Notes.
I spent all week in the Pearl River Delta, doing sourcing for The Public Radio and thinking about China & the future of manufacturing. I'll have detailed notes on a few of our factory visits soon; in the meantime, I wrote down a bunch of general observations on the trip and the reasons that I really, *really* like visiting China.
Pathfinding.
- I worked at Undercurrent for almost a year and a half, during a transitional and decidedly formative point in my career. In April, Quirky (which was in the midst of a Quixotic fundraising round) acquired Undercurrent, and over the past weeks both Q and UC went through the process of shutting down, permanently.
The whole experience has been fascinating and tragic, and ultimately I'm excited for my next phase of work. Here are my thoughts in more detail.
^ This means that I'm now a free agent; holler at me to work together :)
Building.
- Intel and Micron announced a new type of memory, which they're billing as being way better than what's commercially available today.
- Carbon nanotube speakers. The cool thing about this is that it's not just using a supermaterial to replace a traditional speaker diaphragm - it's a whole different way of producing sound.
Logistics.
- A startup that does on-demand distributed bike repair raised a round of financing. I want this to be a thing.
- Why there's liquid nitrogen all over the NYC streets: it's being used to cool underground phone cables.
- A bunch of transportation policy experts on the future of federal highway funding, and how the gas tax isn't the right way to do it.
Evaluation.
- A report on the impact of megaships. Despite the huge benefits in fuel efficiency, megaships are kind of a mixed bag.
Stuff that doesn't fit into my dumb/arbitrary categories.
- Why it's so hard to find good bagels in San Francisco. The takeaway: it's not really worth it for anyone to make them :/
- Why everyone films at the same (fake) New York Chinese restaurant.
And.
Street (and hotel window) photos from our trip to the Pearl River Delta.
Love, Spencer.
ps - Thank you to everyone - especially my friends at Gin Lane, Undercurrent, Brilliant Bicycles and on twitter - who referred me to everything here.
We should be closer friends. Coffee's on me.
