P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #187

♻ Reminder: I host a regularly updated page of open jobs in my network. If any role looks interesting for you, I’m happy to chat about the company.

Book inspiration: I’m resurfacing my Q4 reading list takeaways.

📕 Flow

📙 Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

📘 Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies

45% of Americans believe that ghosts and demons exist. “Far less common is the belief that vampires live among us. Only 13 percent of Americans say that vampires definitely or probably exist.” | learn more

Is it true that electric cars wear out tires faster? This is a Quora link. First up, a convincing “yes” answer. Next, a convincing “no” answer. I had almost chosen a side until I read the comments. Truth is hard! | learn more

Legal aid group data shows only 2% of people CPD arrests get a lawyer. The data here is interesting, although the reporting is not exactly unbiased. The number is so low that I am suspicious about how it’s calculated, and the article doesn’t elaborate, but it does say the source is the police department. | learn more

Quibi is shutting down after just 6 months. In 2018 this startup raised $1 billion at inception. It caused Steve Blank to ask Is the lean startup dead? Then we saw the fat startup’s launch teaser in January of this year. Here, the story ends, as “the first high-profile casualty of the streaming wars.” High profile, yes, but not high viewership. | learn more

The Mike Speiser incubation playbook. I’m only now learning about this Speiser’s approach – it’s fascinating! “Speiser currently has a roughly 20% hit rate of his companies achieving multi-billion dollar valuations.” | learn more

The Moby Dick theory of big companies. This is a 2007 essay from Marc Andreessen. “The most important thing you need to know going into any discussion or interaction with a big company is that you’re Captain Ahab, and the big company is Moby Dick.” | learn more

The baloney detection kit. I appreciate how quickly this gets to the heart of the issue. “Carl Sagan’s rules for bullshit-busting and critical thinking.” | learn more

Theory of change. The author explains this popular concept from the political & nonprofit communities. “A theory of change is the opposite of a theory of action — it works backwards from the goal, in concrete steps, to figure out what you can do to achieve it.” | learn more

What the pandemic has taught us about science. I enjoyed this essay from Matt Ridley in the WSJ. “The scientific method remains the best way to solve many problems, but bias, overconfidence and politics can sometimes lead scientists astray.” | learn more

Amazon pilots CBD sales in UK. You might be surprised to learn that CBD, the substances seemingly sold in every corner store nowadays, is banned from Facebook and Google ads. I’ve seen Facebook workarounds that offer C-🐝-D instead. Amazon testing the category is a break with the status quo. | learn more

A fire-retardant lithium-ion battery that’s 80% lighter. “The new batteries could revolutionize charging. They also increase energy density by 16-26%.” | learn more

Researchers synthesize room temperature superconducting material. “Compressing simple molecular solids with hydrogen at extremely high pressures, University of Rochester engineers and physicists have, for the first time, created material that is superconducting at room temperature.” | learn more

Amazon Fresh opening four grocery stores in Chicago suburbs. Ben Thompson explained in 2017 that Amazon bought Whole Foods so they could be a customer. Rumors of Amazon Fresh’s launch reached us in early 2019. Wal-Mart still dominates the grocery category with more than double the sales of 2nd place Kroger. But, never forget who owns relentless.com. | learn more

Why is there only one Elon Musk? This is a wonderful thought exploration. “There are almost 8 billion people on the planet – why is there so much low-hanging fruit? Why is there so much stuff to work on?” | learn more

Why are dollar-backed stablecoins earning 8% yield? It’s not a scam. Look upstream, because the ones paying 8% are actually earning even higher rates. | learn more

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