Weekly reading – 8th October 2022

What I wrote last week

Take-aways from CFPB’s report on Buy Now Pay Later

Business

($) Apple’s Tech Supply Chain Shows Difficulty of Dumping China. A good piece on how dependent American companies are on China. Case in point, it is estimated that it would take Apple 8 years to move 10% of the production capacity out of the country.

The Legacy of Jack Welch’s Managerial Capitalism. A brutal indictment of Jack Welch and his managerial practices. I often heard people quote Jack on many things business-related. Hence, it’s refreshing to have an opposing view.

Elon Musk’s Texts Shatter the Myth of the Tech Genius. “The texts also cast a harsh light on the investment tactics of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest. There’s Calacanis’s overeager angel-investing pitches, and then you have the more chill tactics of people like Andreessen, who in a tossed-off Twitter DM offered Musk “$250M with no additional work required.” “Thanks!” Musk responded. In a separate exchange, Musk asks Ellison if he’d like to invest in taking Twitter private. “Yes, of course,” Ellison replies. “A billion … or whatever you recommend.” Easy enough. For this crew, the early success of their past companies or careers is usually prologue, and their skills will, of course, transfer to any area they choose to conquer (including magically solving free speech). But what they are actually doing is winging it.”

($) ‘I Am Energy’: Inside the Bang Billionaire’s Reeling Empire. This CEO would have more success if he hadn’t let his success get into his head

Embedded Finance: What It Takes to Prosper in the New Value Chain. An excellent piece by Bain on Embedded Finance

It’s Time to Start Worrying About Peacock. This is another example of analyzing data with context. Growing a subscriber base by 2 million users seems great, till one goes through what NBC had to do in the last few months to get that growth. As it turns out, there is a lot more going on that just that absolute number.

A very solid overview of financial statements and how to read them by PwC

Other stuff I find interesting

Can industrial tourism help revitalize Japan’s manufacturing regions? I, for one, would love to travel to Japan just to see how things are done. Like matcha, wasabi, Japanese swords, etc. Those long-standing craftsmanships are just beautiful.

Study reports first evidence of social relationships between chimpanzees, gorillas. Enhanced foraging opportunities, not survival from predators, are the bigger reason why chimpanzees and gorillas bond socially, according to the research. I have nothing but deep respect for researchers who spend years working on something that ordinary people like me rarely care about. To advance our science and the understanding of the world.

Coding in a war zone: Ukraine’s tech industry adapts to a new normal. A fascinating on how tech companies and workers prepared well in advance for an invasion and reacted to a new reality when Russian troops rushed in. I would be so unsettled if my employer, on my first day at work, handed me a package in case wars happened.