⏰ The ROI of Your Hours

We're Squandering Our Most Precious Resource — Plus, Nvidia Crushes Earnings and Hailey Bieber Sells Rhode to e.l.f. Cosmetics for a Cool Billy

Author

Katie Perry
May 29, 2025

Welcome to Tuesday Thursday Saturday! I share a snapshot of trending stories across business, tech, and culture three times a week. Subscribe and tell me what you want to hear about next! - KP

The Big Story: You’re Probably Wasting Your Richest Resource

Time has been on my mind a lot lately. I feel like this year, especially, I turned around after January, and suddenly it was May. It was snowing, then it was 80 degrees. I’ve accomplished a lot these past five months, but still feel like it was New Year’s just last week.

This year is going by faster than any I can remember. We had a cold day last weekend, and I found myself grateful for it. It felt like a pause. As if time was slowing down. Like we weren’t quite in summer yet. I still wanted something to look forward to, but it’s already here.

“The Persistence of Memory” - Salvador Dali

Time is, of course, a finite resource. And when we think about things like investing in the financial sense, we put a lot of thought into where we’re putting that money — into things we trust, things that we think will result in gains in the future. Time is different. Once it’s spent, it’s gone. But where you spend your time can also yield long-term returns. The payoff just doesn’t show up in your brokerage account.

So why don’t we treat time with the same reverence as money?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time employed Americans spend roughly 8.5 hours a weekday working, with another 5 hours on leisure activities (mostly TV — a separate issue entirely) and just over 1.5 hours on household tasks or caregiving. Compare that with countries like France or Sweden, where paid work hours are shorter and more time is protected for meals, social connection, and rest.

The differences aren’t just structural. They’re cultural. The U.S. is what anthropologists call a “monochronic” culture. We see time as linear, segmented, and to be optimized. Other places, like Latin America or parts of Africa, operate on “polychronic” time: more fluid, relational, focused on presence over productivity.

But even within our hyper-productive framework, there’s growing research that suggests we’re undervaluing our time. Harvard psychologist Ashley Whillans argues in Time Smart that people who prioritize time over money report significantly higher life satisfaction. In experiments, when participants were primed to think about time instead of money, they were more likely to engage in meaningful, prosocial activities, like helping others or spending time with loved ones.

This isn’t just an intellectual distinction; it’s deeply emotional. Time, unlike money, is not fungible. We can’t earn it back. And yet we often spend it reactively: answering emails, scrolling Instagram, doing “just one more thing” at work. Behavioral scientists call this the “mere urgency effect.” We prioritize the things that feel urgent over the things that are truly important.

(By the way, here’s why I haaaaate this: How often are the people in your life “urgent” unless they are in distress, in danger, or in conflict? People are rarely urgent when things are going OK, and so we neglect them.)

Study after study shows that we look back on our lives, it’s not the money we didn’t make that haunts us. It’s the time we didn’t spend wisely. The relationships we didn’t nurture. The moments we missed. The trips didn’t take. The words we didn’t say. In The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, palliative nurse Bronnie Ware notes that most regrets have to do with time, and not money.

When I read things like this, it makes me terribly sad — and frankly, angry at the amount of time I’ve squandered. How can we break this cycle? One method put forward is to treat your time like a portfolio. Diversifying across things that matter: work, yes, but also relationships (dividends), health (risk mitigation), leisure (liquidity), and meaning (long-term ROI). You might even conduct a “time audit” — tracking where your hours go for a week or two and deciding if those allocations match your values.

Over the past few years, I’ve been trying to ask myself: Am I present for the people I care about? Am I giving time to the things that energize me, not just the things that take from me? Am I spending time in alignment with who I WANT to be, not just who I am right now?

Most of us don’t have the luxury to align our time perfectly with our priorities. Jobs, caregiving, and systemic constraints are all real. But even within that, there’s room to be a little more conscious. To reallocate even 30 minutes a day toward something (or someone) that makes us laugh, smile, or even cry.

Nietzsche on marriage

There’s an incredibly gut-wrenching Jim Croce lyric that goes, “There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them.” We spend our days, months, and years striving for things that we never allow ourselves the time to actually enjoy.

It’s a reminder: time is not just a resource. It’s the backdrop of our lives. It’s the thing that gives meaning to everything else. So, let’s spend it well.

Special thanks to a close friend of mine who is bravely battling a serious illness for inspiring me to think deeper about this topic and write this post. ❤️

Daily Rip Live: 60-Minute Nvidia and Future of AI Deep Dive That You Do Not Want to Miss Under Any Circumstances

Every weekday, we cover the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live. Yesterday was, of course, Nvidia earnings day! Since we filmed this before we got their results, here’s the TL;DR on that:

  • Another BIG Quarter: Nvidia pulled in $44.1B in revenue, up 69% year-over-year, beating expectations thanks to strong AI chip demand — all this despite headwinds from China restrictions. You may recall hearing about a $5B write-down this year because they can no longer sell their H20 chips (think of these as their ‘JV’ products) to China.

  • AI Kingpin: Data center revenue hit $39.1B, up 73%, cementing Nvidia’s role as the backbone of AI infrastructure.

  • But, China Hit Still Looms: According to the company, U.S. export bans will lead to a projected $8B sales drag in the next quarter. That said, investors are shrugging it off. Shares jumped 4%+ after hours, which is a huge move considering their monster market cap.

In this episode, we welcomed Michael Parekh — an OG Internet analyst, prolific writer, and overall expert in Nvidia's moves and what the next 5, 10, 20 years of AI could look like. We covered:

  • Nvidia functioning as the backbone of the AI economy, with CUDA, its software platform, giving it a massive edge. As my co-host Shay puts it, Nvidia is NOT just a hardware company, which is something many folks miss.

  • Global talent and international markets are vital for sustaining innovation. How the drama going down with Harvard University relates to the U.S. long-term AI leadership. Michael had an incredibly well-articulated take on that, which I shared on LinkedIn.

  • Picking winners in a fast-paced, ever-evolving space. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of companies within Nvidia's surrounding ecosystem. How are investors supposed to analyze it all? Is passive investing making a comeback?

  • Apple M&A on the horizon? Could Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI) eventually become CEO of Apple? Plus, bear and bull cases for Apple in the AI future.

Full episode below. Worth an hour of your time if you are an investor in NVDA (you likely are via an index fund!) or are into AI.

Now Here’s a Chart

International students are in the spotlight in the President’s ongoing war of words (for now) with Harvard University. Here’s a look at which countries are sending the most students to study in the U.S.

Newsflash: It’s mostly India and China.

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Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.