June 7
Scott + DOJ/FTC = ❤️
P.S. More of my love letter to DOJ & FTC on today's Pivot with Kara Swisher.
June 7
May 31
Facebook Inc. New Employee Manual
Last Day at L2 Today is my last day at L2, the firm I founded a decade ago and that was sold two years ago. One of the many rewarding things about starting a company is you feel tremendous maternal/paternal reward (and sometimes disappointment), as…
May 10
Deep Thoughts and the Insurgent Who Loved Me
I'm on my book tour (The Algebra of Happiness, Penguin Portfolio), and I’m spent. The 30-40 interviews, talks, and podcasts have me not just tired, but sated on … me. Talking about happiness this much feels like virtue signaling, or the third bag of SweeTarts…
April 26
Facebook & Tyranny
Tim Wu's important book The Curse of Bigness is a cautionary tale about how ugly things can get when government turns from a countervailing force to private power and becomes a co-conspirator (hint: it involves concentration of power, massive income inequality, demonizing minorities, refusing to…
April 12
Laddering
From the end of WWII until the introduction of Google, the gangster algorithm for shareholder value was simple — create a mediocre, mass-produced product and infuse it with intangible associations. You then reinforce those associations through cheap broadcast media, which occupied the average American for…
March 29
LYFT-Off?
Lyft is now trading on the NASDAQ exchange, and I predict it will break $100/share, 40% above the $70-72 price range set by bankers. Twelve months later, the shares will trade much, much lower. Note: Predicting is dangerous work, so if I'm wrong, I'd ask…
March 15
How I Got Here
State-sponsored education is who I am, and how I got here. Admittance to UCLA is singular. No other event or action has had a more positive impact on my life and the lives of people around me. Although, in light of this week’s news, it…
March 9
Encryption
During WWII, the beginning of the end for the Axis powers were American convoys traveling across the North Atlantic. The most industrious people in history were converting washing machine factories, out of range of the Luftwaffe, to war-machine factories. In the seventies and eighties the…
February 17
HQ 451
In Ray Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist, Montag, rebels against a dystopian society where books are burned. On Thursday, with Long Island City's refusal to kiss a billionaire's hand, State Senator Michael Gianaris became my Montag. While AOC and Elizabeth Warren jonesed for the…
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