My Content List #30 | Wed 6/9/21

Opening Rant: Observations — Angels vs. Apples

[Disclaimer: This Rant’s a bit different than others. Far more blog-ish, relatively less on the usual psychology/tech/investing-centric spiels you’re used to. But, at the same time, it’s really always about those things. Human nature, what a trip… )

America’s Northeast quadrant has been my primary residence all my life. Philly (ages 0–18)→ Boston (college)→NYC (first foray into the “real world”)→ Philly (business school). I love that quadrant; it’s where my family is, where I’ve “cut my teeth” [side note: what a weird expression] in this first phase of my career-charting.

At the moment, though, I reside in Los Angeles. Something about this place — and, to an extent, California more broadly — feels resonant with my soul. I’ve visited frequently over the years, and I love it every time. This summer is as close a trial run to a full-time LA residence as I’ve had; the culmination of a few years of opportunistically evaluating left-coast prospects (and the fulfillment of a resolution, occupationally speaking).

Perhaps this is another example of the ubiquitous grass-is-always-greener syndrome that plagues us all (often beyond the literal geographic sense). And that’s not to say I don’t feel that connection with Philly/NYC, mind you. I’m inextricably linked to those locales.

I figured now’s as good a time as any to riff on my observations regarding LA vs. NYC — two enduring cities with fingerprint-like uniqueness yet a slew of commonalities. I’m still early on in this LA stint, but I feel cognizant enough of my surroundings to relay some initial reactions.

What follows is purely my view; inherently biased and thus far from a double-blind/placebo-controlled comparison of these excellent places. I concede this’ll probably be fraught with facile generalizations, because no one can truly capture either city’s eclectic persona.

Let’s start with some similarities:

• Both are meccas for young professionals (“yuppies”?) in damn near any sector. Tier-1 cities; huge populations; rich cultural histories; copious opportunities for both workstuffs and fun. It’s clear why these cities have served as the creative muses for many a musician and filmmaker; the air in both places is fraught with feelings/stories begging to be told.
• Both feel comprised primarily of transplants (i.e. non-locals). It’s rare in either place when you meet someone who’s born+raised there, though probably less rare in NYC than in LA.
• There are seemingly-infinite happenings occurring outside the tiny sliver of life that any one of us experiences. Neither city ever sleeps. FOMO can damn near kill you in either place.
• Gentrification abounds, as do stark inequalities between the haves and have-nots. Manhattan is not everyone’s New York; the Westside is not everyone’s Los Angeles.
• Wealth and opulence are ubiquitous and pedestalized. You’re acutely (if not inescapably) aware of how many rungs are above/below you on the proverbial socioeconomic ladder. Relatedly, there’s a tacit pressure to shell out $$ for both material goods and experiences; you’d think folks were applying Keynesian theories of deficit spending to their personal finances.
• Dwellers manifest a strange concoction of (a) intently pursing individualized goals, however defined, coupled with (b) a borderline obsessive focus on what others are doing and thinking. Sometimes (b) wins out at the expense of (a), and the bubble of contrived validation bloats ever further.
• Relatedly, there’s another funny paradox involving the simultaneous desire to stand out AND to assimilate. It’s a constant existential tug-of-war; just depends on the day which pull/push is stronger.

Beyond the obvious differences in terms of urban density and climate, we see some nuances in the realms of money, fashion, and flexing. Part of this relates to the demographics of my close peers (i.e. friends).

In NYC, I was one of near-infinite cogs in the gigantic finance machine, subsisting at the crowded bottom of the corporate totem pole, as were mi amigos. To underscore this homogeneity, I was even sniped by a meme account for wearing the “midtown uniform,” the comically-frequent button-down-con-vest look. In LA, though, I’m surrounded primarily by ~creatives~ (and others who work in media+entertainment); my business-centric peers and I are in the minority out here.

Fashion among the creatives (and even some of the business folk) in LA is curious to me, to say the least. As much as it pains me to say, if you were asked to survey an LA gathering and pick out the “non-creative”, your gaze would probably gravitate towards me. I still believe there’s beauty in subtlety, so my ‘fits have only selective flare… unlike the many I’ve seen who seem to be draped in (literal) drapes, clashing patterns, styles fusing futuristic cuts with vintage thrifts…. Despite my spite, the attire I’ve seen still somehow looks cool and occasionally renders me jealous; a microcosm of the point above RE assimilating vs. striving for uniqueness. The key to pulling off outfits like those is, as with most other things, confidence. For now I’ll keep rockin’ my hybridized interpretation of “boho-chic” and businessman — somewhere between John Mayer and Bobby Axelrod. Maybe I’ll start to expand my stylistic horizons, or just become more fashionable via osmosis…

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the contrived breezy-ness to the aesthetique here. The irony of striving to appear effortlessly stylish is not lost on me. I wonder which city logs more time looking into mirrors, on a per-capita basis. I’d venture LA wins out on that front, but both are eons above most everywhere else.

I suppose this all points to rampant vanity and superficiality- I’m trying not to get caught up in that. It’s unbecoming. LA gets a bad rep (rap?) for this and probably beats out NYC (loses?) on a relative basis, but the same critique can easily characterize the Big Apple. That said, if you know where/how to look and have the patience to punch through the not-so-thin veneer of collective narcissism, both places have plenty of depth to offer.

Also, people say “vibe” here a whole lot. Funny how regional vernacular still thrives despite our country’s (and world’s) interconnectedness.

Another distinction worth mentioning implicates motivation; specifically, the critique that (relatively) “nothing gets done in LA” because there are too many distractions, compared to the grind-it-out/hustleporn-esque nature of NYC workstyle.

I’ve only been here for a few weeks, but I can confirm I’m getting shit done. I’m thankful for what New York taught me about cultivating motivation and busting my ass at work, because now I can take the best parts of those ideals with me wherever I am. Grit+Gratitude accompany all my journeys. With regard to the alleged “distractions” (good weather, outdoor activities, etc.), I’ll channel my Libra-ness yet again and talk about balance.

When trapped in the concrete jungle that is Manhattan, I found it harder to maintain my productive stamina — especially in the drawl of winter. Here in LA, squeezing in the occasional surf sesh / hike / etc. completely re-invigorates me to crank hard at work. Having natural scenery accessible renders work more enjoyable, in some ineffable way. The complementarity is very real to me but is something I recognize might not be experienced by everyone; to each their own… “Work hard / play hard” functions a lot better on my end when the play includes tastes of nature; this all helps me cultivate my equanimity. The weather and scenery in LA is a true blessing. There’s a legitimate culture of outdoorsy-ness, exploration, and adventure-seeking here — which (again, for me) is a more fulfilling flavor of fun compared to imbibing in various urban environs.

Another point of comparison: approachability and general friendliness of people. There’s an argument to be made that both cities absolutely suck on this spectrum (see above RE self-interest), but in reality both have redeeming qualities.

My quixotic take is that people are marginally happier in LA (see above RE weather and “distractions”) and are thus more likely to smile authentically. And those smiles go a long way when it comes to approachability, pro-sociality, and chance encounters. Part of this depends on the setting: house parties (characteristic of LA more so than NYC) feel a lot more egalitarian than the velvet-rope-and-table culture of nightclubs (characteristic of NYC more than LA, though still def a thing out here). Sunshine and outdoors engender more gregariousness than darker rooms — that’s just psychology.

It’s also worth noting that humanity’s widespread hedonistic resurgence — as we transition fulsomely to the PC (Post-Covid) era — places both these cities at the apex of fun-having potential… which is kinda where they were in the BC era…

I hope this Rant doesn’t come across as anti-NYC. I freaking love New York, always will, and likely’ll end up living there again at some point. You’ll see below an article that talks about the “brain-changing magic of new experiences”, and that’s exactly what LA is for me these daze. There’s a strong chance I unearth many more misgivings+qualms about this place in due time.

As with all Opening Rants, I hope (if nothing else) that this stimulated some new thoughts and/or broadened perspectives within y’all. Plenty of awesome, wide-ranging pieces in this Content List, which I know you’ll enjoy…

Got something to contribute? Think my reasoning is flawed?

Drop me a note; I’d love to hear from you!

Follow me @James Shecter. Or don’t.

My Content List #30 | Wed 6/9/21

Articles

Farewell, Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy | NYTimes

• “A few years ago, while on a work trip in Los Angeles, I hailed an Uber for a crosstown ride during rush hour. I knew it would be a long trip, and I steeled myself to fork over $60 or $70.
• Instead, the app spit out a price that made my jaw drop: $16.
• Experiences like these were common during the golden era of the Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy, which is what I like to call the period from roughly 2012 through early 2020, when many of the daily activities of big-city 20- and 30-somethings were being quietly underwritten by Silicon Valley venture capitalists.
• For years, these subsidies allowed us to live Balenciaga lifestyles on Banana Republic budgets. Collectively, we took millions of cheap Uber and Lyft rides, shuttling ourselves around like bourgeois royalty while splitting the bill with those companies’ investors. We plunged MoviePass into bankruptcy by taking advantage of its $9.95-a-month, all-you-can-watch movie ticket deal, and took so many subsidized spin classes that ClassPass was forced to cancel its $99-a-month unlimited plan. We filled graveyards with the carcasses of food delivery start-ups — Maple, Sprig, SpoonRocket, Munchery — just by accepting their offers of underpriced gourmet meals.”

Velocity and VC | Jeff Bussgang

• “There are many obvious upsides to this increase in velocity, but there are many downsides. Forget that VCs and entrepreneurs are working harder than ever (whine away, my friends — I hear the violin music now). What really concerns me is the sloppiness that results in increased velocity. Faster due diligence, faster decisions, and fewer opportunities to slow down and build authentic, trust-based relationships can be dangerous when there are bumps in the road. The faster your velocity, the bigger an impact those speed bumps make on you and the organization.
  Further, the famous “fraud triangle” of opportunity, incentive, and rationalization suggests this surge in velocity could yield both a surge in underlying incentive and opportunity. Fraud in entrepreneurial settings can range from the obviously illegal (see: Theranos and uBiome) to the slightly exaggerated.”

The App that Monetized Doing Nothing | The Atlantic

• “For now, though, Calm is calling on people to switch off by switching on, listening to the waves on their phone and imagining the feeling of sand between their toes. Toward the end of our discussion, I asked the pair what they made of that image: people practicing mindfulness on these little mindfulness-killers. “Screens are a major contributor to the stress in Western society. And then we come along saying, ‘Use your phone to destress!’” Acton Smith said. “We understand that tension, but the reality is that the technology and our phones are not the problem. They are tools, and it’s how we use them that matters.” Mindfulness, he said, strengthens “that awareness muscle in your brain, so you’re able to be more conscious of when and how and why to use your phone, because they are amazing.”

How Joe Biden Can Win a Nobel Peace Prize | NYTimes

• “What Bibi Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas and the various leaders of Hamas all have in common is that they have never, ever, ever been willing to risk their political careers or lives to forge the kind of hard compromise needed for a peace breakthrough in their war over the same piece of land.
• So I am dubious, to say the least, about the prospects for peace. What I am not dubious about, though, is this: the pain on all the actors in this drama — from more accurate rockets to more global boycotts to more homes destroyed that no foreigners want to pay to rebuild to unemployment to more inflammatory social networks to more anti-Semitism — is only going to intensify.
• So, my message to Biden would be this: You may be interested in China, but the Middle East is still interested in you. You deftly helped to engineer the cease-fire from the sidelines. Do you want to, do you dare to, dive into the middle of this new Kissingerian moment?”

The Return of FOMO | The Cut

• “FOMO might have gone into hibernation for a while, but we may now be on the way to a new golden age as we try to make up for the year we lost by doing more than ever... The city runs on FOMO, a connoisseurship of opportunities and possibilities; the catechism of “Did you get invited, are you on the list, can you get a table?”; the performance of plans.

The Brain-Changing Magic of New Experiences | GQ

• ““There is a connection between novelty and happiness,” Dr. Laurie Santos, a cognitive scientist who teaches the wildly popular “Psychology and the Good Life” course at Yale, told me. “Novel stimuli tend to activate regions of our brain that are associated with rewards.” There’s more than just the dopamine rush, though. “Novel things also capture our attention … you’re more likely to notice things and be present,” Santos continued. “There’s lots of evidence that simply being more present can improve our mood and happiness.””

Playing the Long Game in Venture Capital | Mark Suster

• “All FOUR constituencies win by playing long: founders, early VC, late VC and executives. And the fifth — society — also wins by making sure we don’t have too much concentration in technology innovation, which is surely a great thing for us all. The massive shift of dollars the moved from public markets to private markets has benefitted us and while at times can distort valuations as they themselves chase FOMO, the net results will be net positive for us all.”

Johnny Knoxville’s Last Rodeo | GQ

• I feel like I the Jackass guys taught me how to laugh as uproariously and irreverently as possible… thanks for that, y’all.
• “In so many ways, Jackass was nothing more than that: the kind of shit boys do to make each other laugh, stretched into 22 minutes. It was a demolition derby starring human Looney Tunes. Knoxville, naturally, was Bugs Bunny, the stick of dynamite not quite hidden behind his back. His costars were a rowdy band of fuckups: skaters and stunt performers and one enormous guy and one Wee Man and, in Steve-O, one Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College graduate with an easy gag reflex. They appeared to genuinely love one another — but to only be able to show that love through increasingly baroque forms of torture.”

The Anxiety of Influencers | Harpers

• “That this is a chilling contradiction to the claim that TikTok is a platform for authenticity seems obvious. But I think the issue here is even more mysterious and complex. After all, these kids were very young when their parents gave them iPhones and tablets — they’ve never known a self that wasn’t subject to anonymous virtual observation. And so it may well be that whatever we mean by “authentic” here isn’t the standard definition that Rousseau and the Romantics first fathomed — a true effusion of your unvarnished personality — but is “authentic” in the sense that their identities have been made in perfect, unconscious sympathy with whatever their mob of online followers has deemed agreeable and inoffensive. Several times throughout my trip, I think I can see the toll this takes on them, a kind of pallid desperation that flickers across their faces. At one point, Brandon comes over and says, “The scary thing is you never know how long this is going to last, and I think that’s what eats a lot of us at night. It’s like, What’s next? How long can we entertain everyone for? How long before no one cares, and what if your life was worth nothing?” Wasn’t it precisely this kind of sadness that my lectures on Keats and Toni Morrison were trying so desperately to foreclose?”
• Related: The influencers are burned out, too | Vox

The last frontier in modern romance is money | Vox

Yes, Pot Is Legal. But It’s Also in Short Supply. | NYTimes

• “In the coming months, both states are expected to issue regulations to govern the new industry. Each has framed legalization as a social justice imperative and has dedicated a large share of the anticipated tax revenue to communities of color disproportionately harmed by inequities in the criminal justice system.
• Trying to balance the goal of building markets focused on social and racial equity against the inherent dominance of multistate corporations with early toeholds in the region will be crucial, officials in New York and New Jersey said.”

How Covid-19 Is Helping to Change the Doctor’s Waiting Room | WSJ

• “In the name of efficiency, profits, public health and a better customer experience, healthcare providers around the country are looking at changing every aspect of the waiting-room experience, from the furniture to the fish tank.
• Few people have ever wanted to wait for their doctor in uncomfortable chairs staring at a display case of old toys and years-old magazines. But the pandemic has pushed both patients and healthcare providers to a new appreciation of the risk in continuing to corral sick and healthy together in close quarters.”

A Guide to Gen Z Through TikTok Trends, Emojis, & Language | Digital Native

• ““Traditional” careers are anathema to many Gen Zs. Many grew up watching parents lose jobs during the Great Recession; they have an inherent skepticism of “the system” and refuse to work within it. This manifests in everything from growing populism (see: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders) to the rise of Dogecoin and side hustles.
• You also see hints of this attitude in Gen Z trends like the use of 👁👄👁. The “eye mouth eye” emojis capture a certain ennui and listlessness — in Josh Constine’s words, the emojis mean you “feel helpless amidst the chaotic realities unfolding around [you], but there is no escape.” I might, for instance, say, “Me watching my boss give a promotion to his nephew who never shows up to work 👁👄👁 .” The implication is that I’m passively watching something unfair happen, and there’s nothing I can do about it. The emojis capture Gen Z wryness and droll exhaustion.
• This wryness results in a practicality: where Millennials were idealistic, Gen Zs are pragmatic. Study after study reports that Gen Z is the most entrepreneurial generation in history. A 2020 study found that 54% of Gen Zs want to start their own company; 89% have considered an education path that looks different than college. A Gallup poll found that 77% of young people in grades 5 through 12 want to be their own boss. The main reasons cited are autonomy and flexibility.”

Long Slide Looms for World Population, With Sweeping Ramifications | NYTimes

• “That declining birthrate, coupled with a rapid industrialization that has pushed people from rural towns to big cities, has created what can feel like a two-tiered society. While major metropolises like Seoul continue to grow, putting intense pressure on infrastructure and housing, in regional towns it’s easy to find schools shut and abandoned, their playgrounds overgrown with weeds, because there are not enough children.”

You are a network | Aeon

Meet Your Next Angel Investor. They’re 19 | Wired

• “Yu is part of a growing cohort of Gen Z investors who are beginning to make their mark on the startup ecosystem. Some of them are now old enough to work in VC firms or pursue careers as investors. Others, like Yu, are newcomers to angel investing, as new platforms and recent regulatory changes widen the aperture of who’s eligible to participate. Like-minded young people congregate on TikTok and Twitter, where talk of startups can lead to valuable connections and deal flow. A Slack group called Gen Z VC has more than 7,000 members, many of them still in their teens.
• For many of these Gen Z investors, angel investing is less about getting rich and more about participating in the startup economy for the first time. “Everyone obviously hopes to get returns, but most of the time you’re going to lose your money,” says Dayton Mills, a 22-year-old founder who has started making angel investments. “A lot of the time you are buying access, and you’re hoping to get closer to people. That can have bigger effects than your investment itself.””

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax | ProPublica

Computers Will Be Able to Read Images From Your Brain Within a Decade | Thomas Smith

• “The researchers then fed all this data into a deep neural network (DNN), which they trained to produce images. Neural networks are fantastic pattern detectors, and for each photo shown to the test subjects, the researchers had the neural network attempt to produce an image matching the observed patterns of brain activity, refining its output more than 200 times. The end result was a system that could take in fMRI data showing a subject’s brain activity and paint a picture based on what it thought each subject was seeing.
• The researchers then threw in a twist: They handed the DNN’s output to an already trained generative network. This type of network is relatively new and is one of the most exciting advances in A.I. to occur over the past decade. These specialized neural networks take in basic inputs and generate wholly new photos and videos, which can be remarkably realistic. Generative networks are the tech behind deepfakes, artificial people, and many Snapchat filters. In this case, the researchers used their generative network to normalize images read from their subjects’ brains and make them more photo-like.”
• Related: What do you want to dream about? Soon, you may be able to choose. | Experience Magazine

Power, Proximity, and Standup Comedy | Alex Danco

• “Getting a crowd of strangers to laugh is a different challenge from getting a single stranger to laugh, or getting your friends to laugh. To get a single stranger to laugh, you need funny things to say, but that’s the extent of the challenge. To get your friends to laugh, you don’t even have to be that funny; you just have to be close with them. In contrast, getting a crowd of strangers to laugh under your control is a bigger challenge, because you need to create temporary intimacy among strangers. That is what is hard. People who can do that, in a controlled fashion, are powerful.
• Pure power — not the power of institutions or structures, but raw, personal charisma that lets single individuals lead groups of people — isn’t actually all that complicated. It’s rare and difficult; but it’s not complicated. There are only two variables: proximity and intimacy.”

These Materials Could Make Science Fiction a Reality | NYTimes

• “Imagine operating a computer by moving your hands in the air as Tony Stark does in “Iron Man.” Or using a smartphone to magnify an object as does the device that Harrison Ford’s character uses in “Blade Runner.” Or a next-generation video meeting where augmented reality glasses make it possible to view 3-D avatars. Or a generation of autonomous vehicles capable of driving safely in city traffic.
• These advances and a host of others on the horizon could happen because of metamaterials, making it possible to control beams of light with the same ease that computer chips control electricity.”

What Makes A Hit? Ask TikTok. | Elle

• “While social media’s democratizing effects are nothing new, the fact that Grammy winners and relative unknowns — and the TikTok creators who choreograph dances to tracks by both — are all mingling in the pop stratosphere feels like a particularly early-2020s phenomenon. After all, with just a 15-second clip, a creator can become a pop star (Addison Rae), a country-trap song can transform a lonesome teen into a global phenomenon (Lil Nas X), or a drop (pop!) of the knee into a low squat can turn a rising Houston rapper into a Warner Records signee (Erica Banks).”

Calling Marshall | Prof Scott Galloway

• “The Biden Administration has announced plans to send 80 million doses of vaccines abroad, which is a good start, but just a start. The combined populations of India and Brazil alone total 1.5 billion. The administration has also committed $4 billion to Covax, the international vaccine initiative. If fully funded, Covax hopes to deliver 2 billion doses worldwide by the end of 2021, leaving billions of people unvaccinated; a petri dish for vaccine-resistant variants and a rolling humanitarian crisis of biblical proportions.
• More is needed, and warranted. In 1944, we stormed the beaches of Normandy to save the world. In 2021, we need to storm the beaches of India and Brazil to further that same mission.”

The Baby Brokers: Inside America’s Murky Private-Adoption Industry | Time

• “Problems with private domestic adoption appear to be widespread. Interviews with dozens of current and former adoption professionals, birth parents, adoptive parents and reform advocates, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of documents, reveal issues ranging from commission schemes and illegal gag clauses to Craigslistesque ads for babies and lower rates for parents willing to adopt babies of any race. No one centrally tracks private adoptions in the U.S., but best estimates, from the Donaldson Adoption Institute (2006) and the National Council for Adoption (2014), respectively, peg the number of annual nonrelative infant adoptions at roughly 13,000 to 18,000. Public agencies are involved in approximately 1,000 of those, suggesting that the vast majority of domestic infant adoptions involve the private sector — and the market forces that drive it.”

You Can Only Maintain So Many Close Friendships | The Atlantic

Transhuman: The Rise of Digital Identities | Rex Woodbury

• “But in addition to being virtual creators, people are becoming virtual characters. Allow me to digress for a moment and talk about something called NoPixel.
• NoPixel is a role-play server within Grand Theft Auto. It’s one of the most fascinating virtual worlds on the internet. Here’s how it works.
• First, you create your character. You customize your hair, your clothing, your accessories. Then you apply to join NoPixel. As part of the application, you answer questions in character. A sample question: “You’ve found what looks like a random car in the street with a load of drugs inside. What do you do and why?””

Accidental Billionaires: How Seven Academics Who Didn’t Want To Make A Cent Are Now Worth Billions | Forbes

• “By Horowitz’s own admission, Ghodsi, 42, bald and clean-shaven, has become the best CEO in Andreessen Horowitz’s portfolio, which spans hundreds of companies. Databricks is already shaping up to be the firm’s best software success thanks to a recent valuation of $28 billion, 110 times larger than when Ghodsi took over. Databricks now boasts more than 5,000 customers, and Forbes estimates that it’s on track to book more than $500 million in revenue in 2021, up from about $275 million last year. It features on Forbes’ latest edition of the AI 50, ranked fifth on last year’s Cloud 100 list and could soon be headed for an IPO that ranks among the most lucrative in the history of software. Already, Ghodsi’s magic act has minted at least three billionaire founders — himself, Stoica, 56, and chief technologist Matei Zaharia, 36 — all of whom, by Forbes’ estimation, own stakes between 5% and 6%, worth $1.4 billion or more.”

MeWork | Prof Scott Galloway

How the World Ran Out of Everything | NYTimes

• “In the story of how the modern world was constructed, Toyota stands out as the mastermind of a monumental advance in industrial efficiency. The Japanese automaker pioneered so-called Just In Time manufacturing, in which parts are delivered to factories right as they are required, minimizing the need to stockpile them.
• Over the last half-century, this approach has captivated global business in industries far beyond autos. From fashion to food processing to pharmaceuticals, companies have embraced Just In Time to stay nimble, allowing them to adapt to changing market demands, while cutting costs.
• But the tumultuous events of the past year have challenged the merits of paring inventories, while reinvigorating concerns that some industries have gone too far, leaving them vulnerable to disruption. As the pandemic has hampered factory operations and sown chaos in global shipping, many economies around the world have been bedeviled by shortages of a vast range of goods — from electronics to lumber to clothing.”

Stop Being So Hard on Yourself | HBR

• “Ben is what I call a sensitive striver — a high-achiever who is also highly sensitive. He is driven and demands excellence from himself at all times. But when he falls short of those impossibly high expectations, his innate sensitivity and thoughtfulness cause him to spiral into self-recrimination. If you can relate to Ben’s reaction, then you also may be too hard on yourself. This can take the form of harsh, punitive judgements, overanalyzing your shortcomings, rumination over minor missteps, worry, and assuming fault.
• Perhaps you have thought that self-criticism is what keeps you sharp. Sensitive strivers like Ben often use it as a form of motivation, hoping that if they’re tough enough on themselves, they’ll be compelled to perform. But research shows that self-criticism is a poor strategy. When used excessively, it is consistently associated with less motivation, worse self-control, and greater procrastination. In fact, self-criticism shifts the brain into a state of inhibition, which prevents you from taking action to reach your goals.”

The Curious World of NFT Real Estate and Design | NYTimes

• “Hrish Lotlikar, co-founder and chief executive of SuperWorld, an augmented reality virtual world, said the company had sold “thousands of properties” already in 2021, with users spending, on average, around $2,000 on the virtual real estate platform.
• SuperWorld is geographically mapped onto the real world, divided into 64 billion plots of equal size covering the surface of the earth. So a person could theoretically own virtual land encompassing the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum in Rome or prime commercial property in Lower Manhattan. Or if you’re nostalgically inclined, an NFT of your childhood home.”

Peloton: The antidote to laziness | Blind Squirrel

• “The first wave of at-home fitness was built DVD workouts (P90, Tae Bo, Jane Fonda) and cheap hardware equipment to exercise from your own home. In the next decades companies like Fitbit, MyFitnessPal or Runtastic attempted to combine fitness and technology by giving us better insights and measuring our activity (the measured-shelf), the second wave of fitness will be marked by content, community, and curation.
• This second wave, led by companies like Peloton is structured around community and competition as these devices try to replicate the boutique experience and allow people to have access to great instructors while recreating a “community” atmosphere. Unlike anything we have ever witnessed in the fitness industry, user engagement is trending up over time as users get “addicted” to the experience. Connected fitness itself is not a fad, given that technology is now being used to enhance the training experience in an integrated approach. The majority of connected fitness equipment is replicating traditional cardio machines that have been around for decades like rowing machines or stationary bikes, but some companies like Mirror (picture above) have ventured into bolder areas whose popularity may be short-lived as the use cases are more limited.”

The Promise and Perils of the New Fertility Entrepreneurs | New Yorker

• “Today’s fertility entrepreneurs represent a new, proactive attitude toward reproduction, centered on preëmptive treatments during one’s most fertile years. This shift opens up a potentially limitless market, as Lucy van de Wiel, a research associate at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group at the University of Cambridge, and the author of “Freezing Fertility,” told me. “You don’t have to wait for people to become infertile and then they look for a solution,” she said. Instead, “you can basically tell women that they need to manage their fertility, and they need your services to do that.” Anticipating regret — Brunel’s “Shit, I should have frozen my eggs” moment — is essential to the business model. If the old goal was to make a baby, accounting for lost time, the new goal is to make fertility, starting at any age.”

LeBron James’s Agent Is Transforming the Business of Basketball | The New Yorker

• “Paul believes that he’s in a unique position to help Black athletes. But he also thinks that many of them are reluctant to sign up with a Black agent. “If you go back in the history of representation, again, there were very few Black agents,” he said. “There were very few families that had solid family infrastructure. So, you had Grandma really leading the charge, right? Well, who’s Grandma going to listen to? She’s going to listen to head coach. And head coach, in more cases than not, was probably not going to look like the player.””

Caught in the Study Web | Every

• “Study Web is a vast, interconnected network of study-focused content and gathering spaces for students that spans platforms, disciplines, age groups, and countries. Students seeking motivation, inspiration, focus, and support watch livestreams of a real person at their desk, studying; videos in the Study With Me genre are simultaneously streamed by thousands of students. Or they join Discord communities, where they search for “study buddies,” share studying goals, and compete — by studying — for virtual rewards. On Twitter, they swap study tips and seek out study “moots,” or mutuals, under the hashtag #StudyTwit.”

Why you might feel the urge to overspend right now | Vox

• “After this year of no — no festivals, no plays, no shopping in stores without concern for a deadly virus — “no you can’t” is slowly transforming, with 60 percent of adults in the US now having at least one dose of the vaccine, to “yes you can.” Many of us, regardless of disposable income levels, will and will and will, budgets be damned, if we don’t prepare for the powerful emotions about to swoop through our experience-deprived brains.
• Our minds, it turns out, are not spreadsheets. That’s the idea behind behavioral economics, the fairly new field that studies how humans operate around this invention we call money. Unlike previous thinking from the field of economics, our decisions don’t come from formulas, but a mishmash of the feelings, reactions, and mental shortcuts whittled by evolution to keep us alive in the wild, within small tribes, without consideration for targeted Instagram ads for peep-toe espadrilles.
• Behavioral economics has identified more than 100 ways people of all financial backgrounds fail to think straight when it comes to money. And as the pandemic shifts in the US, our thinking is about to get much blurrier.”

Why ‘quirky’ people are attractive | BBC

A real turn-off: are celebrities ruining podcasting? | The Guardian

• “Right now, it is almost easier to count the actors, comedians, influencers, musicians, reality TV stars and retired politicians who do not have a podcast than those who do. Along with Barack and Bruce, recent converts to the audio cause include Louis Theroux, Jeremy Paxman, Bill Clinton, Katherine Ryan, Julie Andrews, Minnie Driver, Gary Kemp, Rob Brydon, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Joss Stone, Paris Hilton, Rob Lowe, Jason Bateman, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Their all-new adventures in audio join more longstanding projects from the likes of David Tennant, Oprah, Jessie Ware, Chelsea Peretti, Kate Hudson, Snoop Dogg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lena Dunham and many, many more.”

America Has a Drinking Problem | The Atlantic

• “What’s distinctly American about this story is not alcohol’s prominent place in our history (that’s true of many societies), but the zeal with which we’ve swung between extremes. Americans tend to drink in more dysfunctional ways than people in other societies, only to become judgmental about nearly any drinking at all. Again and again, an era of overindulgence begets an era of renunciation: Binge, abstain. Binge, abstain.
• Right now we are lurching into another of our periodic crises over drinking, and both tendencies are on display at once. Since the turn of the millennium, alcohol consumption has risen steadily, in a reversal of its long decline throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Before the pandemic, some aspects of this shift seemed sort of fun, as long as you didn’t think about them too hard. In the 20th century, you might have been able to buy wine at the supermarket, but you couldn’t drink it in the supermarket. Now some grocery stores have wine bars, beer on tap, signs inviting you to “shop ’n’ sip,” and carts with cup holders.”
• Related: Why Covid rules on liquor, pot and telemedicine might last past the pandemic | Politico

‘Positive deviants’: Why rebellious workers spark great ideas | BBC

• “Unfortunately, it can be hard to maintain a corporate culture that allows rebels to flourish. Over time, the rules and standard operating procedures that support uniform service delivery, efficiency and reliable processes, can also create inertia and work against adaptability and innovation. History and culture conspire to keep things being done the same way as they’ve ‘always’ been done. People judge proposed innovations on whether they agree with the established paradigm, rather than their ability to create new paradigms. Such a state is dangerous, since it stifles needed change.
• Leaders need to be aware of these tendencies and fight against them. They should promote a culture in which challenging the status quo and pushing boundaries are seen as legitimate behaviours, rather than marking rebellious individuals as troublemakers and compromising their careers. If they are committed to creativity, leaders should take practical steps to ensure that progress is achievable, ensuring that the “rebels” have the available space, funding and time to pursue innovative ideas that may appear crazy, unwarranted or out of place at the time, but that could subsequently save the organisation.”

12% of corporate leaders are psychopaths. It’s time to take this problem seriously | Fortune

• “Our culture also glorifies and rewards successful leaders who may lie somewhere on the spectrum of psychopathy or who, if not actually psychopathic, nevertheless display traits that psychopathic individuals frequently have. The problem, of course, is that while psychopaths may have a lot of charisma and creativity, they may also lack, as already mentioned, socially important qualities such as empathy and morality.”

Inside The ‘World’s Largest’ Video Game Cheating Empire | Vice

• “Business was booming, and sales got back to where they were before Cheat Ninja started requiring rooted devices, meaning around $400,000 a month, Catfish said. At that point, the cheats were still being distributed by sellers and resellers through a network of websites and private chats and forums. Catfish and his friend developed the cheat, their colleagues would then be tasked with distributing the cheats to the sellers and resellers, and then collect payments. But then Catfish and his colleagues decided to launch an official website, CheatNinja.com, to showcase all their products.
• In 2020, “our business was not exactly smooth sailing,” Catfish said. There were more competitors, and PUBG wasn’t as popular as it once was. Moreover, Tencent and Chinese police started to really ramp up their efforts against the cheat makers, arresting 10 people accused of being part of the Cheat Ninja organization.”

Inside the ad, ad, ad, ad world of YouTube | Fortune

Force of nature: How the unstoppable Marc Benioff fueled Salesforce’s stratospheric rise | Fortune

• “Benioff wasn’t always the boss, though he clearly aspired to be from early on. He cut his teeth at Oracle, the database and applications provider, under the wings of its notoriously brash founder and former CEO, Larry Ellison. “I was the youngest vice president of a company when I was like 26, and I didn’t have any leadership training,” says Benioff.
• He wasn’t just inexperienced, he also had a problem focusing his attention, as he tells it. There were a million things he wanted to do, and spending the rest of his career working for another alpha male wasn’t one of them. Besides, he saw huge opportunity in an emerging business model: selling enterprise software over the web. The consumer Internet had already taken off, but companies weren’t yet conducting their business operations online. So, in 1999, Benioff left Oracle and started Salesforce. The idea? Instead of clunky, pricey software that companies bought for millions of dollars and then had to spend even more customizing it for their needs, Salesforce would develop tools that could be accessed online, and bought as a subscription. Customers wouldn’t have to invest in infrastructure to host the computing power these applications required; Salesforce would take care of all of that for them, in the cloud.”

Billionaires are racing to sidestep President Biden’s plan to raise their taxes | Recode

• “The Biden plan would increase the federal rate for individuals making over $450,000 a year to almost 40 percent. It would increase the ultra-rich’s capital gains tax rate — the tax rate paid by wealthy entrepreneurs when they sell a company or wealthy investors when they sell a stock — to a sum of over 40 percent. The White House would end the so-called “Angel of Death” loophole that allows the wealthy to effectively avoid capital gains tax altogether by not assessing the tax if the asset is passed along to an heir. And crucially, Biden plans to increase the enforcement firepower of the IRS, a move that the administration thinks could raise over a third of the $1.8 trillion in revenue targeted by the tax overhaul.
• And it’s true that these proposals have sent at least some of the ultra-rich screaming for the brake pedal, more than half a dozen wealth managers and accountants for some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest families told Recode.”

The Next Generation of Community Infrastructure | Lisa Xu

• “As a key part of our social fabric, communities have always been at the forefront of our lives and are constantly evolving with us as we evolve. It is fascinating to look at how dramatically communities have changed over just the past few decades. Along with the decline of communities that historically centered on geographic proximity and in-person connections (neighborhoods, religious organizations, labor unions, social clubs, etc.) has come the explosion of online communities. We have seen communities flourish across the Internet on message boards, email lists, chat rooms, social media platforms, and more. Today’s communities are forming across our entire online experience, becoming increasingly decentralized, niche, and engaged.”

Podcasts

This is Your Brain on Ads | NPR’s Hidden Brain

• “Have you ever opened your computer with the intention of sending one email — only to spend an hour scrolling through social media? Maybe two hours? In this favorite episode from our archives, we look at how media, tech, and entertainment companies hijack our attention. Plus, we consider how the commercials we saw as children continue to shape our behavior as adults.”

Why We Hold On To Things | NPR’s Hidden Brain

• “What do the things you own say about who you are? Psychologist Bruce Hood studies our relationship with our possessions — from beloved childhood objects to the everyday items we leave behind.”

Gabriel Leydon — Designing Digital Economies
| Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy

• “Gabe Leydon, who is the co-founder and former CEO of MZ, also known as Machine Zone, the company behind huge games such as Mobile Strike and Game of War. Gabe has spent the last 20 years designing video games and is one of the most original thinkers I have talked to in a long time. In our conversation, we cover why great design can be a bad sign that we’d run out of ways to innovate, the most important lessons from human psychology for building games and products, and why products which are busted or breaking but still booming can be great investment opportunities. This conversation rewired my brain on many levels, so I’m excited for you to listen. Take the red pill with us”

Assaf Wand — Innovation in Static Industries | Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy

• “Assaf Wand, CEO, and co-founder of Hippo, a homeowner insurance startup founded in 2015. In March 2021, Hippo announced a SPAC merger, valuing the business at over $5bn. In our discussion, we cover how Hippo approached innovation in the highly regulated insurance industry, unique strategies for building brand trust, and how direct relationships with homeowners has opened up Hippo’s business model to a wide range of opportunities”

State of Play: Supply Chain & Logistics — with Hamid Moghadam | The Prof G Show with Scott Galloway

• “Hamid Moghadam, the CEO of Prologis, a logistics real estate business, breaks down how warehouses have evolved to meet the demand for speedy deliveries, how the pandemic expedited trends in the supply chain space, and how a booming era of e-commerce is driving this sector. He also reflects on his career path as an Iranian-American and a leader of a nearly $90 billion company.
• Scott opens with Snap’s investments in augmented reality and explores how the broader social commerce space is shaping up as social media companies battle it out for shoppers’ attention — and wallets.”

Amazon Unbound — with Brad Stone | The Prof G Show with Scott Galloway

• “Brad Stone, the senior executive editor for Global Technology at Bloomberg News, joins to discuss his latest book: Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire. We hear how the company has transformed under Jeff Bezos’s leadership and the existential threats coming for its market dominance.”

What Changes Will Stick When the Pandemic Is Gone? | Freaknomics’ No Stupid Questions

• Also: would you take a confirmation bias vaccine?

Do You Really Need a Muse to Be Creative? | Freaknomics’ No Stupid Questions

• Also: is shortsightedness part of human nature?

What’s the Secret to Making a Great Prediction? | Freaknomics’ No Stupid Questions

Will Work-from-Home Work Forever? | Freakonomics

• “The pandemic may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean we’ll return to full-time commuting and packed office buildings. The greatest accidental experiment in the history of labor has lessons to teach us about productivity, flexibility, and even reversing the brain drain. But don’t buy another dozen pairs of sweatpants just yet.”

How to Get Anyone to Do Anything | Freakonomics

• “The social psychologist Robert Cialdini is a pioneer in the science of persuasion. His 1984 book Influence is a classic, and he has just published an expanded and revised edition. In this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, he gives a master class in the seven psychological levers that bewitch our rational minds and lead us to buy, behave, or believe without a second thought.”

Musique

LA Summer / PC (Post-COVID) Vibes | A Playlist by James Shecter