P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #405
⛰︎ From the mountains
my story 🚀
This week’s edition is coming to you from Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It’s a little mountain town just across the border from New Mexico. We had some great skiing this week and got to celebrate a few nights of Hanukkah in a big house full of cousins. We’ll be heading back to Austin to greet the new year and kick off 2025!
fun facts 🙌
What is in fire retardants dropped from planes? “In the United States, firefighting strategies range from the ground to the air. Aerial firefighting is one of these strategies. It involves dropping water and fire retardant from planes to slow or stop the spread of a wildfire. But what exactly is in fire retardants dropped from planes, and how do they work?” ~ learn more
Aerial firefighting is a labor of love. “Diving toward a burning hillside in his first season flying an air tanker for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Jeff Reynolds realized he was doing just about everything his early flight instructors warned him not to.” ~ learn more
Encyclopedia of Smell History and Heritage. I stumbled upon this and am so glad it exists. Today’s link is to an article on Civet. “Unlike musk, ambergris and castoreum, civet had been unknown to the classical Western world. As of its introduction to the European market in the 16th century, civet came to be used in medicine, perfumery, and in other consumer practices, such as smoking, powdering wigs and taking snuff.” ~ learn more
Racing’s deadliest day. “How the 1955 Le Mans disaster changed motorsport forever.” I’m not a huge racing enthusiast and didn’t know this story prior to reading. It’s pretty gory. ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Intelligence arbitrage. “2010s; build software that solves a problem and sell it to other businesses. 2024; build software that buys businesses. Whether you start with models and use acquisitions for data, compete with PE firms, or create a tech-enabled rollup - the most interesting part isn't the technology, it's how these deals get structured and funded.” ~ learn more
The next OS in computing. “It’s different now. When I manage spreadsheets, I don’t want to manipulate formulas anymore. Instead, I want to instruct the computer as I would explain to a colleague : “run the correlations on these variables to see if anything meaningful pops out, then plot it, & add it to the deck.” ~ learn more
Making sense of o3 in public. “To start, it's been quite a shock. every conversation i had yesterday revolved around it. it affected my sleep. probably some anomalies in oura data for certain SF neighborhoods last night.” ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
The 6 mistakes you’re going to make as a new manager. “Reflecting on my first couple of years as an Engineering Manager, I realized that the lessons I learned are not unique to me; many new managers face similar experiences. That’s why I want to share these insights with you. My goal is to support and connect with other new managers who are going through this exciting yet demanding transition.” ~ learn more
Why you shouldn’t build your career around existential risk. “If you're anti-capitalist, you need capitalism. If you're anti-communist, you need communism. "Any PR is good PR". Any attention is good attention. If you're anti-something it means that something exists and it's important enough to be anti-it. In fact, the bigger it is, the better for your career.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
The gilded age of medicine is here. The New Yorker takes aim and fires. “In 1873, Mark Twain co-wrote the novel “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today,” which satirized an era that was marked by inequality, greed, and moral decay but was painted in a veneer of abundance and progress. Industrialists made fortunes in oil, steel, and shipping even as millions suffered poverty and exploitation. Today, health care is where the money is. New technologies and treatments sustain the impression that patients have never been healthier, but corporations and conglomerates wield immense power at the expense of the people they’re meant to serve. Welcome to the Gilded Age of medicine.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
How Amazon is wooing publishers to bolster its $50 billion ad business. “An eMarketer forecast maintains the e-commerce giant’s advertising revenue will top $67 billion by 2025, and earlier this week at Amazon Publisher Services’ summit, it revealed new features (it hopes) will help its edge closer to that number.” ~ learn more
Retailers need more than ‘bells and whistles’ to scoop up media dollars. “Similar to a peacock mating dance, smaller, regional and specialized retail media networks like Macy’s, Lowe’s and Home Depot have spent the last few months rebranding and retooling their offerings, hoping to catch the attention and budgets of media buyers in a sea of competitors. “ ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
There’s a reason DNA’s double helix has a right-handed twist. “Our proteins, by contrast, are made of left-handed amino acids. This combination is found not just in humans, but in every species on Earth. Scientists are still debating how evolution landed on this arrangement. In theory, a mirror cell — with left-handed DNA and right-handed proteins — could carry out all the biochemical reactions required to stay alive.” ~ learn more
on the blockchain ⛓
The basic concept behind Chaos. “An AI (also known as… get this… @divinediarrhea) that not only develops a presence/personality in the digital world, but in our lowly old physical realm as well. Cool… so where does crypto come into it? Simple: anyone that owns the $CHAOS token → owns a part of the Chaos robot.” ~ learn more