Shoutouts & Blurbs
In his book The Four, podcaster, NYU professor, and “Howard Stern with a MBA” Scott Galloway brings an antigravity machine to the god-like forces of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. He flings the parts and myths open and turns the conventional assumptions behind these four mega-scaled firms on their heads. With research, and simple artful graphs, he points to how and why they scaled to such astronomical heights. Scott calls this scale a “T algorithm,” that carves the path to a trillion dollar company.
Despite the narrative of success and the laughable amount of money generated by the four, Scott gives us reason to stop the worship and demand more. "We know these companies aren't benevolent beings, yet we invite them into the most intimate areas of our lives." His ideas and words carry muscle: “…all successful businesses appeal to one of three areas of the body —the brain, the heart, or the genitals…For anyone leading a company, knowing which realm you play in — that is, which organ you inspire —dictates business strategy and outcomes.” Scott praises these companies’ strategies, but rejects the idea that they command drooling admiration. They lie, steal, mine private information, commit crimes, flatten competition, grip attention and markets. Scott takes down their founders: “It is conventional wisdom that Steve Jobs ‘put a dent in the universe.’ No he didn’t. Steve Jobs, in my view, spat on the universe. People who get up every morning, get their kids dressed, get them to school, and have an irrational passion for their kids’ well-being, dent the universe.”
Not all chapters fit exactly within the book, as if an editor asked for an extra set of thoughts here and there. And the Google and Facebook chapters don’t get the same type of inception-to-current-stature narrative —from cradle to corner office—as Amazon and Apple. But that’s what makes this book different than other business books. It’s alive. It’s provocative, to overuse a word stapled to Scott’s brand.
I was gripped by the fascinating, semi-memoir section where Scott wrote about his time on the NY Times board and dared to challenge Google in the early aughts about the value of journalism. Scott believed that Google needed the NY Times because of their valuable content more than the NY Times needed to be found on a Google search. Google ultimately won this battle and took ad dollars that the NY Times needed.
Despite Scott’s business acumen, I notice that his worldview could benefit from some gender and queer studies injected into his thinking. He doesn’t realize that much of America isn’t in the positions he is in. Not everyone can move to a big city. Not everyone can go to a strong school. The book reads a bit like a privileged road map to huge big tech, hard-to-find success.
Nonetheless, there’s good advice and stronger insight in this book. Scott serves business education into digestible bits and brings clarity and understanding to these floating entities that seem to be as ubiquitous as oxygen.
If you’re a fan of Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller Bridge, here are 7 tips from her for writing.
Help Wisconsin democrats win the state supreme court justice seat. Check this link from Vote Save America. In what will likely be my future home state one day, Wisconsin, this is a colossal tug-of-war of ideologies. The winner will set the future policy and livelihoods of the state, and likely national electoral, too. Here’s the message from VSA:
Badgers, badgers, badgers. Everyone is counting on you this year. We love you and your Giannis and your cheese curds -- anything you need this year, you let us know. We’ll come shovel your driveway if it means getting out a few more votes in Waukesha County. And 2023 is just as crucial as ever. You're voting for a new state supreme court justice, with the potential to flip the ideological balance of the Court from conservative to liberal. This comes as the Court is expected to hear critical cases about gerrymandering, voter access, and the 1849 abortion ban currently restricting reproductive choice in the state. It's going to be the most expensive judicial race ever and easily the most important election of 2023.
Simple financial advice for everyone:
“It’s never too late to put money aside. But if you have access to tax-sheltered accounts — and that includes workplace retirement accounts like 401(k)s and 403(b)s, as well as I.R.A.s and health savings accounts — you will be better off over the long run if you can manage to start investing early and keep doing it regularly.”
Why schools (mine didn’t) don’t teach the simple info on finances and how our systems actually work — how wealth doesn’t just come from what you get paycheck-in — is beyond me. Wealth generation comes from using the tools and diversification of investments that insure stability and ability in the long run. We, of course, need to vote for better policies (tax the companies that evade and dodge taxes, universal health care, better infrastructure for homeless, abolish poverty as acceptable, etc), but there are things we can do to protect ourselves and create wealth now. Everyone should be aware of these routes and tools and find a way to make money do more for you than just sit in a bank account.
ChatGPT is a blurry JPEG of the web. This is the best piece of writing on A.I. I have read yet. Ted Chiang, the mind that brought us “The Story of Your Life” that inspired the film Arrival and other sci-fi modern classics, lights up natural intelligence with this timely New Yorker article. ChatGPT and other A.I. language-model systems use a photocopy of the web, argues Ted, and that copy is blurry, repackaged:
The rise of this type of repackaging is what makes it harder for us to find what we’re looking for online right now; the more that text generated by large language models gets published on the Web, the more the Web becomes a blurrier version of itself.
Writers who are worried about A.I. should give Ted’s piece their attention (I’ll let his words speak for themselves:
“I think this is a superficial resemblance. Your first draft isn’t an unoriginal idea expressed clearly; it’s an original idea expressed poorly, and it is accompanied by your amorphous dissatisfaction, your awareness of the distance between what it says and what you want it to say. That’s what directs you during rewriting, and that’s one of the things lacking when you start with text generated by an A.I.”
WaitWhat, don’t forget, makes good stuff this week and every week. Want to stop climbing a ladder and hop into a jungle gym? I do. I learned this firsthand diving deep into advertising icon David Droga’s career and special ability to marry creativity and business. Check out David’s episode that I helped create on the Masters of Scale website, or wherever you listen to podcasts
Want to know what it takes to scale a media business? How I Built This with Guy Raz interviewed Jim VandeHei, who did it twice with Politico and Axios. I learned a ton in this conversation. Perfect for a commute if you have the interest.
That’s all for now. Open heart, open mind.
ENDIT.
Wisconsin is wonderful, just not liberal. Ok?? I love you and great Tuck Talk🥰