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Extremely Hardcore: Our New York magazine cover story [Casey Newton, Platformer]

By Spencer Chen
In [Platformer]
January 17, 2023
223 views
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• Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been chaotic, with employees chewed up and spat out along the way. A new cover story at New York magazine attempts to capture the chaos and the fallout that could take big chunks of Musk’s empire down with it.
• Government agencies rely on Twitter to share time-sensitive communications, but their dependence on the platform is becoming more tenuous under Musk’s ownership.
• The UK’s Online Safety Bill is expected to reduce user numbers for the big social platforms, impacting advertising revenue on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
• Microsoft is likely to receive an antitrust warning from the European Union about its bid for Activision Blizzard.
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company will move quickly to commercialize tools like ChatGPT and incorporate them into the company’s products.
• Apple announced the next-generation 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, with faster M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, up to 96GB of RAM, an upgraded HDMI 2.1 port with support for an 8K external display, and faster Wi-Fi 6E.
• Bitcoin’s price has risen 26 percent in January, breaking $20,000 again and putting it in on course for its best month since October 2021.
• Scammers are gaming Amazon’s review system to sell fake 16 terabyte portable SSD drives for $100 or less.
• Discord acquired Gas, the app that allows teens to share compliments with each other anonymously.

Published January 18, 2023

Visit Platformer to read Casey Newton’s original post Extremely Hardcore: Our New York magazine cover story

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Secretary jobs in the age of AI [Noah Smith, Noahpinion]

By Spencer Chen
In Noah Smith [Noahpinion]
January 17, 2023
217 views
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• The secretarial role has shifted since the start of the Industrial Revolution and is expected to continue to do so in the age of AI.
• Hollis Robbins predicts that secretaries could be in demand in the AI-driven future, not as administrative assistants, but as confidantes and advisors.
• The mid-20th century Gibbs training speaks to the competence, intelligence, and cultivation expected of top secretaries.
• Self-secretarying has contributed to office fragmentation long before remote work.
• A good secretary will use ChatGPT to help manage information flow but will focus most working hours on tasks that are unique to each leader.
• A good executive assistant will more than make up the deficit of a $120,000 salary.
• The role of the secretary provides a real springboard for leadership and is fulfilling in and of itself.
• Colleges and universities could play a role in training students to practice skills that AI can’t deliver and that employers value.
• The idea of posting a job ad for a “secretary” sounds comically old-fashioned, but to be the person literally entrusted with secrets seems fundamentally more accurate to the role.

Published January 17, 2023

Visit Noahpinion to read Noah Smith’s original post Secretary jobs in the age of AI

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TSMC Earnings, Geographic Flexibility, The 7nm Question [Ben Thompson, Stratechery]

By Spencer Chen
In Ben Thompson [Stratechery]
January 17, 2023
212 views
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• TSMC reported its first quarterly revenue miss in two years, signaling the global decline in electronics demand is starting to catch up with the chip giant.
• TSMC is taking share from Intel, and increasing its share within the foundry business.
• TSMC is a service business, not just a pure production business, and is looking to expand its global footprint to meet customer needs.
• TSMC is working to reduce costs by building up the semiconductor supply ecosystem in the US and Japan, with government support.
• TSMC is expanding its geographic reach, likely in response to customer demand for “Made in America” chips.
• TSMC’s pricing will reflect the value of geographic flexibility, and the company is confident that its 7nm process will remain a large and long-lasting node.
• The question remains as to whether specialty applications will backfill 7nm capacity, as the cost of the process is much higher and the benefits may not be as great for analog chips.
• TSMC is working closely with customers to develop specialty and differentiated technologies to drive additional wave of structural demand from consumer, RF, connectivity and other applications.

Published January 17, 2023.

Visit Stratechery to read Ben Thompson’s original post TSMC Earnings, Geographic Flexibility, The 7nm Question

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The GOP’s bogus war with corporate America [Judd Legum, Popular Information]

By Spencer Chen
In [Popular Information]
January 17, 2023
212 views
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• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in January 2023, and Republicans have reportedly embraced populism and are at war with corporations.
• Fox News reported that McCarthy has refused to meet with representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and House Republicans have proven to be hostile to corporate interests.
• On February 7, McCarthy will host a mega-fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington, DC, with all proceeds benefiting McCarthy’s reelection campaign, McCarthy’s leadership committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
• Jeff Miller, a member of McCarthy’s inner circle, is the host of the fundraiser and has raised millions for McCarthy’s Super PAC and affiliated non-profit organization.
• Miller is also the founder of Miller Strategies, a federal lobbying firm that represents more than four dozen major corporations, including many of the “”woke”” companies McCarthy is supposedly taking on.
• John Stipicevic, a former McCarthy deputy chief of staff and now Chief Advocacy Officer for CGCN, is a co-host of the fundraiser and is a registered lobbyist for Disney.
• Jim Richards and Ben Howard, both corporate lobbyists, are also co-hosts of the fundraiser.

Published January 17, 2023.

Visit Popular Information to read Judd Legum’s original post The GOP’s bogus war with corporate America

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It’s Time to Get Serious [Katherine Boyle, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Free Press]
January 17, 2023
284 views
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• Sam Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old billionaire, was referred to as a “trading wunderkind” and “crypto wunderkind” in the press before his arrest in the Bahamas.
• Millennials and Gen Z have been treated as hapless children their entire lives, and this is reflected in their low marriage and home-ownership rates.
• Life expectancy is growing, but the average adult American man has a life expectancy of only 76 years, and SBF is 8 years away from that.
• The Boomer ascendancy has left us with a global gerontocracy and a languishing generation waiting in the wings.
• Delayed adulthood has had disastrous consequences for procreation in industrialized nations, and is at the root of declining fertility and population collapse.
• The prevailing wisdom in Western nations is that the ages of 18-29 are a time for extreme exploration, with no expectation for leadership.
• CEOs of companies listed on the S&P 500 are getting older and staying in their jobs longer, and 25% of Congress is over the age of 70.
• Anthony Fauci (82) isn’t retiring, and the sins of SBF will lead to even more extreme skepticism of ambitious young founders and leaders.

Published January 17, 2023.

Visit The Free Press to read Katherine Boyle’s original post It’s Time to Get Serious

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s push for material redistribution [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 17, 2023
193 views
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• Martin Luther King Jr. is often invoked by conservatives in their campaign against modern-day anti-racism concepts.
• King’s speeches had more lines than just “content of character and not the color of our skin”.
• King wanted a significant redistribution of economic resources to create a society of equals.
• King’s ideas were superior to what is being pushed by both modern-day DEI devotees and their critics.
• King wanted real access to the ballot, not just a requirement that voter suppression measures be facially race-neutral.
• King wanted to generate meaningful economic opportunities, which is why he launched the Poor People’s Campaign.
• Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an introduction to Bayard Rustin’s “Freedom Budget” in 1966, a plan for massive government-led investment to eradicate poverty and generate full employment.
• King’s vision was for improved public services, an enhanced welfare state, and a robust commitment to full employment.
• King argued that the civil rights movement needed to go in the direction of “class struggle” and “redistribution of economic power” in order to achieve true justice.
• King was not advocating for “colorblindness” but rather for solidarity and a powerful doctrine of solidarity.
• King was asking for nothing more or less than what is promised in the nation’s founding documents and celebrated in its monuments.

Published January 16, 2023. Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post [Martin Luther King Jr.’s push for material redistribution]

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Be Independent! No, Not Like That [Freddie deBoer, Freddie deBoer’s Substack]

By Spencer Chen
In Freddie deBoer
January 16, 2023
215 views
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• The article discusses the difficulties of being professionally heterodox and the tendency for people to pigeonhole those who step outside of the usual partisan lines.
• It also discusses the tendency of those who claim to value independence and free thinking to only do so when it produces results they agree with.
• The author then goes on to list various rhetorical ploys used to avoid acknowledging America’s guilt in foreign countries, such as weaponized ignorance, whataboutism, and demand for unachievable rigor.
• The author concludes by recommending books to learn more about America’s conduct in the world.

Published January 16, 2023. Visit Freddie deBoer’s Substack to read Freddie deBoer’s original post [Digest, 1/14/2023: Doctor, Doctor]

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Twitter Kills Third-Party Clients, Twitter’s Tortured History With 3rd-Party Apps, The Twitter Files Business Model [Ben Thompson, Stratechery]

By Spencer Chen
In Ben Thompson [Stratechery]
January 16, 2023
269 views
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• Twitter’s decision to kick-off third party clients is classic Musk, signaling the company’s focus on its business model going forward.
• The outage was intentional, and speculation suggests it was to drive ad revenue.
• Twitter’s history with 3rd-party apps has been tumultuous, with the company needing to control the user experience to monetize via advertising.
• Bill Gross attempted to build a competing network of clients to monetize independently, leading to Twitter kicking off several of his clients.
• The 2012 decision to kill the 3rd party API made sense for Twitter to pursue its advertising business model.
• Twitter leadership has been historically weak and averse to conflict, leading to a situation where 3rd-party Twitter clients were allowed to exist and add up to 100,000 new users.
• Elon Musk’s decision to cut off 3rd-party clients was a business decision that should have been made a decade ago, but was executed in the worst way possible.
• The move may be a signal that Twitter Blue has already been deemed a failure.
• The Twitter Files reveal that Twitter was very much enmeshed with the federal government in terms of controlling speech on Twitter.
• Matt Taibbi was given access to the Twitter Files, but had to agree to certain conditions, such as publishing on Twitter and attributing the sources as “Sources at Twitter”.
• The decision to publish the Twitter Files on Twitter blunted their impact substantially, as Twitter’s power is in its orchestration of consent.
• The move may be an attempt to capture the value of content directly on Twitter, as the more essential Twitter is, the more advertisers will have no choice but to be on Twitter.

Published January 16, 2023. Visit Stratechery to read Ben Thompson’s original post [Twitter Kills Third-Party Clients, Twitter’s Tortured History With 3rd-Party Apps, The Twitter Files Business Model]

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What To Do About Chronic Constipation [Emily Oster, ParentData]

By Spencer Chen
In Emily Oster [ParentData]
January 16, 2023
276 views
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• Constipation in kids is very common, affecting 10-30% of children over the course of childhood.
• Symptoms include frequency of bowel movements less than three per week, fecal incontinence, large stools, painful defecation, and withholding behaviors.
• Causes include introducing solid foods, toilet training, and school-related anxiety.
• Treatment involves clearing any existing stool blockage, using laxatives and behavior modification, and increasing fiber and water intake.
• Miralax is the medication of choice, as it has been shown to be more effective than a placebo and other alternatives.
• Side effects are mostly related to digestion, and there is no evidence that it causes behavioral problems.

Published January 16, 2023. Visit ParentData to read Emily Oster’s original post [What To Do About Chronic Constipation]

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January 15, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen
In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]
January 16, 2023
273 views
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• America has no heroes left, but heroism is not about being perfect or doing something spectacular.
• It is about regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost.
• Examples of heroism include General Dwight D. Eisenhower writing a letter praising the troops before D-Day, Anne Frank writing in her diary that she still believes people are good at heart, John Hancock signing the Declaration of Independence, Sitting Bull defending his people’s right to practice a religion he didn’t share, and Rosa Parks sitting down when she was told to stand up.
• On April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in support of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
• He said that, if God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed, because only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
• He knew he was in danger as he worked for a racially and economically just America, but he was determined to do God’s will.
• Heroes are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.

Published January 16, 2023. Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

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