Franklin Faraday Insights Roundup for February 5, 2021

Technology + Common Sense

Feb 06, 2021

Welcome to our first weekly roundup of actionable and interesting thoughts from all over. You can also follow us on Twitter @FranklinFaraday

Cybersecurity

Google’s Project Zero team reminds us that when patching vulnerabilities, engineers need to find and fix similar flaws in the rest of the code too…

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/03/1017242/google-project-zero-day-flaw-security/

Entrepreneurship

Must read article by Garry Tan (@garrytan) on avoiding co-founder conflict, “the number one killer of early stage startups.”

https://blog.initialized.com/2021/02/co-founder-conflict-why-i-quit-my-startup/

Garry Tan @garrytan

In the weeks before I resigned from my last startup I couldn’t sleep; I couldn’t eat; and my heart rate felt pegged at 120. This was me at the end of 2010. Co-founder disputes are the number one early startup killer, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

blog.initialized.comCo-Founder Conflict & Why I Quit my StartupHow you can avoid the #1 killer of early stage startups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2GuOvO-Mns In the weeks before I resigned from my last startup I couldn’t sleep; I couldn’t eat; and my heart rate felt pegged at 120. I had reached a point where I couldn’t agree with my co-founder over

Environment

The New York Times says electric vehicles have many unexpected consequences in the automotive supply chain:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/business/electric-vehicles-gm-tesla.html

#FAIL

Who would have thought that giving $100 million to a 24-year-old to invest in cryptocurrency would end badly?

https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/stefan-he-qin-admits-fraud-crypto-hedge-funds-100-million-2021-2-1030048785

And…even if you are a billionaire living in the clouds, your new roof can leak… it just does more damage!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/realestate/luxury-high-rise-432-park.html

Health

Fresenius Medical Care “anticipates significant negative impact” on 2021 net income… because COVID-19 is killing their dialysis patients.

The stock dropped 12% on February 2 and 18% on the week in response to this announcement.

https://www.freseniusmedicalcare.com/fileadmin/data/com/pdf/News/2021/FME_Preliminary_Announcement_2021_Targets_20210201.pdf?source=content_type%3Areact%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews%7Csection%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link

Leadership

1.) Lots of discussion on Bezos’ leadership following his move to executive chairman of Amazon. Some of the more insightful ones:

Stratechery:

https://stratechery.com/2021/the-relentless-jeff-bezos/

David Perell’s (@David_perell) Twitter thread on the topic

David Perell @david_perell

With Jeff Bezos stepping down as CEO, here’s a thread of the best things I’ve learned from him. 1. Be willing to change your mind. As Bezos famously said: "Anybody who doesn’t change their mind a lot is dramatically underestimating the complexity of the world we live in.”

2.) How do you build camaraderie in a remote environment?

Games… says this online games company:

https://slideswith.com/blog/games-for-remote-team-building

Software

Jason Fried (@jasonfried) and David Heinemeier Hansson (@dhh) provide an example of Basecamp’s internal process for adding and announcing new product features. Yet another model for remote, asynchronous companies.

Jason Fried @jasonfried

Before we ship to customers, we ship + announce internally. Every major release like this gets written up, illustrated, described, and posted for everyone at Basecamp/HEY to see. Here’s a real-life write-up of a feature we just shipped for HEY.

DHH @dhh

This send-as feature is what we internally developed as ROGUE MODE. You can see how the whole feature was considered and presented internally in advance of the public reveal in Basecamp: https://t.co/YluzEkZaqG

DHH @dhh

This send-as feature is what we internally developed as ROGUE MODE. You can see how the whole feature was considered and presented internally in advance of the public reveal in Basecamp:

public.3.basecamp.com📢 Shipping soon: Rogue Mode

https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/gpfFtkpt5NVurUK9RrNrsPm5

Space

NASA’s Perseverance Rover – complete with the first helicopter to fly on another planet – will land on Mars on February 18, 2021!

You can watch the landing online starting at 1415 EST/1115 PST:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/

Here is how Perseverance compares to the Curiosity Rover, which landed on Mars in 2012:

https://magazine.caltech.edu/post/mars-2020-evolution-of-a-rover

Random

A cognitive reflection riddle… flagged by our favorite @TimHarford and @alanbeattie

https://www.riddles.com/202

Tim Harford @TimHarford

Another cognitive reflection puzzle! Also, very funny.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie

absolute belter of a riddle. massively got the giggles now. https://t.co/AVmSPgySQs

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