end products. But there’s a few things that can be done to make this better. Here’s what I think would be amazing to add.

You know how there’s something called “Find My” on your laptop or your phone, where you can fire that up, and you can find where your devices are. But that only works when there’s an internet connection, or at least it only picks up the signal for your phone like the last time the phone was on. But Apple also created AirTags so I don’t know why Apple hasn’t built in an air tag into the MacBook Pros so that if a MacBook Pro gets stolen but doesn’t connect to the internet, the air tag would pick it up.

Now, I don’t think you should just insert an air tag because the thief could open it and steal it. It should be built into the body of the computer so it can’t be removed. So that’s the first thing, add an air tag right inside of it so it can’t be removed so it can be tracked at any time. Seems like a great idea, and they obviously have the technology to do that.

The next thing I think would be incredible would be bidirectional wireless charging. Do you know how your phone can charge wirelessly so why can’t your laptop? Why isn’t there a pad that I can just put the laptop on and have it pick up the electrical signal through the bottom of it? Seems like a simple idea. And also, on the left and right side of the trackpad there is just empty space so why can’t I put my phone in those spots and have it charge my phone or charge an Apple Watch? Apple already knows how to do these things. I don’t think this would be such a difficult thing to do, so bi-directional wireless charging seems like a great idea.

Have you ever looked at the back of an iPad, the ones with the cellular feature? They have that dark strip along the top. I’m assuming that’s the cellular antenna, but why don’t we have something like that on the back of a MacBook Pro? Doesn’t everybody use the internet on their laptop? So why doesn’t Apple build the cellular functionality into the lid of the MacBook? Seems like a simple idea again. 

Do you know how on your phone you have a camera facing you, but you also have one in the back of your phone. MacBook Pros only have one camera facing you but why isn’t there one on the top of the lid on the back so that you can record something on the other side of your computer? Seems like a simple idea. I know that they can do all of them

I found a very cool museum called The International Spy Museum. The James Bond franchise is (I think) the most successful franchise of all time. I mean it’s been over fifty years and twenty five at this point and so you know people like spy things! First of all, as a web designer I have to compliment their website, it’s great. It’s very easy to navigate and there’s red buttons for get tickets and buy tickets so that really stands out visually. The building looks incredible with glass design, very modern-looking.

They have something called the Spy Camp and it says, “This isn’t your ordinary summer camp, this is Spy Camp. Aspiring Spy Kids recruits will hone in their tradecraft, learn from real spies and hit the streets of DC to run missions.” I mean, c’mon, that sounds amazing! I wish I was a kid so I could do that. And then we have Espionage artifacts, the Enigma machine (whatever that is), the Trotsky ice ax, and James Bond’s Aston Martin. All of this sounds incredible.

I also really like how they talk in language that normal people use. For example, there’s a headline that says, “Spy stuff is cooler than regular stuff.” Yeah, of course, nobody would disagree with you on that. But here’s really where I think they’re really excelling and if you’re a museum, this is a great idea to copy. It turns out that a school can set up a virtual field trip to the Spy Museum! It says this “Providing engaging, interactive Virtual Field Trips is nothing new to us. We have over eight years’ experience offering our award-winning virtual workshops. Transport your students into the shadow world.” I’m guessing it’s probably over Zoom or Skype or something like that. There’s probably someone in the museum Skyping with a classroom full of kids, telling them all about the spy stuff that’s in the museum. It’s a great idea, and it looks like the cost is a hundred and fifty dollars per workshop.

If you’re a museum, can you figure out a way to allow people that are remotely not near you to enjoy your Museum and make money at it? A virtual field trip is a fantastic way to do that. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be that hard of a thing either, so something to think about the next time you have a meeting.

Here’s something that wasn’t very fun. I’m not going to get into an incredible amount of detail of how I got there but in 2019 I ended up in the hospital in Tampa for about twenty four hours, and then in 2022 I ended up in the hospital for maybe eleven hours or so and each time I had a CAT scan… and then I got the bill!

The CAT scan in the United States was $4,425 but the CAT scan in Portugal was $67. 

The total bill in the United States was $27,530, and the total bill in Portugal was $180. In Portugal I also got three prescriptions for $18. Now I know that the hospital services were slightly different and yes they did more in the United States, but to go from basically two hundred dollars to twenty-seven thousand… that’s incredible.

I found an infographic by Trade Brains (they’re a marketing company in India) and it shows various medical procedures犀利士 and how much that procedure costs in various countries. The first one isn’t that crazy, but a dental implant in the United States is $2,800 however in India, it’s just $1,000. Let’s say you need angioplasty. That would be $57,000 in the United States, but in India only $3,300 (that’s less than 10% of the USA cost). I don’t know how they do it, and they also show you for South Korea and Singapore, but India seems to be the cheapest. 

Now, I can’t comment on quality, just talking about money here. If you need a new knee, a knee replacement in the United States, it’s $50,000. You can go to India and get it for $6,200, and it just keeps going. Heart bypass surgery is $144,000 in the USA or just $5,200 in India.

You can literally take a vacation to India, get this procedure, recover in India (it’s probably beautiful) for not even ten percent of the cost of the United States. So keep that in mind if you need to get some sort of medical procedure that you can plan for. 

All right, here’s a book that I think is fantastic to talk about and share, partially because it’s 100% free. You can literally just go to the website where you can read it on the web, you can download a PDF, and you can even download it to your Kindle. It’s called the “The Almanac of Naval Ravikant”. Naval Ravikant is a business guy, investor guy, that type of thing. 

I’m going to share some really great quotes and one of my favorite lines, and if you’ve listened to past episodes of this show, you know I talked about Kotor Bay in Montenegro. There’s actually a picture of me reading this book along the shores of Kotor Bay. And one of the lines I really like, it says, “A taste of freedom can make you unemployable.” I thought that was just fantastic. 

The book is filled with insightful one-liners and interesting stories. These aren’t spoilers as it’s not a linear story, the guy’s just giving general advice. Here are a few:

“Nothing like a health problem, they turn up the contrast dial for the rest of your life.” 

“You’re going to die one day and none of this is going to matter, so enjoy yourself. Do something positive, project some love, make someone happy.”

“Doctors won’t make you healthy, nutritionists won’t make you slim, teachers won’t make you smart, gurus won’t make you calm, mantras won’t make you rich. Ultimately, responsibility you have to take, save yourself.”

“When everyone is sick, we no longer consider a disease.” 

“Most of our suffering comes down to avoidance, so beware.”

“There are no adults. Everyone makes it up as they go along. You have to find your own path, picking, choosing, discarding as you like.” 

That’s just a few of the lines from “The Almanac of Naval Ravikant”, but I highly recommend you download it.