What I Wrote Last Week

Book Review: Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism

Business

Data centers are everywhere. What it’s like to work in one. If you have HVAC experience, you may want to see if there is an opening at a data center near where you live. Apparently, there is a serious shortage of talent while the demand for data centers in the age of AI is still rising. And the pay is good.

Jamie Dimon’s letter to shareholders. Absolutely worth a read to see what the top bank in the country (in the world) thinks about the macro environment and issues specifically related to JPMorgan Chase. The letter reads like how Jamie would speak in an interview.

Reflexive AI usage is now a baseline expectation at Shopify. The CEO of Shopify released an internal memo on X, in anticipation of such a memo being leaked. I don’t necessarily think there is anything egregiously wrong with what Tobi said. CEOs being hyped up by AI is no longer a novelty. Some may not fully believe in it, but to convince their team, they have to sound like they are believers. If I were an employee at Shopify, I’d love to see how he and the Executive Team walked the walk and adhered to what Tobi said in the memo.

CEO Andy Jassy’s 2024 Letter to Shareholders. I personally don’t feel as good reading Andy’s shareholder letter as I did reading Jeff Bezos’ 1997 one.

Trump’s tariff blitz could hardly have come at a worse time for China. ““From Beijing’s perspective at this point, it’s not about competing for exports. Rather, global economic stabilization is more important, because if we’re having a global financial crisis, it will probably hit China harder than just the tariffs.” Analysts say that while the hit to exports would hurt, China has the tools to cushion its economy from the worst of Trump’s attacks by bringing forward or ramping up already planned stimulus. Those measures — child-care subsidies for families, support for pensions or expanding a trade-in scheme for residents to upgrade their electronics and other items — could come as soon as the end of this month when a high-level meeting of senior leaders is expected.”

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

NIH scientists have a cancer breakthrough. Layoffs are delaying it. The worst kind of impact from the reckless actions by those in charge right now. We are not talking about the loss of money or time. We are talking about likely the potential loss of lives here.

A revolution is under way in India’s trainer industry. “Many high value brands need to move their manufacturing to India. In 3-5 years, we should have a robust ecosystem to compete in the international sneaker market” This and Apple’s focus on India make the country an interesting market for luxury brands in the near future.

Logging doesn’t prevent wildfires, but Trump is trying it anyway. In Omaha, Nebraska, which is a city right in the middle of the country, I have witnessed significant changes in the climate in the last few years. When I first came here in 2016 and 2017, the weather followed an expected pattern. Hot in the summer, cold and snowy in the winter. Gradually, everything changed. In the last two years, winter had little snow. It was still cold, but we saw much less snow. The summer had more storms and fewer sunny days. That is to say, I think that climate change is real. Some people may exaggerate it, but it’s real and it affects our lives in a big way. Decimating is not going to help. It’s going to worsen the problem.

The deep ocean photographer that captured a ‘living fossil’. It’s wild that we still come across a fish that was long thought to be extinct.

Sit-to-stand: The simple test that reveals how you’re ageing.

Stats

Almost 3 out of 4 financial institutions said debit card was the number 1 payment method for fraud in 2024

Almost one-third of maternal deaths in America took place more than 6 weeks after childbirth