P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #368
Space
my story 🚀
🚀 I just finished Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez. It’s a sequel to Delta-V, the first space-oriented science fiction book in this series. Both were such fun to read. Suarez is one of my favorite authors because he builds near-future worlds with maximal impact from today’s nascent, fringe technologies. If you’re looking for a sci-fi thriller, these have my stamp of approval.
fun facts 🙌
Gordon Gekko was innocent. A very insightful review of the 1980s movie Wall Street. “But what I would like to do is make the following case; very few of the actions which bring down the whole house of cards on Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko were actually illegal under securities law at the time. In fact, I’d make a case that any sequel to this film would have to start with the premise that Gordon Gekko was acquitted on all charges of securities fraud.” Bud, on the other hand, was insanely guilty. ~ learn more
Self-assembling nanomachines. The bacterial flagellum is an incredible, natural, nano-scale motor. “Film from Keiichi Namba and colleagues, explaining their work at the cutting edge of research into the structure, function and assembly of the bacterial flagellum.” ~ learn more
The rise of the remote husband. The Economist points out that remote work is not distributed equally. “All over the country, among the well-heeled and well-educated, a new trend appears to be emerging. When the wives head out in the morning, to their offices, classrooms or hospitals, they are waving goodbye to their husbands, who remain at home.” ~ learn more
Wait, does America suddenly have a record number of bees? A story of incentives. “After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage and years of grieving suspiciously clean windshields, we were stunned to run the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture (otherwise known as that wonderful time every five years where the government counts all the llamas): America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.” ~ learn more
oh, austin 🤠
Can a big village full of tiny homes ease homelessness in Austin? I had heard of Community First but had not looked into it. This is a profile published in the NYT. “One of the nation’s largest experiments in affordable housing to address chronic homelessness is taking shape outside the city limits.” ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Tech’s blind spot: the aging revolution. “People’s inability to maintain their independence is going to have a massive ripple effect on our world, with major implications to our society (loneliness, increased family caregiving demands), economy (rising health costs, lost productivity), healthcare system (stress on our already overwhelmed care system), and the lives of aging adults (loss of autonomy, ability to get dressed, and decreased quality of life from not being able to enjoy the activities they love).” ~ learn more
The data business, at three resolutions. “Byron Tau's Means of Control is a fun look at the world of government entities buying data from private companies for law enforcement and intelligence purposes. For anyone who's had experience working with data for hedge funds, or using it to target ads, it's an especially delightful read—it turns out that the same companies providing raw data that offered a better way to track intra-quarter trends in same-store sales were using that same data to help target drone strikes. Who knew!?” ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Avoid blundering: 80% of a winning strategy. What’s true in amateur chess and tennis is that one can win by avoiding blunders moreso than by winning points. Is it true in startups as well? This author makes the case. ~ learn more
Ambition’s gravity. “I’m here to tell you: you can simply decide to do big things. And I’m here to argue that you should spend the time to figure out the most ambitious thing you could dream of doing with your one wild and precious life.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
Optum: testing time for an invisible empire. “At $226 billion annual revenues, Optum is the largest healthcare business in the US that no-one knows anything about. Optum by itself has revenues that are a little less than 5% of total US healthcare spending.” … and … “If there really were economies of scale in healthcare, they would mean that care was of demonstrably better value provided by vast enterprises like Optum/United than in more fragmented, smaller, or less integrated alternatives. It is not clear that it is.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
When regulation kicked in to lower credit card fees and interest rates. Interesting findings here, demonstrating that the market was not perfectly efficient nor competitive. Maybe because of a high barrier to entry? “We use a panel data set covering 160 million credit card accounts and a difference-in-differences research design that compares changes in outcomes over time for consumer credit cards, which were subject to the regulations, to changes for small business credit cards, which the law did not cover.” See the appendix for fun charts. ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Maybe we can’t actually extend the lifespans of mice? This is a very provocative analysis. Are there implications for aging science? “Let's start with calorie restriction, shall we? Everyone knows that it slows aging, isn't it? Well, not really. Take a look at the chart below… Each bar represents a genetically distinct strain of mice. A bar above 0 indicates that CR resulted in lifespan extension, and below 0 indicates lifespan shortening. As you can see, the effect was negative for more than half of the strains.” ~ learn more
thoughts of food 🍔
Is Momofuku a trademark bully? They have filed for, but not yet received a trademark on ‘chili crunch’. Yet, “David Chang’s food empire is sending cease-and-desists in what some say is an effort to dominate the spicy condiment’s market.” ~ learn more
3G Capital quietly exited its Kraft Heinz investment last year. Warren Buffett is supporting the company, or holding the bag — depending on your perspective. “Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital quietly sold off its 16.1% stake in Kraft Heinz in the fourth quarter, nearly nine years after masterminding the blockbuster merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz with Warren Buffett.” ~ learn more
teaching the kids 👩🏫
Against the burden of knowledge. There’s a theory that new ideas are becoming harder to find called the ‘burden of knowledge’, positing that as the body of collective knowledge grows, it takes more time and effort to get to the edges of what we already know. This writer disagrees, and instead points to the decay of institutions as the culprit. That’s more convenient as a theory because it’s a fixable condition. ~ learn more
big ideas 📚
How scientists harness the ocean’s power to fight climate change. The Today show coverage of a startup that’s working on ocean carbon capture. There’s a balance of carbon between the air and the ocean. As we pump more into the air, the ocean absorbs some. When that happens it becomes more acidic. By adding a basic substance, the ocean is neutralized and the carbon trapped, allowing the ocean to pull yet more carbon from the air. ~ learn more