English Parliament, Sark’s IPO, Apple, NYC, startups, lawyers, and more. Enjoy!
(1) Was the Glorious Revolution a Constitutional Watershed?
The Glorious Revolution is often considered as a decisive turning point in political history towards popular representation, as it established “parliamentary supremacy” over the crown in England. This paper covers the detailed mechanics of Parliament’s tactics to gain the upper hand: (1) shorter time limits on revenue grants (especially for customs duties); (2) control of crown loan authorization (“veto over debt initiation”); and (3) ministerial responsibility to delegate executive authority to ministers controlled by Parliament (through the use of censure). The fun (and only slightly revisionist) history is that William of Orange’s invasion was basically the Dutch conquest of England.
(2) The Barclay Heir Battling Bankruptcy, the Seigneur, and the Sark IPO
Sark is a quirky, self-governing island in the English Channel with 500 residents that abolished feudalism in 2008. Fast forward to 2024: the feudal lord (the “Seigneur”) and a “kooky German investor” (formerly the world’s greatest turtle wingman) have teamed up to acquire one-third of the island from the bankrupt Barclay brothers, who are the island’s largest landlords. Their vehicle, The Sark Property Company, is planning to acquire the land and IPO in a few years (on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange?). Sark is small today, but creative investment can work wonders with micro-states.
(3) Apple Intelligence Is Right On Time
AI should be beneficial for Apple because it will complement, not replace, the iPhone. AI can improve the on-device experience with personalization built into the OS, while also commoditizing the AI backend. This weakens the position of companies that sell standalone AI products (such as chatbots). Apple has the most data about everyone—our phones are the central data hubs in our lives—so they have the best training data for building personalized models. Apple’s privacy-centric brand and high consumer trust also give them enough flexibility to use that position.
(4) Ideas Not Mattering Is A Psyop
Common startup wisdom is that execution matters more than ideas. But where is the line between ideas (“we should do X”) and execution (“doing X”)? “As these examples—Amazon, Google, Clubhouse—make clear, “execution being the constraint” doesn’t mean “ideas aren’t the constraint.” Even if the broad idea is “obvious” (online store, search engine, audio social media), successful execution requires having good intermediate ideas (starting with books for Amazon, PageRank for Google, the implementation details for Clubhouse). The constraint on execution often isn’t something like “operational skill,” but clever ideas about how to make it happen.” The reference to Clubhouse (remember 2021?) really drives home the argument…
(5) Hiring: Why More Is Often Less
“Make no mistake – this is hard [….] it will require extreme patience and a high pain tolerance to keep roles empty for a long time. It will result in your high performers being overloaded […] This is good news! Aggressive hiring is often counterproductive […] Hiring begets hiring, and after all that hiring, you lose discipline on prioritization because you think that you have more capacity […] the issue holding back most startups is not that they do not have enough people; it's that they have the wrong ones.” For the opposite perspective: High Growth Handbook.
(6) New York’s Hunts Point Produce Market Is At A Breaking Point
Hunts Point is a wholesale produce market in the Bronx that supplies 60% of NYC’s groceries. The market is organized as a cooperative among wholesalers to lower the distributors’ margins, which (in theory) helps local grocers compete with national chains. In practice, a non-profit co-op middleman that retains no earnings cannot reinvest. The result is predictable: “Its facilities haven’t changed much since Lyndon Johnson was president […] the site’s physical space and electrical grid are maxed out […] the co-op’s CEO says that because the member companies’ margins are so thin, these problems must be addressed with government intervention […] the remaining wholesalers at Hunts Point are kludging together their own upgrades […] to stay competitive with Costco and Whole Foods.” Some parallels with Yugoslav market socialism.
A refresher on the Krebs Cycle for anyone who forgot high school biology. Our metabolism uses the Krebs Cycle, which takes in oxygen to break down glucose (“shipping container”) and load it into NADH ( “delivery trucks”). NADH goes through the protein membrane of our mitochondria (“powerhouse of the cell”). This creates a positive charge from the protons on the mitochondrial wall, which balances the negative charge from the electrons that remain inside the mitochondrial wall. In this way, “each mitochondrion becomes a battery waiting to discharge.”
(8) Why Everyone Should Think Like A Lawyer
In response to Shakespeare: “Lawyers are in fact role models […who] process a mountain of information and exercise judgment. They infer rules from patterns, use analogies, anticipate what might happen next, accept ambiguity, [and] question everything. […] Perhaps the most valuable lesson from lawyers is both the most obvious and the most scorned—the antidote to work anxiety is not to take your mind off of work with meditation or Netflix. It is disciplined preparation.” That said, seeing itemized billable hours will turn anyone into Mr. Burns.
(9) The Bond Villain Compliance Strategy
Reflections on the crypto industry’s disdain for laws: “One cannot simply gleefully ignore these laws […] to become wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. Even staunch crypto advocates see some things they are not happy to be associated with [at Binance]. There exists the possibility that there is some salvageable licit business in crypto. People enjoy gambling. [But] I do not know if we will ever have a world with large scale crypto businesses without the crime. The crime was the product. [Crypto’s] promise to transform global financial infrastructure was greatly overstated and it has not come to pass. I do not expect this to change.”
(10) It’s the Summer of the Finance Bro
“There was hot girl summer and short king spring. Now, ‘tis the season for finance bros. [It] all started with a TikTok video [with] a singsong message: “I’m looking for a man in finance. Trust fund. 6’5.” Blue eyes.” […] Versions of the “Man in Finance” song are on Spotify, including a release with David Guetta […But] a man fitting the song’s exact requirements proves elusive, if he exists at all. Only 5% of men in the U.S. stand at around 6’2” or taller [and] roughly 5% of employed American men work in business.” Careful what your wish for!
(0) Miscellaneous Fun
Warren Buffett is done with mosquito nets. Short report on Lasertec. Mid-trial arrest of Young Thug’s lawyer. NVIDIA might be the next Sun Microsystems. Restraining the modern Star Chamber. Doorknobs and good conversations. Obvious travel advice. Enjoying the fast food price wars. Accounting question for Boeing. Backstory of the Delta Duck Club. How Sam Altman accumulated power. The trendiest dating apps are LinkedIn and Duolingo. Full length hawk tuah interview.