Trevor McKendrick - Thank you for your help last week

Good morning!

Good morning dear readers!

Thank you so much for the help getting the word out about my new company, Seis. Your likes & retweets definitely helped!

If you missed it, Seis is a mobile bank 100% in Spanish for Spanish speakers living in the US. We’ve raised $5m from Y Combinator & other great investors.

You can read the full thread here.

Now let’s get into it!

Trevor

A startup building walkable cities raises $30m Series A (article)

One of my favorite new companies is Culdesac. They’re building new cities that are built for people, not cars.

One of the single worst parts of the living in the US is the lack of truly walkeable cities. Or at least places where you don’t absolutely have to have a car to do anything.

New York is at the top of the list. San Francisco a distant second. And beyond that you are SOL.

Charter cities are amazing, but hell I’d like take just a city in the midwest where I could walk 10 minutes to work, buy some fruit at the local corner store, go to a pub after work, and hit a bookstore to rest for a bit - all while walking.

Good luck Culdesac! We are rooting for you.

Old blog post by the cofounder of Tumblr on the sale of Tumblr (article)

Interesting because of how rare offering even a semi-real insider’s POV on such a high profile acquisition is.

A list of very short non-fiction stories (article)

One that I really liked:

“President Clinton noted in his January 2000 State of the Union speech:

We begin the new century with over 20 million new jobs; the fastest economic growth in more than 30 years; the lowest unemployment rates in 30 years; the lowest poverty rates in 20 years; the lowest African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates on record; the first back-to-back surpluses in 42 years; and next month, America will achieve the longest period of economic growth in our entire history.

That wasn’t an exaggeration. But it marked the beginning of the worst decade for the stock market in modern times.

In January 2010, President Obama noted in his State of the Union speech:

One in 10 Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. And for those who’d already known poverty, life has become that much harder.

That wasn’t an exaggeration. But it marked the beginning of one of the best periods for the stock market in modern times.

A world map of every Special Economic Zone (SEZ)

Super cool site that attempts to do exactly what it says: identify every Special Economic Zone in the world.

I linked to the about page which also has interesting stats on types of zones, number of each type by country, etc.

Germany is kind of helping Russia: why? (twitter thread)

“Moral superiority aside, nothing is more important to Germany than the pursuit of short-term economic interests. If you can trade freely with everyone and afford not to worry about security or other political considerations, why wouldn't you? That's what Germany is doing”

Convictions: A Prosecutor's Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves (book)

Just started reading this, about 10% in - very very good so far.

And Finally…

You can share the newsletter using your referral code with any of these links: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, or email.

You can also grab the URL by itself here

Have a great week!

Trevor

I’m excited to let you know that I’m announcing my new company tomorrow at 11:30am PT.

I’ll send you another email tomorrow right at 11:30am PT that explains all the details on what I’m working on & links to the public announcements on Twitter/LinkedIn

It would mean a ton to me if you boosted them on your socials.

Stay tuned!!

Trevor

A Simple Plan to Solve All of America’s Problems (article)

“We say that we want to save the planet from climate change—but in practice, many Americans are basically dead set against the clean-energy revolution, with even liberal states shutting down zero-carbon nuclear plants and protesting solar-power projects. We say that housing is a human right—but our richest cities have made it excruciatingly difficult to build new houses, infrastructure, or megaprojects. Politicians say that they want better health care—but they tolerate a catastrophically slow-footed FDA‪ that withholds promising tools, and a federal policy that deliberately limits the supply of physicians.”

A proposal for an Abundance Agenda.

And: “We should aim for abundance of comfort, abundance of power, and abundance of time.”

In 1st, US surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient (article)

Incredible!

Imagine being the patient going under, unsure whether you were about to die.

This is what he said: “It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,”

Argo (movie)

Won best picture in 2012, had never gotten around to seeing it until this weekend. Was good!

It’s about the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 and how the CIA was able to get our 6 Americans stuck in the house of the Canadian Ambassador.

”I’m a remote worker. Why should I live in a city? Heck, why should I live in a suburb, or anywhere that has a state income tax?” (short Q&A post)

The answer starts: “You live in a city for culture, for sex, and to marry well. If those don’t apply to you, don’t live in a city.”

Jonah Goldberg on Biden’s recent speech in Georgia (article)

“Okay, I think I’ve been remarkably restrained. So let me speak a bit more freely now. Biden’s speech yesterday, and this whole project, is shameful, dangerous, stupid, and profoundly hypocritical”

Here’s the link to Biden’s speech. Interesting to note the times a line in the speech has to be crossed out to correct what he said.

A Shot to Save the World (book)

Covers how the Covid vaccines were created, going way back to the research done in the 1980s on HIV & AIDS. I’m only 25% through it but enjoying it a lot.

Makes me feel even stronger about creating a culture of celebration, reverence, and high status around creation, invention, building, and risk taking.

And Finally…

You can share the newsletter using your referral code with any of these links: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, or email.

You can also grab the URL by itself here

Have a great week!

Trevor