The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• I Want to Live Like Costco People: Embracing the Costco lifestyle means accepting the fact that I am, in many ways, becoming my father. This is an old idea, both Freudian and Kierkegaardian—the belief that we are all destined to embody learned characteristics and habits passed down from parent to child. On the strange aspirational pull of bulk warehouse shopping. A rare cultural piece that’s actually fun. Some of us are crying in H Mart; some of us are mourning in Costco. (Taste)
• David Attenborough and the Voice That Revealed a Planet: As Attenborough turns 100, a tribute to the most recognizable voice in nature documentary — and a worldview that hardened from wonder into warning over six decades. (The Ringer) see also At 100, David Attenborough Is Nature’s Most Trusted Voice: A second centennial salute to Attenborough, this one featuring Prince Harry. Two takes on the same milestone — pick your poison. (Time)
• SpaceX is Breaking Capitalism (& Indexing): Once upon a time, companies went public to raise money. You’d go on a road show to pitch your story and drum up interest, you’d float a big pile of stock, and then you’re off to the races to go build your company. Turns out, that’s not really the case anymore. On the index-construction problem when the most valuable companies are private and untouchable. The market-cap weighted world has a SpaceX-shaped blind spot. (ETF.com)
• Raising Cane’s Grew From an Idea a College Professor Hated: No one believed in Todd Graves’ vision for a restaurant at first. Today, Raising Cane’s is the third-largest chicken chain in the US by sales and growing fast. Founder Todd Graves built a multibillion-dollar chicken-finger empire from a business-school F. The professor is presumably re-grading. (Businessweek)
• Artemis II Is Competency Porn and We Are Starving For It: (girls will be like i needed this and it’s just four nerds in space). If you have spent the last week inexplicably emotional about a space mission, you are not alone and you are not being dramatic. Something real is happening to you. Something your nervous system recognized before your brain caught up to it, and it is worth understanding why, because the reason is actually about a lot more than space.On the cathartic appeal of an institution that still works. The rocket program is the rare federal effort that actually delivers on its press release. (Airplane Mode)
• Six lessons from history’s greatest financial crises: Robin Wigglesworth distills six recurring patterns. None of them are surprising; all of them keep getting forgotten. (Financial Times)
• Toyota built a $10 billion private utopia—what’s going on in there?: A reported tour of Woven City, the corporate test-bed at the foot of Mount Fuji. The ‘utopia’ framing is doing a lot of work, but the engineering is real. Woven City is a privacy nightmare but could be helpful to an OEM desperate to be more. (Ars Technica) see also Our Cringe Century: On cringe as the dominant cultural register of the 2020s. A cleverer essay than the headline suggests. Since the start of the millennium Britain has found new and exquisite ways to humiliate herself. Here, in order, are the most embarrassing moments. (The Fence)
• There Is No ‘Hard Problem Of Consciousness’ A bracing essay arguing the famous puzzle is a category error. Whether you buy it or not, it’s the best version of the case. Consciousness is not separate from the physical world — our “soul” is of the same nature as our body and any other phenomenon of the world. (NOEMA)
• How college students are learning to socialize without cellphones: Phone-free dorms and screen-free social hours are spreading on campus. The kids may end up correcting this faster than the policymakers. (Washington Post)
• Who’s NBA’s most overrated player? Underrated? Best coach? Anonymous player poll results: How do NBA players feel about which of their peers is most underrated and most overrated? And what do they think when it comes to the league’s head coaches? We asked them those questions, and more, for The Athletic’s 2026 Anonymous NBA Player Poll. (The Athletic)
Video of the day: Billie Eilish | Good Hang with Amy Poehler
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.
Which Brands Make the Best Cars?
Source: Consumer Reports
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