P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #398
Staying outside
my story 🚀
fun facts 🙌
How we chat online 1998-2024. Data visualization of chat app active users dating back to the days when AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ each had only a few million users. ~ learn more
Champion brand’s original and revival story. “Over the last century, Champion experienced its heyday and downfall, but as the saying goes—it’s a marathon, not a sprint. In the last decade, Champion made an unexpected comeback, stepping into the spotlight once again. “ ~ learn more
Japan’s wood-panelled satellite. “Named LignoSat, after the Latin word for wood, its panels have been built from a type of magnolia tree, using a traditional technique without screws or glue.” ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Peek into Worklife Ventures Fund I performance. “While it’s still early, we worked with Aduro to measure how Worklife is tracking against other similar-sized funds ($0-50M) across 10 vintage years from 2014 through 2023.” ~ learn more
Why AI is underhyped with Elad Gil. This is a podcast interview with Joe Lonsdale. “In this episode, Elad takes us behind the scenes of the early days of Google and Twitter, and how Silicon Valley culture has evolved. He explains his three categories of exceptional founders and how he positioned himself to become one of the top angel investors.” ~ learn more
Peloton’s P&L under the microscope. The Secret CFO digs in to the company’s income statement. “Are they actually making money on bikes and treads? How profitable is that $44/month subscription? What the hell is going on in the cost base?” ~ learn more
Patients in healthcare still like phone calls. "We basically ended up building generative AI phone agents for healthcare practices. We essentially operate as a managed service where we go to a medical group and say, 'Hey, you're spending so much time calling patients that are referred to you, outsource that work to us and we will integrate with your entire tech stack, your EHR, and take that work off your plate'." ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
I talk to robots while driving. “We jumped from discussing Cooper Flagg’s basketball stats at Duke to comparing Carlo Rovelli and Brian Greene’s competing theories of physics to talking about the history of San Francisco. In a daring feat of economic analysis, I asked it to calculate if the after-tax returns of two ETFs were statistically significant & to compare the energy portfolios using the 13-Fs of a few hedge funds for investment ideas. When a friend hopped in, nothing changed : a three-way conversation where one of the participants happened to be a savantic robot.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
Weird health insurance concepts. “Maybe we’ll learn a thing or two about intercompany eliminations, co-pay accumulators/maximizers, and reference-based pricing.” ~ learn more
What goes on at a longevity clinic? “Think of it as a high-tech health spa. These clinics offer everything from genetic testing and cellular rejuvenation to IV drips and hormone therapy—all in the name of living longer, healthier lives.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
New bookstore business model rents shelf space. “The concept brings back the joy of browsing real books to communities where many bookstores have shut, and gives readers more eclectic choices than those suggested by online sellers’ algorithms, its proponents say. “Here, you find books which make you wonder who on earth would buy them,” laughs Shogo Imamura, 40, who opened one such store in Tokyo’s bookstore district of Kanda Jimbocho in April.” ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Detecting lung cancer by breath. “When the human body breaks down fat in a process called lipolytic cholesterol metabolism, isoprene is released in exhaled breath. As it turns out, a decline in isoprene can indicate the presence of lung cancer. The team, led by researchers at China's Zhejiang University, leveraged this insight through its work and developed an innovative gas sensing material to create a screening process.” ~ learn more
A new algorithm for uncovering causality in complex systems. Created by a team of MIT engineers, “The algorithm determines the specific nature of that relationship, such as whether two variables are synergistic—meaning one variable only influences another if it is paired with a second variable—or redundant, such that a change in one variable can have exactly the same, and therefore redundant, effect as another variable.” ~ learn more