Jack Raines's Linkedin Analytics

On January 17th, 2024, I was waiting in line for a large drip coffee and an apple strudel pastry at Dear Mama's cafe when a friend of mine walked up and said, "Jack, someone told me they thought you were polarizing." If I had to select a single descriptor for myself, "polarizing" works. A few things about me: By the above-mentioned date, I had published 700,000+ words across my finance blog, my travel blog, and a few other publications. Some of my articles have been read 100,000+ times, so it appears that people like my stuff. I speak Spanish with the fluency of an academically underachieving 6-year-old Guatemalan child, I was deported from Norway, and I was Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2006. I developed a crippling stock-trading addiction during the pandemic (though, I suppose there are worse addictions) which led to me gambling my Roth IRA on various SPACs in 2020 and 2021. I turned $6,000 into $402,000, then blew half of that in 32 seconds. I treat LinkedIn like a personal blog, and I don't like the pseudo-professional tone that most people use around here. Most of my career decisions since 2021 stem from an existential crisis I had during a turbulent flight to Denver, Colorado. I didn't know "global entry" was a thing until after I had visited 34 countries, which is a bit ridiculous, isn't it? I have a sincere appreciation for those who pursue their interests, instead of the things that they believe others will find interesting, and I think any self-respecting man should be able to bench press 225 at least once.