This week’s highlights: Peter Thiel, Venture Capital, and the Rolex Shortage
Issue 442
Happy Friday!
Best,
David
Food for Thought
- Esquire – Airplane! Is Considered One of the Best Comedies of All Time. But 40 Years Ago No One Saw it Coming. In the summer of 1980, there were only two big-studio comedies that anyone was buzzing about. Neither one of them was Airplane!
- NYT – In the Heart of Nashville, Rolling Parties Rage at Every Stoplight. As Nashville’s popularity has grown, so has the “transportainment” business — a motley assortment including old buses, farm tractors and a truck with a hot tub. Many think it has gotten out of hand.
- TheAtlantic – Say Goodbye to Your Manager – Credit TP – The pandemic has exposed a fundamental weakness in the system.
- NYMag – Peter Thiel’s Origin Story. His ideology dominates Silicon Valley. It began to form when he was an angry young man.
- VanityFair – The Trials of Diet Prada. The front row’s “most feared Instagram account” turned its relatively unknown founders into two of fashion’s most powerful voices—moral arbiters in an industry not historically known for its conscience. Under increased scrutiny from its peers and facing a near-$700 million lawsuit from a luxury titan, Diet Prada is posting through it.
Business
- BS – The Changing Venture Landscape
- PE – How to Make 65% on $10 Bilion “WashU endowment’s recent investment performance (65% return on $10B) is incredible, but doesn’t surprise me. It felt like a foregone conclusion based on our work with them”
- UVIMCO – 2021 Annual Report – Strong endowment numbers are not unique. Here is UVIMCO’s year in review.
- GMO – What To Do In the Case of Sustained Inflation?
- SLC – Why Do Big Businesses Seemingly Stink at Innovation?
Culture / Arts/ Tech / Science
- Hodinkee – Rolex Finally Comments On The Product Shortage – And Conspiracy Theories Need Not Apply – I disagree – while Rolex claims it is demand – the grey-market inventories indicate that the demand is not from end customers. Setup a registration and limit purchases per year or ding warranty if you ‘trade’ are easy ways to fix
- VF – Inside the Hermès Workshop That Makes Its Iconic Bags. At the new Hermès workshop in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, France, the Kelly serves as a training ground for freshly minted leather artisans.
- RTBC – L.A.’s New Reflective Streets Bounce Heat Back into Space. The air in these neighborhoods is getting cooler — with huge implications for sweltering cities worldwide.
- Time – Teen Artists Are Making Millions on NFTs. How Are They Doing It?
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