The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Colombia Tolima Los Brasiles Peaberry Organic coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• Microsoft’s CEO on How AI Will Remake Every Company, Including His: Nervous customers and a volatile partnership with OpenAI are complicating things for Satya Nadella and the world’s most valuable company. (Businessweek)
• Trump Blinked ‘Big Time’ on China Trade, Taking Worst Case Off Table: U.S. and China’s agreement to ratchet back retaliatory tariffs and hit a 90-day pause to talk trade sent markets soaring by taking the ugliest scenario—a messy and quick decoupling of the two economies—off the table. That doesn’t mean no damage has been done. (Barron’s) see also China Called Trump’s Bluff: There is a lesson here for anyone Trump threatens. (The Atlantic)
• Across America, Big Cities Are Sinking. Here’s Why. A major reason is too much groundwater is being pumped out, new research shows, threatening buildings and infrastructure nationwide. (New York Times)
• Trump’s Real Secretary of State: How the president’s friend and golfing partner Steve Witkoff got one of the hardest jobs on the planet (The Atlantic)
• The Inside Story of Oculus Rift and How Virtual Reality Became Reality: Oculus has found a way to make a headset that does more than just hang a big screen in front of your face—it hacks your visual cortex. (Wired)
• Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals: Complex neural circuits likely arose independently in birds and mammals, suggesting that vertebrates evolved intelligence multiple times. (Quanta)
• 9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything: The U.S. is slashing funding for scientific research, after decades of deep investment. Here’s some of what those taxpayer dollars created. (New York Times)
• Cartoon Network’s Last Gasp: The irreverent animation factory once cranked out hits, talent and profits. But with David Zaslav’s retreat from streaming kids programming, the future of the network is in question. (Businessweek)
• How often do lead characters die in movies? I logged the fates of 27,000+ lead characters to uncover how death on screen has shifted by genre, decade, and cause. (Stephen Follows)
• He Spent $12,495 to Be Gene Simmons’s Roadie (and Got More Than Expected): A father-son pair ponied up for the V.I.P. experience last week and got a glimpse behind the scenes of a rock ’n’ roll show, and into a notorious star’s heart. (New York Times)
Be sure to check out our Master’s in Business with John Montgomery, founder and CEO of Bridgeway Capital. The firm, which was founded in 1993, manages ~$5B in assets; they have become known for donating 50% of their annual company profits to non-profit organizations.
Chances are that the stock you own is going to go down 50% at some point in the next five years
Source: @MebFaber
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