Herro, Perro! w.6
Dear Friend,
It's Friday and I'm tired. It's not that it's been a long week, or an eventful week, or a stressful week. It's been hot and everyone is gone so I've been left alone with my thoughts which is exhausting. And I've had to start training for the Annapurna trip and that has meant sweating it out on the west side highway. The thunderstorms came last night and left (relatively) cool, crisp air.
Arts & Culture
+Are the kids okay?: It's the time of year. And, while I'm not going to Burning Man (sadface, not sure if ironic), people have started to pass around suggestions for outfits so I found myself clicking on Dolls Kill...for pure theoretical interest. Scrolling down, the Acid Cortex Mini caught my eye. And, friend, check out the description: you’re givin’ em sensory overload, sis! Shock the haterz in this supa sikk dress that has a mock neck, long sleeves, N’ a dope synaptic print all ova! Would have been great, folks. Maybe next year.
+Understanding Joe Rogan: I enjoyed this article. The clever writing. The culture commentary. Whatever. Think the article nails the phenomena and it's worth the time to understand. Here are a couple quotes from the beginning for some context if you don't know who Joe is:
"Why is he connecting so deeply with so many men, for such long stretches of time, at a moment when no one else can seem to hold anyone’s attention for more than two minutes?"
"As popular as he seems to be with quote-unquote regular guys, that’s how unpopular Joe Rogan is with the quote-unquote prestige wing of popular culture"
+The Price of Everything: I highly recommend this documentary on the art world that's on HBO right now. It's much more cultural commentary than elitist outrage porn. I enjoyed all the characters and how the art market has changed as the world has lurched forward. I'll never understand why people swoon over Jeff Koons.
+Via Carota: Say you find yourself in the West Village and you don't have a dinner reservation. Italian would be ideal. You don't have a chance at I Sodi, Carbone, or Babbo. Via Carota is your place. Amazing Italian food, pretty reasonable prices for the village and they don't take reservations. So you go, no latter than 5:30pm, and put your name down and you'll get a table at 8.
Investing & Economics
+'Venture Capital is about believing before most people understand': I don't love a lot of VC content marketing but I love following Josh Wolfe. It just says it how it is and he's a true deep tech investor. This is worth a listen or just browse these helpful notes.
+This is why we can't have nice things: San Francisco, a mural at a school, and the state of America. Laugh or cry? Laugh, right?
+ Silent majorities and why we can't/don't have honest conversations. I, also, am le tired of the nonsense and it's not just politics.
Entrepreneurial Pursuits
+We started planning the content for the second edition of the BluHaus zine. Does anyone want to submit anything?
+Purpose of corporates outside creating value for shareholders? Business Roundtable set off a furry of thoughts this week after issuing the edict from leading CEOs. So you can read the hot takes which bring more questions than answers. Ironically I was just re-reading parts of Robert Monk’s book on corporate governance, Corpocracy: How CEO’s and the Business Roundtable Hijacked the World’s Greatest Wealth Machine—and How to Get it Back. As implied by the titled, the Business Roundtable is an organization with a clear history and agenda. I've started to write something longer and more coherent but it's not coherent enough to put into a summary for you just now. I sort of like the term of shareholder democracy. If management aren't accountable to shareholders, who are they accountable to? from Monks:
I went on to suggest a worst-case scenario – the eventual rot in capitalism that disenfranchising shareholders could create. As the owners lose even the theoretical ability to control their corporations or hold their managers to account, those corporations will cease to pay attention even to the need to maximize profits. Business will become bloated and inefficient, performance will drop, and the unchecked manager’s focus will shift to self-enrichment. Further, once it becomes readily apparent that the mechanisms of corporate control are illusory – that illegitimate private power has gone unchecked for too long – then the rationale for state and federal governments not intervening in the private sphere will disappear. Governmental interference and regulation will be seen as the natural alternative, with predictably disastrous results. In the rush to check its excesses American corporate capitalism will to resemble European corporate socialism.
+Anyway, who knows exactly what's up. However, this same week the board of Oracle is allowing shareholders to sue Larry Ellison and Safra Katz. So there's that.
Reflections & Self-awareness
+There was a newsletter I was about to unsubscribe from this week and then I saw this Ross Perot quote. I love it. I want to be in an environment where we kill snakes.
"I come from an environment where, if you see a snake, you kill it. At GM, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is go hire a consultant on snakes. Then you get a committee on snakes, and then you discuss it for a couple of years. The most likely course of action is -- nothing. You figure, the snake hasn't bitten anybody yet, so you just let him crawl around on the factory floor. We need to build an environment where the first guy who sees the snake kills it.”
+Is meritocracy really so great? - This was the best take so far I've seen on the system of 'meritocracy' that we all operate in. This one offers some solutions which actually might work, including the education ones which I've advocated in theory for some time. Here's a choice quote:
The elite should not—they have no right to—expect sympathy from those who remain excluded from the privileges and benefits of high caste. But ignoring how oppressive meritocracy is for the rich is a mistake. The rich now dominate society not idly but effortfully.
+ I wish I could offer deep personal thoughts on the meritocracy. And I do have them. But right, right now all I'm going to say is it's all complicated, grass is always greener, etc etc.