Notes.
Thanks to all the great feedback on last week's update to the tool guide. Note that we do maintain a want-to-try list of tools & books, and are always looking for your recommendations to add to it :)
Planning & Strategy.
- Patent Pandas, a resource to help make patent law friendly for everyone.
- Patagonia's new corporate mission statement: “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.”
- A reminder that the real hard problems in running a small business are mostly dumb and not particularly good fits for name-your-buzzword-technology-solution.
- A remarkably honest and forthcoming disclosure of how an outside salesperson at a contract manufacturer embezzled over $100k from Keyboardio. As you read this, I recommend that you think critically about how relevant it is that the CM is Chinese, and whether a similar story could play out domestically as well (I tend to think that it could).
- Louisiana has a digital driver's license.
Making & Manufacturing.
- A pretty fantastic 48 hour time lapse video of a tunnel being built in Holland.
- The Chevy Express sells more than Jaguar, Genesis and Alfa Romeo combined and uses parts that date back as far as 1985.
- The Bloodhound supersonic car project, which aimed to beat the land speed record using a jet engine strapped to a rocket, was cancelled due to lack of funds.
- I'm looking for a new supplier for die cut corrugated boxes, ideally in western MA or central CT. If you have suggestions, send them!
Maintenance, Repair & Operations.
- A mini documentary of the diver that maintains Mexico City sewers.
- A mini profile of NYC's official clock master, who maintains public clocks & adjusts them for daylight savings time.
Distribution & Logistics.
- A list of female executives at transportation, mobility & AV startups.
- Amazon killed the Instacart-Whole Foods partnership, something I've been expecting since 2017-11-14.
- Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flew to 82.7 km in its first successful test launch.
Inspection, Testing & Analysis.
- A thorough, long, and (to me) riveting history of GE under Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt, John Flannery, and Larry Culp.
- A rather discouraging recap of Elon Musk's last year or so; Tesla does *not* seem like a fun/healthy gig.
- On copper usage in electric vehicles. The (electric) Chevy Bolt requires 80% more copper than the (internal combustion) VW Golf.
- Luminar and Volvo say that their long-range Lidar system can identify pedestrians' postures, which they see as a prerequisite to understanding whether (and presumably how) they'll move.
Tangents.
- I'm reading My Brilliant Friend, the first of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels.
- Pheasant Island is an uninhabited river island between Spain and France, whose administration alternates between the former (February through July) and the latter (August through January).
- If you read the section above about supporting The Prepared and thought "I wonder what this newsletter looked like five years ago," here's the answer :)
An academic history of the phrase "made in."
Thanks as always to our recurring donors for supporting The Prepared.Credit also to Severin, Julian, Reilly, James, Jordan, and Bunnie for sending links.
Love, Spencer.
p.s. - We should be better friends. Send me a note - coffee's on me :)
p.p.s. - Whenever possible, we work to encourage inclusivity. Here's how.
