PicoBlog

I’ve just logged onto a Zoom call with two girls who look like they could literally be me Rubes, or Liv when we first started Shit You Should Care About - we’re excitedly talking over each other about our cute pink outfits, our TikTok habits, and how we’re all so impatient for everything, all the time. That impatience is evident right now, as I’ve launched into this piece without even introducing what the hell I’m doing here!

I have a weird relationship with The Giver, Lois Lowry’s abstract and imagistic portrayal of a very particular dystopia. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t like it, and there are things that I admire about it very much. That abstraction is one big one. While I recognize that George Orwell’s 1984 is an important book, I have read it twice and never enjoye… ncG1vNJzZmieopqxpbXEnZybp5Wne7TBwayrmpubY7CwuY6pZq2glWK0qsLEq2SipqSnvKXBwq2mq7Fdpby0wA%3D%3D

When he died today at age 82, reportedly after a years-long battle with COPD, someone wrote on Facebook that he had the world’s greatest rolodex.  It is true that he knew everyone in the world worth knowing, but he didn’t keep their names and numbers in a rolodex but rather in a fat little address book.  I know this, because I snuck it out of his coat pocket one morning in my room at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood where he was crashing after a long night of hanging out and singing and playing guitars had ended with Neuwirth on the couch and Geoff Muldaur and Kinky Friedman draped over a couple of armchairs.

Welcome to our last Golden Bachelorrecap! What a long, strange trip it's been. If you didn't catch yesterday's breaking news, go there first. This will also neatly explain how our golden bachelor went from Gerry to Gary to Jerry. He's Jerry now, at least in my book. (Karyn, interested to hear what you think!) I’m starting off with him being “Jerry,” but I don’t know where I’ll end up. Okay, so the Big Fucking Mouse has begun to spin THR's report and he's spinning it hard.

It's time to introduce another one of the football players spreading The Good Football news. Meet Hector Bellerín. Born in Barcelona, Hector Bellerín plays as a right-back/wing-back for Real Betis Balompié, having previously played for FC Barcelona, Arsenal, and Sporting CP. Hector has three FA Cups, two FA Community Shields, and one Copa del Rey on his CV, but his accomplishments extend way beyond the victories and titles on the pitch.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new article, but I’m bringing the blog back (albeit at a somewhat slower pace) to celebrate the impending launch of the 50 Years of Text Games book. Books, actually: the Collector’s Edition comes with a bonus booklet, “Further Explorations,” featuring some of my favorite games and genres that got left out of the main series. I’m happy today to debut a chapter from “Further Explorations” about one of my favorite interactive fiction games of all time.

“I started following The Gradient because of its podcasts, where Daniel Bashir interviews the top theorists and engineers in artificial intelligence. Founded in 2017 by a group of students and researchers at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, this is IMO the best deep dive resource on AI. ” ncG1vNJzZmismJq0s63DopynrKCqr2%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xo

Dear CMQ Investors, I have had the privilege of guest lecturing at Columbia Business School on several occasions. My lectures focus on growth marketing and entrepreneurship, but each visit to Columbia’s campus reminds me of the principles of value investing. Columbia Business School is the academic birthplace of value investing. The fundamental principles of value investing were developed and taught at Columbia University by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd.

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building by Matt Mochary. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Matt Mochary is one of the best executive coaches in the world.