🚀 5X Annoyed Quarterback 📈 Working on the intersection of Synthwave and Big Data 🤩 Pitched ideas to Charli D'Amelio at Costco once 🗣 Bezos/Tech/Dispo 💪 Manifesting monumental kindred spirits that drive irritation 📚 Currently reading - Insider Secrets Explained: Tesla 🔸 Dream bigger. Do bigger. 🙏
Personally been trying to ignore Clubhouse, but who can resist such a bit of snark. On a more serious note, Joanna Stern did a great piece on the WSJ which is worth a listen.
Tuneage
At some point last year, Kevin Morby found his way into my musical discovery process and I’ve really enjoyed his work. His latest release Sundowner has been granted a ton of time and I highly recommended it. I also really enjoyed the latest Waxahatchee release, Saint Cloud and would also highly recommend that. What I only just learned though is that Kevin Morby and Katie Crutchfield (lead in Waxahatchee) are life partners and here they are performing together for Valentine’s Day…
Driveability
Automotive batteries have been the new hotness for a while but things are really starting to get interesting as this is the critical tech to make EVs a much more realistic choice for the masses. As of today, EVs are less than 2% of sales in the US and less than 3% globally … though as this piece from the Verge notes, there are some very interesting vehicles coming in the next year. QuantumScape, one of the leading startups in battery tech is having a very solid run on its way towards developing solid-state battery tech which could and should help make things more affordable so the green tax if you will would be more normalized. As I was recently discussing with my father and a friend in the market for an EV, it’s still pretty hard to bet against Tesla today given the charging infrastructure. Until that’s a standard connector and available to all EVs in the way that fuel is, things are going to be tricky. Tesla made an early bet and it’s a very serious advantage. In normal driving day-to-day, it’s not really a big deal especially if you have a charger at home as we do but on the road, it’s remarkable to have access to something like the supercharger. This past summer, we spent quite a bit of time away and used the network on the go, but while staying at my parent’s home by the beach, we used a regular 110 outlet, and needless to say it was quite slow. While it didn’t really impact things for us with plenty of charge in the car it was wild to see it need DAYS to charge. If you don’t know the typical wall plug will do 3-4 miles per hour of charging. A level two charger will do 35 to 45 miles depending on your car and a supercharger can 10x that for brief periods which is awesome. My daughter and I did a college road trip this past fall … 11 states in 4 days and a ton of supercharging along the road. It was quite painless and a Tesla road trip thanks to autopilot was much less stressful and physical even than past long trips.
Healing
Long Covid is something our family has been thinking a lot about. We have some lacking clarity on health issues here and have begun to circle around the possibility that my wife has been suffering the effects of Covid-19 from over a year ago. It’s been brutal for her and unclear if there’s even a solution. The NYT and Washington Post ran recent pieces that are well worth a read. This illness is such a mystery. If this is our situation it means we’ve had two positives in a home of five and somehow the other three of us have not been ill (tested anyway). I realize people have different rates of transmission capabilities, but still.
The Roads Ahead
Looking out on happier, warmer topics I’ve been thinking ahead to some long bike rides and can’t wait to shed the layers. NJ recently assigned the Pinelands route I rode all summer a National Scenic Byway. These roads were quiet and unbelievably well maintained. I enjoyed hundreds of flat sunny miles over there and would love to ride even more of this route.
Let’s play this one out with a brand new track from José González