SWL Week in Review - Summer Bag Securing

From:

sam lessin <s@wlessin.com>

To:

Hidden Recipient <hidden@emailshot.io>

Date:

8/7/2026, 3:43 PM

MORE OR LESS — Jeff Dean, Airtable, and Bag-Securing

Who wants to run Goolge anyway?… sounds like a lot of people management / capitalism in a world where the cool kids want to be very well paid scientists wet-nursing g-d. Also Bending Spoons takes Airtable (and plenty of cookie licking)… while everyone is out securing their bags before the end of the world (regardless of whether the future is utopia or dystopian)

HOT TAKES

The best kid’s car is a police cruiser - family tradition is that all seven year olds take a special 1:1 trip to climb mt. Washington via Tuckerman's ravine. Getting there involved renting a car, which turned out to be a decommissioned armored police interceptor. I have NEVER in my life seen more good behavior from other cars on the road… speed, signaling, etc. beautiful. Makes me think that the police should be selling their cars to parents at exorbitant prices as the safest cars on the road, and not because they are armored.

Capitalism Has a Branding Problem — greatest system ever.. most successful driver of TRUTH, FREEDOM, EQUALITY, PROSPERITY, and ABUNDANCE… but there is a big branding issue that we need to solve.

Hyper-Local Hyperinflation is everywhere… and I think it is why everyone feels poor. You feel it in the summer in vacation retreats where people file out of cities and sort out into socio-economically clumped spots near seashores and BLM land… and turkey sandwiches top $20. As wealth consolidates / stratifies, prices also do on everything — headline inflation is meaningless when one-scoop of Ice Cream costs $7 (also hello Ozempic future / good pricing strategy when an extra scoop is only $1.36 — marginal cost to supply is zero, but everyone will order smallest size you can’t lose those dollars!)

Casual Games are Cooked — My middle son loves block blast (which is actually fun) but the ADS are terrible / awful — and you can’t pay to get them out!? … enter bot … I just asked for a subscription version I could pay for to get rid of ads, but it was insulted by the ask and just built me a perfect ads-free clone (for web and IOS) … play the web version here — and ponder how casual game monetization will possibly survive!

The History of Hot Wheels — from lessinboy podcasts… (where kids ask questions and we generate good short episodes about the world on demand with GOOD values…. This was a particularly great ask / answer… and I love the stories of early mattel.

FLOCK Fun… I love some good outrage… I wish this outrage was better tho — At some point people are going to figure out / crisp up that there are only three narratives which companies cannot defeat / three key trump cards to connect if you want something canceled (with an honorable mention for saying ‘Israel’ as a fourth)

Everyone is an Engineer, Everyone is a Marketer — Everyone is a GENERALIST — love this actual data via Lenny… totally rings true - we are in the age of revenge of the generalist ironically… and everyone needs to learn to story tell, build, and market. It is part of ALL jobs.

Men will listen to tech, not people — this came up from a recent meeting with a slow ventures portfolio company that has pivoted and is crushing it…. Men don’t want to take advice from humans / don’t want to ask real questions or display weakness to friends, but they will TOTALLY talk with machines and do what they say. I don’t ask relationship advice, but I will say that my daily workout planning modifications based on heat, humidity, 15 years of running data on how factors affect me + sleep, etc. makes a lot of sense and I do listen to — fascinating analysis from my bot on screwing up a run

Mandani Marts — I love this story… it is going to end so so badly but is so fun… first his attempt at liberal subsidized food runs right into Identity (hi supporting undocumented whatever)… and then it turns out it is going to be the greatest private government handout / money making machine ever for whomever gets the contract :) … I am a huge fan of trying to do good things / try things, but I have zero respect for people who try to tell stories / market things for politics that fundamentally make no sense — are in it for the headline not actually trying to do good. I do get the argument to blame trump for this / that he shifted the style of politics / Overton window so much that extreme left is the ultimate legacy of the rule bending -- that the legacy will be the greater-slap-back… but man this Mandani guy sucks…. And it is fun to watch this whole scheme burn. .. at least excellent entertainment!

Best,
Sam

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