What I Wrote Last Week
This Credit Card Is Amazing, Yet Not Talked About Enough
Business
The Smartest Fliers Use This App to Survive America’s Travel Hell. A wonderful story on a wonderful startup that can tell you about flight delays and cancellations even before airlines do. They were in beta for two years, wanting to get the user experience right instead of rushing to market.
Panera lost diners by cutting portions and staff. It’s reversing course to win them back. A business can cut costs and be more efficient by leveraging technologies to push out old processes. Getting there by cutting portions and reducing service quality with fewer staffs is suicidal. F&B is a super super competitive market. There are countless alternatives. It’s dangerous to lose customers. As a chain, it’s more risky. If you don’t appeal to diners, how are you going to appeal to future franchisees?
How America’s Hottest Chicken Chain Keeps Its Secret Sauce a Secret. It’s interesting that Raising Cane’s sauce is such a trade secret and even those that mix it every day (the store managers) don’t even know much about the recipe itself.
Boom, bubble, bust, boom. Why should AI be different? The stock market was down significantly this week, showing a crack in investors’ confidence in the AI story. Is it just a phase or the beginning of a bubble?
Can Fidelity keep its grip on America’s investments? “As he prepared to hand over the reins of Fidelity Research and Management to his son Ned in the 1970s, founder Edward Johnson passed on some sage advice: oppose orthodox thinking. Ned, who died in 2022, was focused on innovation, even if it flew in the face of prevailing wisdom. He set up a toll-free phone line so that customers could cut out brokers and buy investment products directly. He decided Fidelity should launch its own discount stock-trading brokerage in 1978, and opened branches through which the firm could sell funds and provide investment guidance. One of the most lucrative yet low-profile parts of Fidelity is its presence in the corporate retirement market. Fidelity has supported 401k plans, which allow employers to offer retirement products to their staff, since 1982. “A major milestone came in August 2018, when Fidelity became the first to offer zero-fee index mutual funds,” says Deborah Fuhr, founder of consultant ETFGI.“
Other Stuff I Find Interesting
They Rushed to Buy Homes During the Pandemic. Now, Some Feel Trapped. I completely understand where these homebuyers are coming from. It’s a well-traveled path to own a home in the US and provide stability for your family. I myself would love for my kid to have neighborhood friends and live in a good school district. However, the flip side is that owning a home is a huge financial commitment which can severely limit flexibility in other key life areas. The question you have to ask is how much you are willing to give up in other aspects of your life and how prepared you are to sudden disruptions after buying a house. For me, I am not ready.
Hydropower Is Getting Less Reliable as the World Needs More Energy. It is baffling that when the world needs more energy because of AI and more population, it is increasingly hard to tap into hydropower. It’s a vicious cycle. Climate change is linked with decreasing output of hydropower. If we raise oil or gas production, we will accelarate climate change; which in turn will exacerbate the problem with hydropower. Nuclear seems to be the path forward here.
Europe is scaling back its landmark privacy and AI laws. If the US is hyper focused on innovation and consumerism at the expense of all else, then Europe is fixated on righteous idealisms, albeit at the expense of innovation. GDPR is a prime example. Its intent is good, but it’s too extreme and probably too early for the time. If the proposed changes are meant to make the law more reasonable and resonate more with businesses, it’s a welcome sign. If the changes are meant to spur the sluggish innovation, I am not sure they will cut it.
China starts a food fight over Western EV tariffs. Western countries are concerned about the anti-competitive practices of China in the EV market. So they put tariffs on China-made EVs. Beijing used to retaliate by levying tariffs on key agricultural exports; which was effective. However, recently Western countries have tried to diversify the buyer pool to reduce reliance on the Chinese market. So China responded by building factories overseas to make it harder for tariffs on Chinese EVs. Fascinating.
Better bread and booze start with healthier soil. “When flour is fresh, it’s like fresh produce,” said Jonathan Bethony, who opened this bakery in Washington’s Shaw neighborhood in 2017. “You get the oils in there. You get the vitamins in there, the colors and the aromas. That’s a different product than flour off the store shelf.” The display case includes sourdough whole-grain croissants, deep-brown rye cookies, and “bird bread” made with oats, millet, flax, and sunflower and pumpkin seeds. The bakers say using seasonal grains grown in healthy soil makes their bread and pastries tastier and more nutritious. Farmers rotate crops from year to year to restore soil nutrients, and keep pests and diseases from getting too comfortable with any one crop. Between the main growing season, many plant cover crops such as rye, buckwheat, sorghum, clovers and radishes, which return nutrients to the soil and keep it from washing away. Others avoid turning the dirt over too much with extensive tilling, so they don’t hurt the insects and fungi that help plants grow, or wipe out the pores and layers that help soil hold water.”
Stats
China-made EVs are responsible for 2% of all sales in Canada
Nearly six in 10 U.S. consumers (58%) expect to spend over $250 – an increase from 56% last year
Minh Quang Duong 
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