☀️The Weekstarter: Wet Hot Analog Summer
Links for your week. CONTEXT COLLAPSE! 104
Hey internet friends.
I’m writing from sunny Miami, where the news cycle is understandably dominated by the Surfside building collapse. I’m here with my family and it’s the first time we’ve flown since March 2020. O’Hare was crowded and, save the masks, felt just like a normal busy Saturday in the before times.
When it comes to traveling with my family, I’d 1000% rather drive—or even take the train—than fly. As a solo flier, I’m happy to jump into a middle seat, put my headphones in, and zone out for a few hours until we hit our destination. But traveling with a small child? Give me the comfort zone of my car, the ability to stop and stretch legs anytime, the lack of security theatre rigamarole 24/7. But the kid traveled like a champ. Here’s the park we made it to today—worth it.
Now on to the links.
New Futures:
Erica Pandey at Axios on the rise of “third workplaces” that are neither home nor office. Really enjoyed this one—I have a home office that’s the official homebase, a membership in a Classpass-like subscription to multiple coworking spaces that I use when I need a change of scenery, and a conference room I rent for client meetings. The rest of the world’s catching up to my practice, and I like it.
Uber-venture capitalist Fred Wilson has a lot to say about why we’re gonna have an analog summer:
It is officially summer now and with adult vaccination rates passing 70% in many parts of the US, people are out and about. I’ve heard the term “analog summer” used to describe this moment. If the past 15 months have been a digital lockdown, then the next three months are going to mark a return to analog activities; beaches, parks, concerts, bars, restaurants, nightlife, etc, etc.
Kickstarter is considering switching to a four-day workweek. I really want it to work, let’s see if it works…
Bit of an old Wired article, but Jason Parham has very relevant ideas about how we’re turning our identities into online paywalls.
In the middle of the current UFO diversion discussion in the news cycle, enjoyed reading David French on what will happen to religious faith if we know ET’s there.
Advertising/Marketing/PR:
Hmm, Amazon’s PR strategy is exactly what you’d expect it to be.
Andrew Blustein at Adweek has smart things to say about how the adtech industry is reacting to the decline of IP addresses for targeted advertising. Semi-relatedly, Google is delaying cookie removal until late 2023.
Shopify is planning a massive expansion of their affiliate marketing program, in a hint of where creative revenue is going to come from 2022-25.
Actor Ryan Reynolds just sold his company Maximum Effect Marketing to connected tv adtech firm MNTN.
Advertising holding group giant IPG is launching a new healthcare marketing division1.
Brian Morrissey on the future of in-person events:
For many events, the audio visual side is an extra. But events now are more like TV productions. VivaTech broadcast sessions to a virtual audience far larger than those in the audience. In fact, doing sessions felt more like having a sparse studio audience than a live audience. That requires a lot more sophisticated A/V setup (and more added costs) in order to pull off. Some speakers were on-site and others were on Zoom. This is all new. I can’t say it wasn’t awkward at times, as moderators had to juggle some people being next to them and others being on a screen.
Media:
There’s trouble in Wikipedia land.
Press freedom in Hong Kong continues to die a slow death.
Netflix just hired Michelle Lee, the very well-regarded EIC of Allure, for their newly-created VP of Editorial & Publishing role. Normally that’d be the big Netflix news for the week, but Steven Spielberg’s Amblin just signed a deal to develop Netflix content, so…
ViacomCBS named MTV exec Tanya Giles as the new head of Paramount+ and PlutoTV.
Facebook is officially rolling out their podcast product and Clubhouse competitor in the US, right in time for the most highly online people to spend their time IRL this summer.
It sure looks likes BuzzFeed is going public.
Congrats Conan on wrapping up a heck of a show after almost 30 years!
Tech:
Windows 11! Huge Windows update!2 You’ll be able to use Android apps on Windows! Gizmodo’s Florence Ion wrote a great guide to Windows 11 as well. Meanwhile, Microsoft looks like they’re ending support for Windows 10 Home and Pro in 2025.
The importance of cohorts in online education.
TikTok parents ByteDance are now licensing their algorithm to outside firms. Hmm…
Google really wants everyone to use Google Workspace, regardless of whether they need it or not? In other Google news, some great $GOOG kremlinology from Daisuke Wakabayashi at the NYT who looks at internal criticism of Sundar Pichai.
Nvidia just acquired DeepMap, a HD mapping company. The move solidifies Nvidia’s competitive advantage around autonomous vehicle tech even more.
Twitter is doing some amazing work building out their ethical AI team.
Nintendo president Doug Bowser (love that someone with that name ended up leading Nintendo!) gave a smart interview with the WaPo’s Gene Park about the strategy behind the Switch3:
Bowser would rather highlight the upcoming slate of games and the diversity of audiences they serve. It’s been Nintendo’s strength for decades. As Sony pushes fidelity in prestige storytelling and Microsoft pushes itself as a broad service provider, Nintendo is happy to continue its strategy of offering a wide suite of games to not just attract, but nurture and grow its audience.
Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately:
Reading through Paul Graham’s epic What I Worked On.
Sci-fi author Premee Mohamed on the Aliens movies as cosmic horror.
Charlie Warzel speaking with journalist and childhood cancer activist Andrew Kaczynski about going through what no human being should ever go through.
Brian Contreras at the LAT on how Substack newsletter writers are hacking Gmail’s algorithms.
Learning about how Alexandra Friedman, a mother of 10, became one of the only Hasidic female doctors in the world.
Yascha Mounk on “truthiness” among left-wingers.
The sheer joy of the Foo Fighters reopening MSG.
What I’m Working On These Days:
I’m helping clients put together case studies, write white papers, and launch a podcast series.
I have availability to take on new projects starting mid-August; email to learn more.
Disclosure: I am a former IPG employee.
Disclosure: Microsoft is a former client.
Disclosure: My wife worked on installations for Nintendo’s Japan theme park.