Weekend Reads #419
A collection of cross-disciplinary thoughts, perspectives, and opinions
News
The Vatican as a relational ecosystem; Status, information, and alliances: three keys to power - Link
Instead of assigning employees too many hours, large corporations routinely give them too few, hiring multiple part-time staff in place of one full-time worker. Zero hours contracts comes to the US - Link
Gutted watchdog agencies and unprecedented ‘influence peddling’ means unrestrained fraud. - Link
Parents try everything to influence their children. But research suggests our brothers and sisters can have their own profound impact. - Link
Sequoia AI Ascent 2025 Keynote - Link
Chief Executive Michael Kliger figured out how to sell luxury goods online even as rivals flamed out. His secret: an obsessive focus on big spenders. - Link
Networks: A three-pronged approach—and a generous mindset—can be a huge boon for your career. - Link
Google DeepMind's CEO says undergraduates should spend their time "learning to learn." - Link
“The greatest worry in these times of generative AI is not that it may compromise human creativity or intelligence,” “but that it already has.” - Link
Lessons from Coach Popovich serve as enduring principles for effective and meaningful leadership. - Link
Perspectives
Friction has become a defining feature across the economy, with huge consequences for everything from education to infrastructure. - Link
It makes sense that a technology-obsessed culture strives to eliminate all friction, but a creative practice isn’t forged from inspiration, comfort, or validation—but how you evolve under pressure. - Link
The Psychology of Picing: A List of Tactics for Marketers and Retailers - Link
The US-UK Trade "Deal" Achieves Basically Nothing—and That's a Bad Sign for "Deals" to Come - Link
The economics of anger. There is a huge increase in demand for angry content to help rally around this emotion - Link
Mauboussin: it’s often the companies that leverage the technology, rather than the suppliers that create the most enduring value for investors. - Link
The personalization of the model within an application & workflow will be the ultimate moat - Link
In 2008 the true enemy was the over-financialization of the US residential mortgage market, and the catalyst for the true enemy to wreak havoc in the global financial system was a sharp, universal decline in US home prices. In 2025 the true enemy is the over-financialization of the US Treasury market, and the catalyst for the true enemy to wreak havoc in the global financial system is a sharp, universal decline in the full faith and credit of the United States. - Link
Y-Combinator: Requests for Startups - Link
- Link
Garry Tan: Billion-Dollar Misfits — Inside Y Combinator’s Startup Formula - Podcast
“George Raveling, Educator.” This is a man who made his own breaks, continues to break glass ceilings, and embodies the American dream. - Podcast
Dan Romero interviewing Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures - Podcast
Jerry Colonna: “How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?” - Podcast
Patrick Collison and Jony Ive: "What we make stands testament to who we are." "Trust and love each other. Because if you do, you might actually listen."- Podcast
STEM
How Do Vaccines Work? - Robin May - Link
Psychological flexibility is the ability to adapt to shifting circumstances, use your mental and emotional resources accordingly, and keep the bigger picture in mind while staying aligned with your values. - Link
How humans have climbed ‘the cosmic distance ladder’ to calculate sizes and distances in the cosmos. - Link
The greatest civilisations of the past 3,000 years were the opposite of MAGA. Of all the progress of the past 10,000 years in raising human living standards, half has occurred since 1990. - Link
Where in the brain does consciousness originate? - Link
How do memories last a lifetime when the molecules that form them turn over within days, weeks or months? - Link
Miscellaneous