WORKWEEK

There is a phrase in Hollywood called “development hell”. It refers to a project that takes an unreasonably long time to get made, if it ever gets made at all (software engineers and game developers know this phrase well). Over the past decade, I’ve been in a creative development hell of sorts.  While living in…

Breaking down Twitter bots  What is a soufflé? Up until about a week ago, my answer was “a French dish which is puffy”. I’ve had soufflés but only recently Googled what it actually is: “A soufflé is a baked egg-based dish originating in France, that can be served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a…

The rise and fall of Bill Hwang This Bloomberg Businessweek headline from April 2021 is an all-timer: “Bill Hwang Had $20 Billion, Then Lost It All in Two Days.” The implosion of Hwang’s hedge fund Archegos Capital shook Wall Street. Veteran traders called it the largest sum of money that had ever been lost in such a…

CNN+ vs. Quibi CNN+ is the streaming service for CNN. It launched on March 29. On Thursday, the company announced that it will shut down on April 30. That is only 32 days. Ludicrous.  Here is some context per Axios: A big bet gone bad: CNN floated the idea of a streaming service in 2020. Like every other…

Meet the Ferrero Group This is Giovanni Ferrero. He is Italy’s richest person, with a net worth of $36B. The source of his wealth is Ferrero Group, the Italian confectionary giant which sold $14B of sweets in 2021 (and is the world’s 2nd biggest candy maker). The private business employs 40k+ people and runs 30+…

Elon + Twitter Here’s what happened  For the uninitiated, please let me initiate you on how Elon now owns 9.1% of Twitter and sits on its board: June 2009 – December 2021: Elon spends a lot of time on Twitter sh**posting, dropping memes and sharing videos of SpaceX launches / Tesla releases.   January 31, 2022:…