P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #460

Fish Slaps

my story 🚀

🎒 I’m quite impressed by our product designers at MTB. The Fish Slaps Backpack is available now for the little (or big) fishing enthusiast in your life.

fun facts 🙌

Kids yell “poop” at Alexa and these musicians profit. Are you familiar with the song Poopy Stupid Butt? “For a while, the couple was making around $100 a month from the song - and then COVID hit. Kids were stuck at home with little to do, and frazzled parents became more willing than usual to let their kids be entertained by an electronic device. The streams on Amazon for “Poopy Stupid Butt” skyrocketed: It’s now been streamed about 10 million times on Amazon Music and has generated about $10,000 in total income for Helpish and Muir.” ~ learn more

Only in Alaska. It’s perfectly legal for bush planes (Wikipedia link) to use roads as runways, but seeing one “gas up at the local station” might still catch you off guard. ~ learn more

An ASCIl art playground. In the early days of my internet journey, I discovered that people could make impressive things with the font characters that I regularly overlooked. "This playground is an attempt of a browser-based live-code environment with text-only output. It is born from the joy and pleasure ASCII, ANSI and in general text-based art can give and it is an homage to all the artists, poets and designers which used and use text as their medium." ~ learn more

The Chad mindset. “Mr Peters is a ‘looks-maxing’ influencer.” This community of young men chases an ideal male physique, using extreme methods like "bonesmashing" to enhance facial structure and even resorting to crystal meth to maintain a certain weight. ~ learn more

oh, chicago 🏆

Why you can’t start a Chicago-style hot dog cart in Chicago. “But in the home of Chicago-style hot dogs, there is not a single food-cart vendor licensed to sell hot dogs on a city sidewalk, according to a Chicago Policy Center review of city data. No matter one’s culinary talent or work ethic, city regulations make hot dogs—and other street-food staples—effectively illegal to sell from a cart.” ~ learn more

Federal government gets a refund from CPS after grant fraud uncovered. “Chicago Public Schools had to pay back nearly $1.2 million to the U.S. Department of Education after an employee repeatedly falsified data on federal grant applications over the course of multiple years.” ~ learn more

oh, austin 🤠

Austin ISD’s $100 million oversight. Amid financial pressures, Austin ISD planned to improve many schools with a $2.4 billion bond. Yet, a surprising decision followed: “By that point, more than $95 million in bond money already had been spent or committed to campuses headed for closure,” leaving taxpayers questioning the investment’s effectiveness. It’s not crazy for there to be some waste when the future is unpredictable and investments take time. Yet, I am unimpressed by the district leadership so I won’t hesitate to point out their shortcomings! ~ learn more

tech, startups, internet ⚡

Open APIs are over. “Salesforce, Datadog & Epic are building walls. After two decades of flourishing through open APIs & data portability, the software industry’s largest incumbents are locking down.” As AI accelerates development, companies are protecting their ecosystems fiercely, signaling the end of an open era. ~ learn more

One industry that’s being replaced by AI: proxy advisors. “[JPMorgan] will use the [internal artificial-intelligence-powered] platform to manage the votes and the AI also will analyze data from more than 3,000 annual company meetings and provide recommendations to the portfolio managers, the memo said, replacing the typical roles of proxy advisers.” ~ learn more

Fitness app Ladder’s rise to #1. This was a really cool interview, and a fantastic entrepreneurial story. From near-bankruptcy to success: “We pivoted from a failing marketplace to an engineering-first fitness platform.” Discover how they cracked TikTok’s algorithm and scaled massively in just two years. ~ learn more

better doing 🎯

Introverts should (sometimes) act like extroverts. “Though there’s nothing wrong with being an introvert, several studies have shown that when introverts occasionally behave in extroverted ways, they experience more “positive affect” — science-speak for good feelings.” ~ learn more

How modern buying broke attribution models. Adam Goyette highlights how 91% of marketers see attribution as critical, yet only 31% trust their models. This disconnect leads to “misallocation at scale” as companies chase inaccurate clarity in complex buying journeys shaped by AI-assisted discovery. ~ learn more

Thinking-Fast, Slow, and Artificial. A play on Daniel Kahneman’s book title introduces a new type of thinking: System 3. The introduction of a “Tri-System Theory” suggests a third, artificial system that “can supplement or supplant internal processes, introducing novel cognitive pathways.” This can lead to a phenomenon termed “cognitive surrender,” wherein individuals adopt AI outputs with minimal scrutiny. ~ learn more

to your health ⚕

A critical take on ChatGPT Health. “[ChatGPT] Health is safer at the population level, but less useful at the individual level. It’s too tethered to narrow guidelines, too eager to disclaim rather than reason, and just overall intellectually flat.” She’s sticking to plain ol’ ChatGPT which will engage more deeply in discussion, rather than giving her milquetoast answers and ushering her off to a doctor. ~ learn more

retail therapy 💸

Driverless vans in China are unstoppable. “In China, driverless delivery vans have become a total meme, they plow through crumbling roads, fresh concrete, motorcycles, anything. Nothing stops them.” Your delivery is on the way! ~ learn more

under the microscope 🔬

Peanut allergy treatment progress. “The median tolerated dose increased from 30 mg (equivalent to approximately 1/8th of a peanut) to 3000 mg (12 peanuts) at the exit challenge, representing a 100-fold increase.” This phase II trial shows promising results for peanut oral immunotherapy in adults, achieving desensitization and improving quality of life in the participants. ~ learn more

big ideas 📚

NYT on ocean alkalinity enhancement. “The nascent field of ocean-based climate interventions is currently straddling a rift between scientific consensus and public perception. Many experts are finding that even if they secure the support of their colleagues and the necessary legal permissions, fostering trust and understanding among the public remains a challenge.” They make a passing mention of Planetary Technologies: “Last June, it became the first of these companies to deliver verified carbon-removal credits to its high-profile customers, which include British Airways, Stripe and Shopify.” ~ learn more

on the blockchain ⛓

Zcash core developers rage quit. In an abrupt move, "Zcash’s core dev team just rage quit," causing a 25% drop in its market cap within 48 hours. This fallout stems from internal disagreement over funding control, forcing the devs to set up independently. ~ learn more

thanks for reading!