When I last wrote to you — checks notes — two months ago, I wrote about “A Sense of Spring”. The good news is that we do indeed appear to be on the doorstep of a new season. The bad news is that we had to go through a hell of a Winter to get here. And many of us are still going through it, in many ways. The vaccines are here, the numbers are finally starting to fall, but the pandemic rages on.

These past two months have felt like two years. Just the past few weeks have felt like months. Americans stormed their own Capitol Building. A President impeached — for a second time in one term. I’m not sure what tomorrow brings, but my sincere hope is a simple one: peace and quiet. We need to continue to beat back this virus, of course. But I’ll be happy to have the other bullshit removed as background noise. Focus. Back to work. Back to life.

(While such a long hiatus here wasn’t planned, I do have some general writing plans for 2021. I’m still not entirely certain what I want to do here, though another 500-plus of you signed up for this just in the past two months, so… I’m thinking about it.)

Links

• As the father of a young girl, I found this long Economist piece about girls to be rather fascinating. 👧

• “‘Alright, alright, alright.’ — those three words were the first three words I ever said on film.” Matthew McConaughey reflects back on the chance meeting and saying that launched his career. 🤠

• G.E. may have found a path to a comeback in the form of wind power, thanks in part to a deal they did with Enron — yes, Enron — years ago, no less. 🌬

• If you’re anything like me, you had no idea how much of a hidden hand malaria had in shaping the world as we know it. 🦠

• This was a great read on the current state of the Mormon religion, and his place in it, by McKay Coppins. 🙏

• Good, albeit frustrating read by David Sacks on the disaster that is Chesa Boudin, the current DA of San Francisco. 🚨

• This is probably the most succinct and cogent piece I’ve read about how best to think about and to try to understand the insanity that is QAnon. 𝐐

• Meanwhile, over on Mars… 🔴

• The way Susan Orlean wrangles her life via her calendar resonates… 📆

• The times they are a chargin’ 🎸

• Farewell, Periscope. 👁

Posts

(Yeah, there are a lot of these…)

❄️ You Know Nothing, Jon Snow

And certainly most VCs don’t either — myself included…

⚔️ ‘The Mandalorian’ is the Way of Star Wars

The Disney+ show manages to out-Star Wars the movies…

📱 The Goldilocks iPhone 12

Tempted by the Max and Mini, I went with the “just right” Regular

🐤 A Fleeting Glimpse

Unsolicited feedback on Twitter’s new ‘Fleets’ feature

🖕 Instagram’s Latest Middle Finger

The dark design of Reels replacing the creation button

📥 The Way of the Future

A quick rebuttal on the Slackforce Slacklash

🎬 Warner’s Offer to Theaters is This: Nothing

The HBO Max maneuver seems cruel, though not exactly unusual

🕸 Is the Browser Ready for its Close-Up?

Betteridge’s Law aside, it’s time to ask the question again…

💻 The M1 MacBook Air: Perfection

If it’s not there, it’s very, very close…

🕷 The Cleveland Blues

The Cleveland Indians need a new name; the choice is obvious

🍿 OMG, a Functional Remote!

An Apple TV User’s Thoughts on the Chromecast with Google TV

🌉 Wake the Fuck Up, San Francisco

Title says it all

🎥 ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Just Validated the HBO Max Experiment

HBO Max is Great with ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Being Okay

🚗 Apple’s Future-Proof Car

Always in the future and lacking proof…

🎧 Pretty Great, Pretty Loud, Pretty Expensive, Pretty Heavy, and Pretty

Some thoughts on the AirPods Max…

📲 Looking Back at My 2020 Homescreen

The Widget and WFH Shuffle…

✍️ So I’ve Been Blogging Again

In ways big and small…

😞 A Coup of the Soul

Donald Trump ends not with a bang… actually, with a bang

🆓 Free as in Twitter

Twitter v. Trump actually isn’t all that complicated…

🍎 Intel Outside

Can an old school CEO restore the company as a certain “lifestyle” company once did?

⌨️ A Touching Ending and Return

Farewell, TouchBar — Welcome back MagSafe?

📺 An Apple TV Universal Remote

An idea to get Apple back into the living room game…

M.G. Siegler @mgsiegler

This graphic from almost 6 years ago is fascinating in that it seems pretty binary. Most of these companies are now *far* larger public companies (though some are larger still-private companies), while a few have completely evaporated. fortune.com/2015/01/22/the…

December 3rd 2020

2 Retweets12 Likes

Five years ago, a lot of people seemed certain we were in a bubble, now most of these companies look downright cheap (though yes, a few have blown up in spectacular fashion).