My mid-week morning reads:
• I Vibe Coded a Security Risk: The app worked. Nobody, including me, had checked whether it was safe. “The feature is live lol” — a sentence written with a genuinely nervous laugh, immediately after the code-review agent explained what had just shipped. (Every)
• America’s Mortgage King Lost $600 Million and Needed a Rescue: Billionaire Mat Ishbia was in trouble after a failed takeover and mistimed bets on interest rates. The rescue came from Oaktree Capital Management, which tells you most of what you need to know about the terms. (Wall Street Journal) see also MiB: Mat Ishbia, United Wholesale Mortgage’s CEO: The chief executive officer of United Wholesale Mortgage (UWC), the top wholesale lender and No. 2 overall mortgage lender in the United States. The 9,000-person firm went public in the biggest SPAC ever. (The Big Picture)
• The Best Way to Sell a Concentrated Position: Most of the time, this exercise will tell you to sell more than you’d like. You won’t get filthy rich by doing so, but you’ll never be poor either. Nick Maggiulli works the actual math on the problem every advisor eventually inherits — one giant low-basis holding and no painless exit. (Of Dollars And Data)
• How animation studios are killing their future with AI: Studios are firing skilled animators, then rehiring them to fix what the models get wrong. Sadev Parikh on the full cycle — studios fire skilled animators, then rehire them to clean up what the models got wrong. (Washington Post)
• War Is Helping Chinese EVs Upend the Global Car Market: High gasoline prices are giving a boost to China’s electric-vehicle exports, Thailand cut excise taxes on imported electric cars and its prime minister swapped his Rolls-Royce for a BYD as part of a national energy push. Laos banned gasoline car imports outright for the rest of the year. (Wall Street Journal)
• Twenty-Seven Years with Victor Niederhoffer (By a longtime collaborator) Laurel Kenner’s remembrance of Niederhoffer, who died August 4. She was halfway through a Louis l’Amour novel about a man who repeatedly started over from zero, and recognized him in it. (Laurel Kenner)
• Greenland Issues ‘Strong Warning’ as Trump-Linked Oil Firm Prepares to Drill: The island’s government says it granted no approval after Greenland Energy landed equipment ashore for exploratory drilling. (The Guardian)
• Leg evolution made most humans right-handed: ‘Rightie’ preference isn’t seen in any of our primate relatives. (Popular Science)
• How a Drone ‘Hellscape’ Might Stop a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan: Inspired by Ukraine’s battlefield gains, Taiwan is betting on drones to deter a potential Chinese invasion. The Pentagon’s plan to fill the Taiwan Strait with thousands of cheap autonomous systems, and whether it would actually buy enough time. (New York Times)
• A Spectacular Solar Eclipse Is Coming. Here’s How to See It.: The August 2026 totality path, where to stand, and what the viewing conditions look like. Here’s where the August 12 eclipse will be visible, what viewers can expect—and why even a partial eclipse requires proper eye protection. (National Geographic)
Video of the day: NASA Is Flying to an Asteroid Worth More Than Earth — Here’s the Catch
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business with Jack Raines, a writer and venture capitalist. We discuss his new book, Young Money.
Chipmakers and health care sectors have converged to identical forward P/E ratios for the first time in years
Source: Apollo
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