My morning train WFH reads:
• I Asked ChatGPT to Manage a Stock Portfolio. Here’s How It Did. What followed was a monthslong back-and-forth on everything from tariffs to leveraged funds . Spoiler: it picked momentum and got beaten by a bad market. Useful as a reality check on the AI-as-PM pitch deck. I planned to test it for a few weeks. (Wall Street Journal)
• Storied Toolmaker Closes Its Last Hometown Plant—and Blames Its Tape Measures: WHat a bullshit excuse — Stanley Black & Decker says fewer buyers want the Connecticut plant’s single-sided tape measures, preferring double-sided ones made abroad. (Wall Street Journal) but see what really happened Your Power Tools Got Worse on Purpose: The 2010 merger of Stanley Works and Black & Decker created a company that already owned DeWalt. From there they went on an acquisition spree that should have built an empire. Instead it built a bloated holding company drowning in debt and leadership turnover. (Worse on Purpose)
• The Fastest V-Shaped Recovery Ever: First semis, then software; Peak Social Media; Your SaaSflation Is My Opportunity. (It’s time to build.)
• Demand destruction vs fuel-superseding infrastructure: In starting this stupid, unforgivable war, Trump has vastly accelerated the process of demand destruction. Rather than buying American oil, the whole world has undertaken a simultaneous, rapid, irreversible shift to electrical substitutes for fossil fuel applications, from induction tops to balcony solar to ebikes and EVs: Doctorow on why building the alternative is more durable than punishing the incumbent. Energy-transition strategy as policy aikido. (Pluralistic)
• Scientists Are Starting to Unlock the Nanoscale Secrets of the Immune System: Immunologist Daniel Davis detailed the ways in which new technologies are enabling a better understanding of the human immune system. On the molecular-scale reckoning happening in immunology and the therapeutic implications are years out, but the science is now. (Wired)
• ‘The Most Bipartisan Issue Since Beer’: Opposition to Data Centers: Liberals and conservatives, finally united — by NIMBYism over the AI build-out. The grid math, water draw, and tax breaks are uniting people who never agree. (New York Times)
• The unflattering secrets revealed so far in Elon Musk’s latest legal feud: Shira Ovide digs through the court filings in Musk vs. Altman / OpenAI for what’s already embarrassing for Musk. Hundreds of court filings have revealed cringey texts, emails or private diary entries of Musk, Sam Altman, other OpenAI founders and other public figures. (Washington Post)
• A Stanford Experiment to Pair 5,000 Singles Has Taken Over Campus: A student built a matchmaking algorithm that has consumed the school—and highlighted the challenges of finding love for high achievers. (Wall Street Journal)
• F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe: The agency’s scientists and data contractors reviewed millions of patient records for studies that were pulled back before release. Suppressing favorable safety data because it conflicts with political messaging is its own kind of malpractice. The institutional rot continues to surface. The agency’s scientists and data contractors reviewed millions of patient records for studies that were pulled back before release. (New York Times)
• Work Won’t Love You Back: Greta Rainbow on ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ For those who’ve seen every Met Gala fit yet crave another fashion fix, the writer reports from Times Square on the sequel’s view of labor, love, and, of course, looks. The smarter take on the sequel — what it accidentally says about the labor economics of the prestige magazine world. (Filmmaker) see also That’s All: A Guide to Every Easter Egg in The Devil Wears Prada 2: For those keeping score on the sequel. Pure entertainment, but a useful index of where pop-culture nostalgia currently sits. From celebrity cameos to that emotional ending, a spoiler-filled rundown of references to the original film and special guests joining the sequel. (Vanity Fair)
Be sure to check out our Master’s in Business interview this weekend with Howard Lindzon, known as “The Larry David of Finance.” He is General Partner at the seed fund, Social Leverage, he was one of the first seed investors in Robinhood, which IPOd at $30B in 2021, eToro, Manscaped, and Beehiiv. Previously, he founded Wallstrip, a daily online video show acquired by CBS (2007). He also co-founded Stocktwits, which pioneered the “cashtag.” Recognized by Institutional Investor as a “Super Angel;” his podcast is Panic with Friends.
The Iran war is accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels
Source: Paul Krugman
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