A Sense of Spring

An election over, a new surge started, hope...

Nov 13, 2020

It has been awhile. A month, in fact. I’d like to say I’ve been busy, which I have been, but it’s more that the world has been busy. And my mind has been busy. A pandemic is one thing. An election during a pandemic is another, as it turns out. A closely contested one that lasts for several days is another thing entirely.

Politics aside, when the race was called last Saturday, it just felt like a huge weight had been lifted. Finally, one less thing to worry about. To think about constantly. I feel as if that, as much as the outcome, played into the mass euphoria that followed.

I also liked this sentiment from my friend Scott Belsky:

scott belsky @scottbelsky

imagine implications for creativity if every open mind got 5-10% more cognitive capacity free’d up, alongside 50% less fear & daily distraction. pretty damn hopeful for the next few years of innovation & creativity allocated to building the future vs. dealing w/ the present.

Our brains have been clogged by 2020 in general. So much worry, concern, fear, uncertainty, doubt. And while the election technically lingers, come on, it’s over. One less thing to worry about. COVID has come roaring back as many expected in the fall, unfortunately. But we’re also on the verge of a vaccine, it would seem. Another weight to be eased, another race that is on…

It’s strange to think about what life will be like when we can go back to “normal” because it has been so long since we’ve tasted normal. But it is starting to feel more real. And it’s exciting to think about what we can do again in a real world.

Links

(Let’s see what I have stashed in here…)

They’re making a sequel to Willow, in the form of a Disney+ series. As someone who loved Willow as a kid, I’m in. ⚔️
Google Photos got some heat this week for a forthcoming change to storage, but the service remains vital in our age of smartphones and clever things such as their print subscription strategy is overlooked. 📸
“Four Loko to Launch the Quibi of Getting Absolutely Shitfaced” might be the headline of the year. ☠️
Apple renewing Ted Lasso for a third season might be the news of the year. ⚽️
Interesting bit on the race to create a cryptography that can withstand the forthcoming quantum computers, before those become reality. ⚛️
Coca-Cola killed Tab, the OG diet soda. 🥤
A good post by my friend Eric Feng on how live social shopping has been quietly happening in the US for quite some time now. All the pieces aren’t lined up as they are in China, but its all there, just under the surface… 🛍
Fascinated by dark matter? The theoretical stuff, not the Andrew Bird song. This one is for you. 🌌
Speaking of the Universe, our portfolio company of that name launched their first Mac app today. I’m incredibly biased, of course, but it’s really good. A perfect showcase of how you move an iOS app to macOS with Catalyst. 🧑‍💻
Another app I absolutely love of late — not an investor, just a fan — WeatherLine. Their iOS widget is probably my most used one right now. ⚡️
Want to visit an English pub in the 1940s with Burgess Meredith? Trust me, you do. (via Robert Stephens) 🍺
Just got a Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit kit, this description had me excited:
When this all works as it should, Home Circuit is incredible. Yes, the racing is simpler than past Mario Karts, and it’s missing things like the gravity-defying Rainbow Road or the wonderful downhill track Mount Wario. But what you get in their place is amazing in a different way. The most notable thing is how fast and easy it is to make levels. The game instantly recognizes when you do something like move a gate, so tweaking your track is as intuitive as getting up and moving things around. Need some more obstacles? Grab a few pillows to toss in the way. Is a hairpin turn frustrating you? Shift the road a little bit. It’s hard to overstate how the tactile nature of level design makes the process so much easier — and more importantly, it’s fun. I think I might prefer building to racing.