P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #373
Chess Children
my story 🚀
fun facts 🙌
Male vs female obesity rates by country. America has relatively high gender equality, maybe maybe that’s not such a great thing here. ~ learn more
Keg stand in Facebook’s office 14 years ago. An early 5-minute interview with Zuck. He’s holding a red solo cup. He’s pumped to occasionally be out in the wild and see Facebook open on someone’s computer screen. Someone in the office is filmed doing a keg stand. ~ learn more
What is a Lehman scale? I guess Lehman is given credit for standardizing the fees for selling a business. The “Lehman scale” is one where the % fees go down as the value of the deal goes up. It’s the opposite of how Federal income taxes work, where each bracket of income gets taxed at a higher marginal rate. That would be called the “Reverse Lehman”. It’s notable that this name survived longer than the firm! ~ learn more
Peter Thiel speaks to political conservatives about California’s curse of tech. It’s akin to the curse of oil for developing nations. ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Capabilities of Gemini models in medicine. Google’s DeepMind research team made something really good. You might enjoy flipping through this paper and reading the exhibits. “Finally, Med-Gemini’s performance suggests real-world utility by surpassing human experts on tasks such as medical text summarization and referral letter generation, alongside demonstrations of promising potential for multimodal medical dialogue, medical research and education. Taken together, our results offer compelling evidence for the promise of Med-Gemini in many areas of medicine…” ~ learn more
Are the flying cars finally here? Yes! Well, almost! Okay, soon! Fine, someway! “People in the industry tend to think that flight is useful and awesome, and not necessarily in that order. One of the reasons that the idea of flying cars has endured is that it seems to promise two different kinds of freedom: on the one hand, to get from point A to point B without a lot of hassle; on the other hand, to know the euphoria of exploring the third dimension.” ~ learn more
Apple’s great flattening. Did you see that Apple ad? The one where they crushed all the creative tools of the last several centuries into one super-thin iPad. Creatives didn’t love it. This Stratechery piece uses the ad as a jumping off point for a broader analysis. “One thing I do credit Apple for is not trying to erase the ad from the Internet — it’s still posted on CEO Tim Cook’s X account — because I think it’s important not just as a marker of what has happened over the last several years, but also the choices facing us in the years ahead.” ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
11 public speaking techniques from the world’s greatest speakers. This was new advice: “As I start my run, my heart rate spikes and I start sweating. At that point, I start practicing my speech to make it muscle memory, allowing my brain to know that I can calmly get through it no matter how much physical stress I’m under.” ~ learn more
Uninterrupted work. Interruptions can be so costly for many types of work. Not short mindless tasks like stuffing envelopes, but certainly for complex thought work. This piece explores the two dimensions that can make this costly: fixed startup costs and linear vs non-linear output. ~ learn more
Navigating the unpredictability of everything. “We dramatically, repeatedly fail to predict the future. Does that mean “strategy” is senseless? No, it means you need these techniques to navigate a volatile world.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
CVS drugs go cost-plus. “CVS’ new CostVantage model will work with a formula based on how much CVS paid for the drug, a set markup over those costs, and a fee for pharmacy services to fill the prescription, according to a news release. Some experts and publications have compared the change to the approach used by the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
The people lending money to your local pot dealer. “A New York lawmaker called for the state to sever its relationship with a Chicago-based private equity firm helping to fund weed dispensaries run by people impacted by the war on drugs following a report from THE CITY revealing alarming details of the agreement.” ~ learn more
Will Foxtrot make a come-back? At least one guy (me) hopes so. “Multiple Chicago landlords are considering deals with the new ownership group of Foxtrot, which several people familiar with the matter have said involves the brand’s founder Mike LaVitola.” ~ learn more
thoughts of food 🍔
Defending Sweeetgreen’s steak. “I just read a post where someone is throwing shade at sweetgreen for adding steak to their menu (of which I think was an awesome move by their part). The person posting is, of course, are a vegan advocate but either way, their position is that the mission of sweetgreen is now tainted because steak, in their words, "is not healthy and is bad for our food system." Then went on to ask why sweetgreen can't use products like meati™ chunk foods and Juicy Marbles, of which I have never even heard of and just for fun reviewed their website to find out what's in their "thick cut filet", here you go: Ingredients: WATER, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE (27%), SUNFLOWER OIL, NATURAL FLAVORS, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: VEGETABLE JUICE (COLOR), CARRAGEENAN, METHYLCELLULOSE, VITAMIN B12. CONTAINS: SOY.” ~ learn more