Hello and welcome to your weekend!
in the collection poignant When powerful A tribute to Queen Elizabeth in the last few days this stupid promiscuous From startup founder and investor Chris Bakke:
“The Queen’s reign saw:
6 Pope
14 US Presidents
15 prime ministers
0 profitable 15 minute grocery delivery company
RIP”
It may be difficult for us Yanks to sentimentalize the Queen’s death, but Bakke’s joke tweet actually gets to the heart of why she was so important to so many. He was not a great leader in the Silicon Valley sense of the word. She didn’t build something amazing, spark a wave of reform and innovation, or change the world in a tactile way. She persevered longer than anyone before her.
Silicon Valley’s relentless quest for the next big thing is baked into its DNA. And one could argue that a reliance on novelty is necessary to keep the whole machine of capitalism running. But as the British monarchy has shown, the path to lasting legacy cannot always be lightning-fastened and massively withdrawn.
Flashy new things, whether it’s a 15-minute delivery startup or a surprise hostile takeover by a Hollywood C-lister, are basically good value that just lasts, lasts, and lasts. It always pales in comparison. The Queen’s true power was endurance. High-quality technical leaders should aspire as well.
Now for this week’s story…
Thinking of buying a new lipstick? We recommend digitizing the process by uploading selfies to L’Oreal, Nars, and Macy’s and virtually trying on shades. That seems harmless enough until technology analyzes your face for traits like neuroticism and extroversion. Zara Stone takes us inside Perfect Corp., a Taiwanese unicorn looking to reinvent the beauty industry, backed by investors including Snap, Chanel, Goldman Sachs and Alibaba. While seemingly superficial, the company’s facial dissection technology opens the door to some dystopian possibilities.
Last month, in its biggest acquisition yet, TikTok’s Chinese parent company reportedly paid $1.5 billion to take control of one of China’s largest private hospital chains. Amcare Healthcare operates a group of luxury maternity centers, women’s and children’s hospitals, and VIP postnatal packages cost around $32,000. Louise Matsakis consults an expert on why the social media giant is entering the highly regulated healthcare space. did the same state side.
Tux Pacific, CEO of year-old cryptocurrency company Entropy, is a rarity among tech founders. Not only are they transgender and choose their/them pronouns, they are also vocal free market anarchists. ) Margaux talks to The Pacific about their winding life path, beginning with their Mormon childhoods in North Carolina and ending with a $25 million seed round, led by Andrésine Horowitz.
Finally, we are pleased to announce the addition of two veteran reporters to The Information’s rapidly growing Weekend team. Abe recently joined us as Senior Editor at Forbes after covering the world’s business giants for over a decade. Arielle is from Wired and as her senior writer she has written nearly a dozen feature length articles for the magazine. Welcome Abe and Ariel!
Further reading: Why do all CEOs want washboard abs?
What do Jeff Bezos, Ari Emanuel, and video game exec Strauss Zelnick have in common? A healthy bank account and a Y chromosome aside, the trio are an executive class obsessed with their own six packs. represents.in the wall street journal, Ellen Gamerman outlines new standards for male CEOs. This is one of the things a female leader has lived for a long time, maintaining her physical attractiveness alongside her financial prowess. New York City Divorce Attorney Nancy Kemtob puts it succinctly: I have very little body fat. — Annie
Awareness: Elon summons Tolkien.‘d probably hate him
Elon Musk, “Tolkien Spins the Grave” wrote on twitter Earlier this week. Perhaps the richest person in the world, surrounded by piles of precious things, just saw Amazon’s new Tolkien poetry series, The Rings of Power, and didn’t like it a little. All male characters are either cowards or mean or both,” Musk wrote. But there’s an irony in his JRR Tolkien name-checking tech tycoon.as comedy writer Sean Thomason It pointed out, the fantasy writer actually hated technology. Tolkien noted this in his life and work, which had a great antipathy to steam locomotives, by representing the malevolent goblins and his delight in them with “wheels and engines and explosives”. clarified.Sounds like someone you know, Elon? – Abe
Question: Should I give my child an Apple Watch?
Struggling to keep your kids off your phone at the dinner table? Have you tried the $279 smartwatch? new york times, Kalley Huang and Brian X. Chen, write about how more parents are giving their five-year-olds their own Apple Watch. Amazingly, this has become a smart way to keep kids away from more nefarious devices. With minimal apps and her lack of a web browser, the watch has become a kiddie pool for her Apple products. It’s a way to track and contact your child without giving them a portal into the grimy depths of the Internet. Is it expensive for a child’s wrist accessory? Sure, but it’s cheap compared to the next few years of adolescence without an iPhone.
make me think
Because nothing says “God save the queen” like a California roll delivered in under 20 minutes.
Until next weekend, thanks for reading.
-John
Weekend Editor, The Information
