📅 July 7, 2022 | 📖 ± 4 minutes
New here? The WC is a random mix of useful / interesting / notable stuff that gets pumped into your inbox every Wednesday.
We’re in a recession, and my kids need to eat, so there may be some affiliate links in the bits below.
Let’s go!
Table of Contents
Is 2022 is the year hubris dies?
You know Klarna? The company that lets you pay for stuff in four equal payments over time, rather than all at once up front?
Last year, the company was worth $46B or nearly 40x revenue (not profits, revenue). Today they’re trying to raise more investment capital at a $6.5B valuation. In other words, it’s worth 85% less today than it was a year ago.
The company’s two main achievements over the last twelve months?
- Wiping out $40B
- Contributing to record levels of American consumer debt
But they’re not alone in the “Capriciously Spiffing Away Three Commas” club.
Do Kwon: "95% are going to die [coins], but there's also entertainment in watching companies die too" @stablekwon said this just 8 days ago. $LUNA died one week later. Who's laughing now? pic.twitter.com/i6kYE5OK1m
— Blockhead (@blockhead_co) May 13, 2022
2022 is a tough year to be a billionaire.
AI writes pretty good children’s stories
What do you get when you combine a five year old, GPT-3, and DALL-E? A pretty good story, as it happens.
A researcher asked his kindergartener what kind of story he’d want to hear, and this is what he came up with.
I want a story about Ash and Pikachu commanding an army of Pokemon. They’re attacking Team Rocket and enemy Pokemon from the land and ocean.
And this is what GPT-3 came back with.
It was a dark and stormy night, and Ash and Pikachu were leading their army of Pokemon into battle against Team Rocket and their enemy Pokemon. From the land came the sound of thundering footsteps and from the sea came the sound of crashing waves. The two sides met in the middle of the battlefield, and the battle began.
Pikachu and his army of electric-type Pokemon struck first, blasting the enemy with powerful thunderbolts. Team Rocket’s Pokemon were no match for the might of Pikachu and his friends, and they soon began to retreat.
But the enemy Pokemon from the sea were not so easily defeated. They launched a counterattack with water-type moves, drenching Ash and Pikachu’s army.
But Ash and Pikachu would not give up. They rallied their troops and fought back with everything they had. In the end, they emerged victorious, and the enemy was defeated.
I mean, I’ve heard worse.
But what’s a good children’s story without illustrations? Time to get DALL-E involved.
A few selected pieces.
It was a dark and stormy night, and Ash and Pikachu were leading their army of Pokemon into battle against Team Rocket and their enemy Pokemon.
From the land came the sound of thundering footsteps and from the sea came the sound of crashing waves.
The two sides met in the middle of the battlefield, and the battle began.
There’s a $46B business idea here somewhere.
OK Boomer
With Bitcoin down a million percent in 2022, it’s a good time to be a crypto skeptic. The tweets write themselves.
e.g.
Because #Bitcoin whales succeeded in pumping Bitcoin close to $70K, it's much easier for them to unload more worthless Bitcoin at $20K, as those suckers who are buying think they're getting a bargain. These "bargain" hunters averaging down will eventually be known as bag holders.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) June 27, 2022
And this
Most shocking part of "crypto winter" is inability of its once biggest supporters to put any sound reasoning together to justify why it should bounce back.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 5, 2022
There is a non-zero chance nothing very useful ever really comes from crypto, and we’ll collectively lump it in with Beanie Babies, etc.
But for for me, it all just feels like this super cringy piece from 1995 where David Letterman tries to tell Bill Gates how useless the internet is.
Oh there’s also this delicious bit of irony.
The irony of this is so hilarious!@PeterSchiff you do realize that if you had been using Bitcoin this would not have been possible!
— Coach K (30% Crypto, 70% USDC) (@Coachkcrypto) July 4, 2022
You should be loving decentralization https://t.co/cDCOWdMowL
Happy Fourth of July (for those who celebrate)
As an American who’s lived abroad for 13 years, I’ve mostly lost the tradition of celebrating America’s Independence Day. Good Tex-Mex is tough to come by, and (now I have three kids) staying up until 5am watching college basketball doesn’t happen so much anymore.
But it only takes something like this to remind me how proud I am to be American.
Ummmm. pic.twitter.com/XOESbiyjV9
— Cody (@new_orleansjazz) July 6, 2022
Florida Man replaced by Florida Snail
If you’ve never plugged “Florida Man” into Google’s news search, you’re missing out. It’s even got its own Subreddit.
This is what I got just now.
But now Florida Man has some competition from a horrific snail the size of a cat that can live up to NINE YEARS and lay up to 1,200 eggs per year.
And it turns out this abomination isn’t only a threat to local gardeners growing massive lettuces. It’s a carrier for something vile called “rat lungworm,” which causes meningitis.
Anyway, the town where they’ve been found is now quarantined and (hopefully) scheduled for thermonuclear pest control before it turns into this sort of situation.
Cheers,
Wyatt
