85: 8 Can’t Wait

The protests about racial violence by police departments is all around us. I saw some incredible protests in the UK and Hong Kong yesterday. I have been wondering, what does police reform look like? What should police departments do? What are protesters asking for?

It seems like the best answer is we want, at a minimum, a massive reduction in police violence. After all in 2019 and 2020 in the US, a third of all people killed by strangers were killed by police officers. That’s crazy.

So, there’s a good answer for how we could reduce the violence and killings. In fact, there are 8 specific policies that could be implemented at each police department. There’s even a website called 8CantWait.org which highlights these policies.

If a department implements all 8 of these policies, there’s lots of data that shows police violence will go down 72%. Seventy-two percent. That’s a pretty good start. Continue reading “85: 8 Can’t Wait”

84: Drones for Seniors

How cool is this: UPS and CVS are starting to deliver their prescriptions to seniors in via drone.

UPS, CVS deliver first-ever prescription medication drops via ...As you know, X5 of COIVD deaths are people over 65. So, it’s super important we keep this demo safe. So, this drone delivery is just what we need. We want to keep those centers safe and free from new contacts, including those who have the necessary prescriptions for seniors.

Each drone can carry up to 5 lbs. each and travel up to 12 miles. They fly autonomously from a CVS location to nearby assisted living and nursing homes, then drop off the packages from a hover height of around 20 feet above these locations.

These are scary times, and it’s fascinating to see how some great minds and companies are being creative and coming up with technical solutions so we can be in contact with our loved ones, without getting too close.

An example I saw yesterday:

Continue reading “84: Drones for Seniors”

83: The Fall of Facebook

Back in 2006, I loved Facebook. I loved connecting with people and friends from around the world. The updates were great to see. The world needed it. I was convinced that social networking was the killer-app for the internet, and I still think that was true.

But then the world matured. By now we’ve all gotten used to it. The novelty has worn off. We take that online social connection for granted.

In today’s world, it’s not just enough to connect people and share the information, you need to provide context around that connection and that information. This is how people get news and information.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. When Trump posted last week “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” the employees at Facebook wanted to label that post as offensive, but Zuckerberg was adamant that all posts go up without being altered. Hundreds of employees are pissed after the company took no action.

Mark also went on Fox News and criticized Twitter for fact-checking Trump’s posts on mail-in ballots. He said he didn’t want his company to be an “arbiter of truth” on political issues. I think he’s the only one who feels that way.

Come on Mark. Let’s be honest, the reason you care so much is because (a) you don’t want to sign up to do the work. It’s a lot to label posts as incorrect or violent and once you set the precedent that you can’t go back, (b) the alt-right and other groups (Russia) are paying customers and it hurts the business to take sides, and finally (c) when your core product is harmful, you wants few warning labels as possible.

For all of these reasons, my views are switching. I’ve always viewed Facebook and its ability to connect others as a net positive in the world, even with all its flaws. But considering the recent actions and lack of conscience I hear from Mark, I’ve come to think of them as a net negative.

With over a billion monthly users, I only hope it turns around and gets better as they have enormous influence and power in the world.

Continue reading “83: The Fall of Facebook”

81: Reopening in Happening

When talking with friends across the country recently I realized that our little bubble here in California is different. We’re still in lockdown and our restaurants aren’t open. People are wearing masks. It’s as if it’s April.

My friends in other parts of the country are living differently. I heard someone yesterday make a reservation at a restaurant for “a table for 3.” Another friend who is operating a taxi company in Georgia remarked that there are plenty of rides happening. So, America is definitely reopening.

Trivia question: There are 3500 deaths from COVID in California. How many of them are under the age of 45? Answer: 68. Most people my age haven’t seen anyone die or get seriously ill from this disease. I can understand that. If people don’t perceive the threat, there’s no fear, and they’ll continue to push the line.

So, we’ll see what happens. I’m guessing there’s be more waves of cases, but, hey, maybe not. We will see.

I keep thinking about this read: Sure, The Velociraptors Are Still On The Loose But That’s No Reason Not To Reopen Jurassic Park Continue reading “81: Reopening in Happening”

80: War, Famine, or Revolution

An economist in 1798 theorized that a population and culture wold continue to grow until stopped by war, famine or revolution. Well, we got two out of the three.

When I look at just the famine piece and put the systematic deep racism aside for a moment. That seems to be all about income inequality. That’s hardly a hot take. It still baffles me that no Democratic platform has an answer for how to fix it. Better taxes helps a little bit as does universal healthcare but that still doesn’t make it possible for an Amazon delivery driver to buy a home and join the middle class.

When I look at why we are where we are, the inequality has been drastically escalated over the past 60 days. All the businesses that have failed are local and retail, and all the ones that are succeeding are upper class tech jobs. Shit, Amazon went from 18% of the retail market to 28% in 60 days. It was previously growing 1% a year. That can’t be good for the middle and lower class.

America doesn’t work for half the country and we need to figure out a ways for it to do so. I‘m open to ideas but think a good start would be a $20 minimum wage. That seems logical. Can someone tell me why we shouldn’t do that? Continue reading “80: War, Famine, or Revolution”

SpaceX Space Suit

79: Awesome Space Suits

The one good piece of news happening these days is the rocket launch on Sunday. It went off without a hitch and is the first time we’ve sent astronauts into space in 9 years. It was a pretty amazing.

I also have to say the space suits were a nice upgrade from the old ones. I mean even the suits in Armageddon were better than what NASA has been wearing. Here are the 1962 suits and 2011 suits (the last time they went up):

The original seven Mercury astronauts in their spacesuits in 1962.NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch in Sokol pressure suits

Continue reading “79: Awesome Space Suits”

77: TikTok

I’m thinking about TikTok. As I browse through the web, I see that the most creative and fun videos are always coming from TikTok, and the creativity and influence is only increasing. Let’s talk a bit about it.

If you haven’t downloaded and used TikTok, you’re in the minority. The service has over 1 BILLION daily active users and is by far the best place to consume short videos. The company is likely worth $200 billion and is not only the most valuable startup but one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Some interesting facts about TikTok and ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok:

  • The only real competitor to Google and Facebook is ByteDance. If anyone is taking down the big dogs, it’s them.
  • The company’s roots are in a news aggregator in China (called Toutiao) that is a dominant source of news in China. The company did $20 billion in revenue in 2019. So, not small potatoes.
  • TikTok’s success is due to many reasons but mainly its slick user experiences. There is no signin or account creation required, it’s mobile-first in a much better way than YouTube, and videos are super short – initially limited to 15 seconds which reduces the friction of both creation and consumption.

  • There’s lots of content. They claim 34% of US users shoot content daily.
  • The cross-cultural nature of user-generated video has stronger network effects than traditional news. A silly video uploaded in Thailand is potentially interesting to someone in Romania and the US.
  • It’s doesn’t rely at all on friends, following, or even having an account. Their algorithm recommends content based on an individual user’s view history, re-watches, likes, comments, shares, and even post-view activity. It’s all AI. The AI is the product really.
  • It grew by spending TONS of money. It spend $3 million a day throughout 2019 to acquire users.

There’s lots more I could say about it but this is clearly the era of TikTok and if you think that you’ve heard the end of it, well just wait. It’s just now reaching more and more people and we’re probably 2 years away from mainstream media realizing it exists which means we’ll get a whole other round of “have you heard of TikTok?”

A few sample videos from yesterday that rolled up just so you can see range. It’s fishing, jokes, and lots and lots of dancing:

Continue reading “77: TikTok”

The cover of New York Magazine

Coronavirus Log: Day 1

Crazy times over here. I thought i’d dust off the ol’ blog and record what’s happening.  Let’s get this started…

The cover of New York Magazine

Over the past 4 weeks or so, we all heard about Coronavirus (aka COVID-19) and it’s impact in China and Italy, but didn’t believe it was going to impact us that much in the states. That is, until Italy turned into a war zone.  Then 3 days ago, Rudy Gobert on the Utah Jazz tested positive, which resulted in all NBA games being cancelled. It followed quickly by other leagues, the NCAA, March Madness, the wife of the Canadian Prime Minister, and most shocking of all Tom Hanks!

Why are in this mess?

Well, at the top of the list I blame Trump. Here’s what he’s done (or not done):

  1. The World Health Organization had working tests that the United States refused
  2. Researchers at a project in Seattle tried to conduct early tests for the coronavirus but were prevented from doing so by federal officials. (Doctors at the research project eventually decided to perform coronavirus tests without federal approval.)
  3. The president reportedly ignored early warnings of the severity of the virus and grew angry at a CDC official who in February warned that an outbreak was inevitable.
  4. The Trump administration dismantled the National Security Council’s global-health office, whose purpose was to address global pandemics; we’re now paying the price for that. “We worked very well with that office,” Fauci told Congress. “It would be nice if the office was still there.”
  5. Day after day after day he denies reality – trying to do to the coronavirus what Attorney General William Barr did to the Mueller report: lie about it and get away with it. First, He claimed that it was contained in America when it was actually spreading.
  6. Then, he claimed that we had “shut it down” when we had not.
  7. He claimed that testing was available when it wasn’t.
  8. He claimed that the coronavirus will one day disappear “like a miracle”; it won’t.
  9. He claimed that a vaccine would be available in months; Fauci says it will not be available for a year or more.

So, where are we?

Current stats are:

What are we doing? 

We’re now attempting to “flatten the curve” by cancelling all schools, closing all workplaces and telling people to work from home, and banning all events over 100 people.

Flattening the Curve

We may face a shortage of ventilators and medical supplies, and hospitals may soon be overwhelmed, certainly if the number of coronavirus cases increases at a rate anything like that in countries such as Italy.

There appear to be WAY too few tests. This thread about the shortage of tests and supplies in a hospital is scary:

Day to day life is bizarre. Many people are rushing to grocery stores to stock up on essentials.  But the pictures i’m getting friends show the shelves bone-dry.

The borders are being shut. We have banned flights from Europe and Canada just announced they are closing the borders on Monday. We are all isolating ourselves in hopes to “flatten the curve”

 

What’s my Situation?

I’m currently in Toronto, but scheduled to get back tomorrow morning. That’s good because the borders in Canada close in 36 hours. Our kids are safe but the schools are closed for the next 2 weeks. All upcoming events (weddings, spring break trip) are no cancelled. We’ve stocked up on medicine, food and toilet paper. There’s no meetups happening with other families or groups.

 

Dog wrapped up

The Lewhouses in 2016

Some things I’ll remember about 2016…

Time disappearing
I thought we were time constrained when Hunter came along. Well, with two little ones this year, aged 1 and 3, time really got sucked away from me. Less sleep, fewer workouts, fewer books read. All the things I like to do just for me basically went out the door this year. But, they were replaced with more time with my family, which was just fantastic.

Hunter
He really became a full fledged person this year. He’s now funny and clever. He has a bit of trickery and deviousness in him, but he’s shaping up to be a very kind person. His teachers at school regularly remark about how genuine and kind he is. Also, his super power this year is his drawing. He’s very creative and can draw ridiculously well. Continue reading “The Lewhouses in 2016”

Steve Case on Immigration

I had the pleasure of working closely with Steve Case the Revolution gang back in the Qloud days.  I can tell you first-hand that he is the real deal. He made an appearance yesterday in the Senate and spoke about immigration.  Here are some of his statements.  All pretty interesting: 

1. “Today, 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies in the United States were started by immigrants or the children of immigrants, employing 10 million people across the globe and doing $4 trillion in revenue. Of the 10 most valuable brands globally, seven of them come from American companies founded by immigrants or their children. In the past 15 years, immigrants founded one quarter of U.S. venture-backed public companies.” [Source]

2. “Statistics show that immigrants are almost twice as likely as US-born workers to start a  company. Between 1995 and 2005, half of Silicon Valley startups had an immigrant founder. In 2005 alone, those businesses achieved $52 billion in sales supporting 400,000 jobs. In 2011, more than three-quarters of the patents filed at the top ten patent-producing US schools had an immigrant inventor. Of the 1,600 computer science PhD graduates from our universities in 2010, 60 percent were foreign students.” [Source]

3. “The mistake that opponents of immigration reform make is believing that our society and economic growth are zero sum. They are not. More talented immigrants joining the American family does not equate to fewer jobs, it equates to more jobs.”

4. “It is not the case that an increase in foreign talent will increase unemployment for native workers. Studies show that from 2000 to 2007, every 100 additional foreign-born workers in STEM fields created 262 additional employment positions for native US workers.” [Source]

5. “Every year, arbitrary immigration caps force approximately one-third of the 50,000 foreign-born STEM graduates from our universities to leave the country. After earning a Masters or PhD from universities such as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT, these talented men and women move to competitor nations and launch businesses abroad that compete with our workers here at home. If our military had a similar policy we would train soldiers, sailors, and pilots at West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy with world-class battlefield skills, only to send them away to join the militaries of foreign nations.”

6. “What was once the secret sauce of our economic advantage – a strong entrepreneurial economy that rewards risk, disruption and innovation – is being replicated aggressively around the world. A few decades ago we lost ground in the manufacturing sector when we failed to respond aggressively to global competition. We cannot afford to do the same when it comes to the entrepreneurial sector.”

7. “History teaches us that the most open and inclusive societies tend to be the most successful: Spain in the early 1400s pioneering navigation and global trade; Italy in the 1500s advancing science and learning. But no country has benefited more from immigration than the United States. We began as a startup founded by immigrant settlers who left a difficult situation to build a better life. What distinguishes us is that we have always been a magnet for risk-taking men and women from across the world hoping to start businesses, innovate, and contribute. That is part of our DNA. It is why in the 20th century we created more wealth, opportunity, and economic growth than any other nation.

But that advantage is slipping away. As the economies of developing countries mature rapidly it is no longer the easy choice to settle in the United States. There are now increasingly attractive opportunities abroad. We must improve the environment for entrepreneurship to thrive. Now is the time to work together and pass comprehensive reform that fixes our high-skilled immigration system.”