The Roundup: Everything is American Twitter.
A newsletter that was unfortunately not written by an AI: Context Collapse #139
There’s been a lot going on this week.
We’ve got January 6 hearings, some extreme weather across the United States, cryptocurrency in freefall and a Google engineer arguing the company created a sentinent AI.
A totally normal week!
With that said, some things to have on your radar:
New Futures:
The post-pandemic retail crisis explained. (Twitter thread)
Advertising/Marketing/PR:
Great guide from Amber Atherton, Discord’s head of strategic communities, on building communities online in A16Z’s Future. (And apparently there’s an unofficial Starbucks Discord?)
How the pandemic really messed up Toblerone’s airport sales. Pinterest and Tastemade are entering into a multimillion dollar partnership. And Netflix is reportedly talking with Roku and Comcast about both ad sales and adtech.
Media:
Speaking of that, Netflix (which just had a pretty big layoff round) is planning a Squid Game reality show with a $4.6 million cash prize. Elon Musk’s townhall with Twitter employees didn’t go as planned. And here’s what happens when Facebook replaces the local newspaper.
Tech:
A very good roundup of Zoom tips. (Twitter thread)
Sentence fragments I thought I’d never write: Tim Horton’s privacy scandal. Dall-E Mini 101 and the weird best of Dall-E. MyFitnessPal gets a redesign. Anker hits $1 billion in sales—that’s a whole lot of USB cords. RIP Internet Explorer.
Some amazing people reverse engineered Aol 3.0 and pushed it live.
Misc.:
Eleven Madison Park’s no good, very bad 2021. Life advice from NYC chess hustlers.
New Fall of Civilizations drop on the Nabateans.
NYC apartment styles explained.
A car innovation that didn’t last.
Last but not least, a very good rant on American concerns conquering us all.
