The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of High Performance LeMans coffee, grab a seat by the pool, and get ready for our longer form weekend reads:
• The Democracy Factory: For decades, the vote-by-mail business was a sleepy industry that stayed out of the spotlight. Then came 2020. (California Sunday)
• Black Venture Capitalists Confront Silicon Valley’s Quiet Racism: The U.S. population is 13% Black, and just 4% of the VC industry is African-American. Those who make it into clubby industry find obstacles to creating opportunities for others. (Bloomberg)
• The Big Tech Extortion Racket: How Google, Amazon, and Facebook control our lives; These companies are the most powerful middlemen in history. Each guards the gate to innumerable sources of essential information, services, and products. (Harpers)
• The End of History and the Fast Man: Self-driving cars will bring not more freedom but more captivity; Bidding farewell to America’s car culture — and its democratic virtues. (New Atlantis)
• The Wildest Insurance Fraud Scheme Texas Has Ever Seen: Over a decade, Theodore Robert Wright III destroyed cars, yachts, and planes. That was only the half of it. (Texas Monthly)
• In the Land of Kush: A dazzling civilization flourished in Sudan nearly 5,000 years ago. Why was it forgotten? (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Beware the tea: Why do Russians keep being poisoned? The Kremlin’s foes have a much higher chance of succumbing to rare poisons than the general population. Why? Who poisoned Alexei Navalny? And what does it mean for Russia? (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Infected by Doubt: A 26-year-old film editor’s descent into coronavirus vaccine conspiracy theories: On Facebook, he announced a conference was providing him with something else: a revelation that challenged his understanding of his body, his government and — above all — the infection that was ending and changing lives across the country. (Washington Post)
• A Rust Belt Town’s Loyalties Divide as Pennsylvania Turns Purple: Pennsylvania is a prized battleground in this year’s election, and if Donald Trump carries the state again it will be because he either held on to, or built up, support in places such as Beaver County, in which Ambridge sits. Trump carried the county by 15,636 votes in 2016—or more than a third of the narrow 44,292-vote margin he had over Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania overall. (Businessweek)
• 10 Ways to Find Stillness in Turbulent Times: Thankfully, there are thousands of years of teachings about how to get there, proven exercises that will help you keep steady, disciplined, focused, at peace, and able to access your full capabilities at any time, in any place, despite any distraction and every difficulty. (Ryan Holiday)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Morgan Housel, former writer for Motley Fool and WSJ, and partner at Collaborative Funds. His new book, The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness, will be out September 8th.
Americans are hopeful COVID-19 will be under control in 6 months but see the Federal government as making things worse
Source: Ipsos
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