Weekend Reading #127

Photo by Aneta Pawlik on Unsplash

This is the hundred-and-twenty-seventh weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 17th July 2021.

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What we're thinking.

It's been pretty tricky this week to think of anything other than what's been unfolding in South Africa. Following the arrest and jailing of former president, Jacob Zuma, the country experienced an insurrection of sorts as the province of KwaZulu Natal, Zuma’s tribal fiefdom, and parts of Gauteng were shut down. The looting and violence is clearly orchestrated to cause an over-reaction from President Cyril Ramaphosa. This would give a reason to go for him at party executive level (especially given his history with the Marikana incident). But so far, the president has shown restraint. At this stage it is still unclear whether this will escalate but the outcome is the most critical event for South Africa since the end of apartheid. If president Ramaphosa can emerge victorious, he will have more power than ever before. Let's hope it all ends peacefully and South Africans can get on with the tough enough job of getting through covid and living their lives. 
 

What we're reading.

I just finished an excellent book about Bytedance, written by Matthew Brennan. It's called Attention Factory: The Story of Tik Tok and China’s Bytedance. For someone who has not written a book before, it is unputdownable. I’ve follwed Brennan on twitter for some time and his insights into China and its tech scene are sharp and usually spot on. The story of Zhang Yiming is like the story of many of the great American tech entrepreneurs, except in China. Bytedance is arguably one of the most important companies in the world today and this read is just pure alpha. What is for sure is that its founder is entrepreneurial as they come – it's in his DNA. And my takeaway just as we wrote last week in our blogpost “China Rules”, is that it is extremely unlikely that Yiming decided to resign from his labour of love as CEO to “take on a new role in the company”. This book certainly helps a lot in contextualizing much of what is happening today. Highly recommended. DC

Reading a Michael Wolff book about Donald Trump is like eating a giant bowl of ice cream on a hot summer day – it's absolutely delicious but it doesn’t make you feel great. The final instalment in the trilogy, Landslide, is, perhaps, the best of the three (following Fire and Fury and Siege) because it describes the finale of Trump's four years in office, dissecting his tumultuous last months at the helm of the country. In many respects – and this is why it makes you feel kind of strange reading it – the expose is utterly terrifying. You can't quite believe that this is a description of reality. Wolff's extraordinary access to White House aides and to the former president himself means that what he tells is verbatim and as it happened, and it's jaw-dropping to read the extraordinary happens during those final days of the Trump presidency. You sit pretty aghast asking yourself, how on earth did it ever come to this? And how are we, and America, ever going to recover? If you can park those dark thoughts for a short while, the book is tremendously written and extraordinary entertaining. Stranger than fiction doesn't even come close. EJP

Matthew Ball is someone who’s opinions on the Metaverse and general media space we pay attention to. His recent monster series of essays on the Metaverse is simply a must read. It talks about everything from payments to interoperability to crypto and is also a great starting point for trying to understand how it may all someday piece together. He has become so popular that he now is one of the people behind a new “metaverse” ETF. That may at this stage be a bit of a stretch (Amazon is in the top 10 holdings) but who can blame the man who is primarily responsible for today’s narrative of what the metaverse is for monetising his IP in this way. I for one hope it succeeds. DC
 

What we're watching.

It seems to be a recurring trend in our updates that much of our team are fans of both Bruce Springsteen, as well as watching international movies and TV series as of recently. And whilst I don’t particularly lay claim to either passion, this week I stumbled across the 2014 Netflix Original, Lilyhammer. Starring E Street Band’s Steven Van Zandt, as Frank Tagliano, a New York mafia boss who after entering the witness protection program, decides to relocate to rural Norway having seen about the small town during the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympic games. Frank who now goes by Giovanni “Johnny” Hendrikson attempts to rebuild a life for himself and lay down new roots for himself in the new town. Whilst I have only watched the first season so far, it is undoubtably something interesting to watch and I’m looking forward to the following two seasons. HS

As with all recent high profile sporting events, it’s hard to know whether their happening is worth it considering the knock-on effects that these mass gatherings may be having in terms of COVID. Were +60,000 fans at Wembley last Sunday a good idea? Was a full Centre Court for the Wimbledon finals weekend sensible? I suppose only time will provide an answer. The British and Irish Lions rugby tour to South Africa is a sporting event that seems equally confused. Whilst a COVID third wave rips through South Africa’s population, the organisers are still desperately trying to put on a sporting show. This is good news for us lucky vaccinated folk, watching from the comfort of our sofas, but it is creating a strange tour that’s being played behind closed doors with both squads locked in COVID-secure bubbles for the duration. It begs the question, is it worth it? Well, in the coming week we should find out as the warmup games come to an end and the Test series begins. The Lions in South Africa is one of sport’s greatest clashes, but whether this year’s competition will be as special, played in front of empty stands with both teams, likely, shorn of at least a few star players who will more than likely have to isolate due to COVID, is debatable. So, whilst it’s nice to have some top-class rugby on the television, we all must hope it’s a tour that’s not being pushed forth to the detriment of either the players involved or the host country. EJP
 

What we're listening to.

A staggeringly good podcast episode was delivered into my brain this week by Tim Ferriss and his guest, Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neurobiologist from Stanford who chats with Tim about optimizing sleep, enhancing performance, reducing anxiety, and how to use the body to control the mind. It was one of those great episodes where I wished I could have noted it all and put it all into action in my daily routine. One thing I have taken onboard is a small hack that I likely knew was true but never put into practise, and that’s the need for sunlight as early as possible after you rise in the morning. Dr Huberman confirmed that in those first minutes after you sleepily get out bed, if you subject your body and brain to a dose of 5-10 minutes of outdoor sunshine (whether it be cloudy or not), your body will be much better prepared for the day ahead. Consequently, when I get up at half 6-ish each morning and go downstairs to make coffee for me and my wife and get milk for my daughter, I now take the time to sit in the garden for a couple of minutes. The results I’ve noticed in a few short days have been remarkable and whilst I might look a little odd out on my patio in my pyjamas, I couldn’t care less. My daily routine has a new beginning and it’s thanks to the fascinating Dr Huberman. EJP

A podcast I’ve listened to from time to time is called The Rest is History with two very accomplished historians - Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. Holland is an award-winning historian and author of Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Sandbrook focuses on more recent British history and is best known for many books on Britain since the 1950s. This episode features a discussion with another famous historian and author, William Dalrymple, who most recent book is called “The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company”. The discussion is riveting! Not your usual history chat as they discuss the East India Company and portray how remarkable its rise actually was and how it paved the way for British political dominance in India. What’s fascinating for me is the parallels with many events today. DC

Another one I enjoyed whilst running was Marc Andreessen on the Invest Like the Best podcast with Patrick O'Shaughnessy. As you no doubt know, Andreessen is a co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz and an absolute giant of Silicon Valley. He was also a super early pioneer of the internet, and at the age of 22 built Mosaic, which was the first widely adopted web browser. In this great and wide-ranging interview, Andreessen and O'Shaughnessy cover a bunch of topics including how software is making the world better, how slow sectors like education, healthcare, and housing are eating the economy, and Marc’s vision for the future of A16Z. This is educational and inspiring stuff. My fascination and respect for Andreessen grows every time I listen to him speak, so much so that when I’m thinking about dream dinner party guests, I think he might be working his way towards a call up. Fear not, however, Springsteen still dominates the head of the table! EJP