Episode 3: Wish You Were Here
This past week was dominated by content covering protests and the riots and I’m sure you are fully informed on these stories. Therefore, I’m staying clear of those topics for practical purposes.
I. Below are the articles I found interesting the past week:
US severs all ties with World Health Organization (WHO)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/29/trump-who-china-white-house-us
Ancient art of knife massage
Sweeping changes to PPP program
Six tips for leading through a crisis
https://www.vault.com/blogs/coronavirus/6-leadership-tips-from-a-former-interrogator
Humility: The secret of leadership
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200528-is-this-the-secret-of-smart-leadership
How to become the happiest version of you
https://humanparts.medium.com/how-to-become-the-happiest-version-of-you-fcc59c50bd22
Re-opening in a pandemic: 5 things businesses can do to ward off lawsuits
The unseen harm of Covid-19
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200528-why-most-covid-19-deaths-wont-be-from-the-virus
I’m done with Covid (Blog)
https://regiehammblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/31/done/
Perks of isolated work
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200527-the-surprising-perks-of-isolated-work
Microsoft replacing journalists with robots
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52860247
AI-focused stylist, Stitch Fix, plans to lay-off 1,400 CA workers and hire in cities with lower costs of living
20 Years of Putin (My favorite line from the profile: "Putin's style is more information than violence, but there's always the chance somebody gets killed.”)
Where to find value in real estate stocks and what to avoid
Travel during a pandemic
As states start to reopen, where are people going? (Hint: burgers are back, fine dining is not)
Space X / NASA launch success
II. Stats that made me go WOW!
- Sellers on DIY e-commerce site Etsy sold 12 million face masks in April, generating $133 million in total sales. There was one face mask-related search on Etsy every 0.5 seconds.
- Videoconferencing company Zoom has seen a rise in its stock price of around 200% since Jan 1, 2020. In April, Zoom has 300 million meeting participants every day.
- Jio Infocomm, a telecom network in India has amassed over 388 million 4G subscribers since launching in 2016. Around 75% of India’s total web traffic comes from mobile phones. (India has 1.35 billion people, second only to China with approximately 1.4 billion population)
III. Name that Tune!
As I write this email, I’m listening to Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands and, interestingly, named after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The song Wish You Were Here, along with the album that carried the same title, was the follow-up to Dark Side of the Moon. The album was part homage to departed founding band member, Roger “Syd” Barrett, and part expression of vitriol towards the music industry business. Written by David Gilmour and Roger Waters, the song Wish You Were Here (along with Shine On Your Crazy Diamond) was lament for Roger “Syd” Barrett, the principal songwriter, lead guitarist and vocalist, of the band’s debut album in 1967. Syd was derailed by a drug-fueled psychological collapse in the late 1960s, forcing his removal from the group that he helped form. Sadly, Syd spent the remaining years of his life in obscurity, working as an unknown and unaccomplished painter before passing away in 2006 of pancreatic cancer. Despite his short-lived tenure with Pink Floyd and tragic exodus from the band, Syd received royalties from his work with Pink Floyd from each compilation and some of the live studio albums that featured his songs. In 1996, Syd Barrett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd.
Happy reading and have a great weekend!