Welcome back to the Stove Top weekly newsletter. I’m just going to empty the notes this week because I’ve been heads down on Raffle Leader and Cyber Spatial. I hope you enjoy anyway. Back next week with something better.

Emptying The Notes Folder

It’s a tough time to be a non-exceptional tech worker

• Hundreds of thousands of tech employees have caught the boot over the last few years.

• Getting laid off sucks, but this is some grand billionaire capitalist conspiracy.

• These companies massively over-hired in 2020 and 2021 and Elon proved that you can cut >50% of your workforce and be just fine. That’s literally it. Non-story otherwise.

Vision Pro Is Here

• The Vision Pro is here, and it is the most impressive piece of consumer tech ever invented. Bar none.

• Some people think it’s dystopian. People walking around with a computer strapped on their faces. Dopamine overload. Oh nooo.

• I can definitely see the case that the Meta/Ready Player One version of VR is dystopian. I don’t want everyone hanging out in the virtual world cause that would mean the real world sucks by comparison, and that’d be no fun.

• But that’s not really the point of the Vision Pro. Where the Vision Pro shines is Augmented Reality (AR). It enhances, not replaces, your daily experience.

• Yes, it looks silly right now. But eventually Apple or somebody else will get it down to glasses or even contact size. And that’s an absolutely revolutionary technology.

Just Send Congress Home At This Point

• Our current 118th Congress passed only 34 bills last year.

• It is now an election year where both sides don’t want to give any ground to the opposition.

• The House Republicans can barely agree on who’s their leader, let alone their agenda.

• What appeared to be a pretty fair immigration deal was immediately blocked by Republicans…for obvious reasons.

• At this point, these people are worse than useless. Just send them home until the election is over.

Nikki, Please Go Join Them

• Nikki Haley lost in Nevada to “none of these candidates”.

• Trump is up by 34% in South Carolina ~2 weeks out.

• Nikki Haley is inexplicably still in the race.

• Only a true masochist could send their money to Nikki Haley right now.

Extras

• The pharma company making Ozempic is worth 5x what OpenAI is. Makes sense. There’s more fatsos than tech bros.

• Japan is giving a six-month residency for digital nomads. I like the idea here, but is 6-months enough? So what, you’re going to move to Japan, get kind of integrated, and then be forced to leave? Doesn’t make much sense to me.

• Get rid of secret surveillance courts.

• Mental health apps are under scrutiny, and for good reason. They are a pile of dogshit.

• Why do people do such dumb shit.

• Everyone is most definitely a sellout now.

• The UK is planning to quadruple its nuclear energy capacity.

• Reminder that AI will enable mass surveillance.

• America innovates, China imitates, Europe regulates.

• Humans around the world are living longer than ever.

• Here’s a cool story about how nuclear power saved Armenia.

• Israelis really don’t like Palestinians.

• The H-1B Visa program is finally undergoing changes.

• Apparently the new work-life balance is just not having kids. Ugh.

• China’s stock market suuuuckkkkksss.

• Dartmouth’s basketball team is unionizing? I can see the case for Kentucky basketball players to be classified as employees, but Dartmouth? Ivy League players aren’t even on scholarship lol.

• Speaking of Dartmouth, they reinstated the SAT/ACT. Good.

• Netanyahu is not interested in Hamas’s truce proposal.

• I am of the belief that the economy is overall pretty good right now, but then you see headlines like “record number of Americans can’t afford their rent”. What a confusing and bad situation.

• Chinese hackers have had access to our critical industries for at least 5 years. Doesn’t seem ideal.

• It feels like Zelensky has kind of lost the plot here, but at the same time, Lincoln fired a ton of his top generals, so, who knows?

• Immigration. Is. Good. For. The. Economy.

• Biden has a bad memory. What a surprise.

Until next time, ✌️

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