Congress vs. Big Tech, SPACs & UFOs!
What I Learned at School This Week
Happy Friday Night, Y’all!
As the world continues to prove to be wild and unpredictable, I think a bit more weirdness will unfold.
Let’s strap in for it…
UFOs!
Yeah, UFOs.
Last week, NY Times published this article: No Longer in Shadows, Pentagon’s U.F.O. Unit Will Make Some Findings Public.
This is a big deal because it means that there are facts and evidence pointing to findings, so much so, that a media outlet is willing to put their reputation on the line.
What we know:
Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who worked as a subcontractor and then a consultant for the Pentagon U.F.O. program since 2007, said that, in some cases, examination of the materials had so far failed to determine their source and led him to conclude, “We couldn’t make it ourselves.”
What we don’t know:
If aliens are real. Or even if the Unidentified Flying Objects are from outside this earth. I liked this framing the most: Do We Believe in U.F.O.s? That’s the Wrong Question
Why people are scared of UFOs (and in turn, Aliens):
UFOs are a threat to: - human egos - fossil fuel industry - organized religion - divisiveness - apathy - materialism - military industrial complex - control freaks - limits imposed on consciousness - old paradigms - outdated societal, institutional, and political systemsWhat I think:
Always back to the Fermi Paradox for me.
I think it would be remarkable if we discovered other intelligent life. But here’s where my mind goes: if there is a life-form that is 100x smarter than us (maybe already among us?!). And if we look at how we treat inferior beings that we are 100x smarter than, say, ants. How do we treat them? Not great. So I hope if there is more intelligent life out there, that they treat their inferiors (us) better than we treat our inferiors (ants). But maybe it’s more binary that that (intelligence vs. non-intelligence).
Congress vs. Big Tech
This is pretty spicy. Said to be the biggest court hearing since Bill Gates was questioned in 1998.
Jason Calacanis (angel investor in Uber, Robinhood, and many others) put out a great 40-minute overview podcast that includes one clip from each of the CEO’s questioned this week. Calacanis also states his opinion on each of the companies positioning and how their respective leaders did in answering questions. He’s an extreme personality, but I tend to agree with most of what he said on the podcast — it’s worth a listen.
TLDL?
SPACs
Special Purpose Acquisition Company aka SPACs are gaining popularity. And last week, Bill Ackman raised a $4B fund that he took public, the largest ever.
This means, as a retail investor (“normal person”) you can invest in that company, in the hopes of the owner (in this case, Bill) making a good acquisition — one that goes up in value. You’re betting on Bill’s ability to pick a winner, you’re not picking a company. This is similar to an LP who invests in a Venture Fund, raised by a Venture Capital Firm — not knowing what companies that VC will invest in.
Longer explanation of SPACs here.
Roam Research
#RoamCult continues to snowball. Often described as “Evernote on steroids to create a second-brain.” The company passed $1M in ARR after just 6 weeks of officially launching. Andrew Wilkinson put together a great description for understanding the cult-followed product, in laymen’s terms, via this Twitter thread:
1/ I spent the weekend deep diving on @RoamResearch, which aside from Clubhouse is probably the buzziest thing in Silicon Valley these days. I'm almost through @nateliason's power user course and gave it the old college try. Here are my high level thoughts so far...It’s too early, and a bit too technical for me to use right now. But I suspect in years to come, a lot of people will use something like this (maybe enabled by audio for ease-of-use?).
GDP
A Collapse That Wiped Out 5 Years of Growth, With No Bounce in Sight
You can measure the “health” of America in many ways. The stock market, the lifespan of Americans, justice programs in place, and/or Gross Domestic Product.
Unfortunately, we just got our grades back after the first semester of 2020, and it looks grim (hide this report card from mom!).
The percentage decrease in GDP is by far the biggest on record:
Thanks for continuing to read this little newsletter. I’d love to know what you enjoy/don’t enjoy about it! What do you want more of? What do you want less of? If you have any thoughts, big or small, just shoot back a quick reply to this email (no one else will see your reply, just me).
See y’all next week,
Brendan J Short