P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #435
Europe to Chicago
my story 🚀
🔟 ↻ 🌞 Happy 10 year anniversary to my incredible wife Kim!
fun facts 🙌
High Noon vodka drink accidentally bottled in Celsius energy cans. “A supplier used by both companies sent empty Celsius cans to High Noon’s manufacturer, the recall notice said.” I wonder how many people at the copacker saw it and didn’t notice? ~ learn more
Try the mosquito bucket of death. “I’ve had mosquitoes in my backyard since we bought the house in 2019. This year, however, the yard is practically uninhabitable all the time because the constant rainfall has kept the yard wet and overpopulated with mosquitoes. That’s about to change because last week, I heard about the perfect solution: the Mosquito Bucket of Death.” ~ learn more
I drank every cocktail. “As of 2025, there are 102 IBA official cocktails, and as of July 12, 2025, I’ve had every one of them. … Drinking all 102 cocktails turned out to be unexpectedly tricky, and for reasons you’ll soon understand, I might be one of the first people in the world to do it.” ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Ok day 5 of vibe coding with Replit… Jason Lemkin is trying to make it work. Crazy story, and feels relatable. “I'm burnt. I was vibe coding all weekend, all Saturday night even, it's addictive. When it works, it's so engaging and fun. It's more addictive than any video game I've ever played. You can just iterate, iterate, and see your vision come alive. So cool. Well, almost.” ~ learn more
What a masterful fundraising PR move by Ramp. “45 days ago: I said “Let the robots chase receipts” And we raised $200M to do just that. Today, they’re not just chasing receipts. They’re filing your expenses, booking your travel, paying your invoices, and closing your books. And we’ve raised another $500M at a $22.5 billion valuation to pick up the pace.” ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Spare them either extreme. “The idea is that we’re trying to raise self-sufficient kids, adults who take pride in effort, who are driven and ambitious, kids who as Ron Lieber’s fantastic book says are “the opposite of spoiled,” and have the grit to go after what they want in life.” ~ learn more
Randomized controlled trial on AI coding. “Surprisingly, we find that when developers use AI tools, they take 19% longer than without—AI makes them slower.” The protocol looks decent to my amateur eyes, and they intend to repeat the experiment as new frontier models come out. ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
Daughter from California syndrome. “"Daughter from California" syndrome is a phrase used in the American medical profession to describe a situation in which a hitherto disengaged relative challenges the care a dying elderly patient is being given, or insists that the medical team pursue aggressive measures to prolong the patient's life.” … the best part, in California they call it Daughter from New York. ~ learn more
It’s time to remove warning labels on hormone replacement products. So writes Peter Attia. “In the aftermath of the WHI publications, millions of women have been deprived of these positive effects. The faulty belief that potential risks with HRT outweigh potential benefits persists to this day, in large part due to the continued requirement for warning labels on HRT products.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
Building SKIMS, with co-founder Jens Grede. I came away from this interview very impressed by the acumen that Jens displayed in the ‘culture’ business. “Our conversation left my head spinning. Jens has this remarkable ability to be both creative and commercial. He puts brilliant frameworks into plain terms and knows consumer like the back of his hand. Jens explains how pop culture is the only remaining hack to the consumer economy in our fragmented media landscape and describes today’s cultural shift as "clamoring for comfort" in uncertain times.” ~ learn more
thoughts of food 🍔
Everyone’s about those brand partnerships. “Snack giants Hershey and Mondelez are combining two of their top-selling products—the Reese’s peanut butter cup and the Oreo cookie—in a sugary marriage they say consumers have been begging for.” ~ learn more
Why are so many chefs spicing their menus? “It’s not that New Yorkers have wimpy palates; in some cases, chefs had originally cranked heat levels far past anything they would eat back home.” ~ learn more
on the blockchain ⛓
Polymarket article from New York Magazine. An interesting read for the background, however lots of vague insinuations and anonymous pot-shots scattered throughout. “Shayne Coplan’s Big Bet Is Paying Off He upended political polling by creating the billion-dollar betting platform Polymarket. But is it legal?” ~ learn more
profiles of people 🚶
Math is still catching up to the mysterious genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan. This is really great for it’s explanation of his work in a way that I could follow. “Ramanujan brings life to the myth of the self-taught genius. He grew up poor and uneducated and did much of his research while isolated in southern India, barely able to afford food. In 1912, when he was 24, he began to send a series of letters to prominent mathematicians. These were mostly ignored, but one recipient, the English mathematician G.H. Hardy, corresponded with Ramanujan for a year and eventually persuaded him to come to England, smoothing the way with the colonial bureaucracies.” ~ learn more