Weekend Briefing No. 586
Welcome to the weekend.
Prime Numbers
700,000,000 — According to the article, the MTA claims it loses $700 million annually to fare evasion, which is why they're investing $1.1 billion over five years to overhaul fare gates at 150 subway stations with modern gating systems designed to reduce fare-hopping.
70,000,000 — According to a new study, despite advancements in rocket technology, NASA's launch costs have increased at an average rate of 2.82% annually from 1996 to 2024, with SpaceX now charging $70 million for a dedicated Falcon 9 launch compared to $62 million a few years ago.
35 — The Hubble Telescope is 35 years old.
Sacred Transformation
Certainty destroyed by love can forge a faith far stronger than before. When evangelical pastor Bill White learned his teenage son was gay, he faced an agonizing spiritual crisis that threatened to topple everything — his ministry, his congregation and his fundamental understanding of scripture. "I hate homosexuality more than just about anything else in the world," he privately journaled, fearing his son's identity might "be stronger than God." Yet through years of painful theological wrestling, broken relationships and dwindling church attendance, this father ultimately discovered something revolutionary: his love wasn't conditional after all. His journey from devastation to celebration reveals how genuine transformation happens not through intellectual arguments but through radical honesty with oneself and a willingness to prioritize relationship over doctrine. "Father, thank you that you created our son gay. Forgive me for how poorly I received that gift." New York Times (7 minutes)
Altman & Nadella’s Bromance is Cooling Off
The "best partnership in tech" shows dangerous cracks beneath the surface. Once inseparable allies who texted constantly, Microsoft's Satya Nadella and OpenAI's Sam Altman now communicate primarily through scheduled weekly calls as their companies' interests diverge on multiple fronts. Their Silicon Valley power struggle centers around computing resources, model access and competing visions for artificial general intelligence, with each wielding significant leverage over the other's future. Microsoft's secret hiring of Altman-rival Mustafa Suleyman to build competing models and OpenAI's pursuit of alternative partnerships with Oracle and SoftBank signal both companies are preparing for independent futures despite their continued mutual dependence. Their deteriorating relationship threatens the innovative synergy that briefly made Microsoft the world's most valuable company. Wall Street Journal (7 minutes)
How Many Years Will You Live?
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America’s Brutalist EV Truck
Rejecting complexity, Slate's American-made $20,000 electric truck embraces battle scars and barebone essentials. This audacious vehicle strips away everything non-essential — no radio, no touchscreen, not even speakers — arriving in exactly one color (gray) with just 150 miles of range. Yet its genius lies in this radical simplification: unpainted plastic body panels eliminate billion-dollar paint shops, while its DIY-friendly design encourages owners to personalize everything from vinyl wraps to rear seating configurations. This manufacturing revolution has reportedly attracted major investors, including Jeff Bezos, suggesting that America's automotive future might actually lie in embracing severe minimalism rather than bloated feature creep. The question remains whether consumers addicted to automotive coddling are ready for a rolling digital detox when production begins in 2026. The Verge (7 minutes)
Streets of New York
This is a mesmerizing super slow-mo video of people walking the streets of NYC. The Met (3 minutes)
Know Your Enemy
Knowing your enemies' playbook can become your greatest strength. When Navy Commander James Stockdale parachuted into North Vietnamese captivity, his Stanford education in Marxism unexpectedly became his psychological armor during seven years of brutal torture in the "Hanoi Hilton." His captors were stunned when he challenged their ideological understanding, declaring, "That's not what Lenin said; you're a deviationist." This counterintuitive wisdom — studying opposing viewpoints rather than avoiding them — reveals why both Eisenhower and Seneca advocated reading "like a spy in the enemy's camp." True intellectual growth demands engagement with uncomfortable ideas, not censorship. The difficult, stressful path through contradictory thinking forges the greatest wisdom. Ryan Holiday (7 minutes)
500-Word Bumper Sticker
This 500-word bumper sticker on the back of this Tesla explains why they’re not bad people. It’s a hilarious piece from McSweeney’s about the tension that some Tesla drivers are feeling right now. McSweeney’s (3 minutes)
Should We Work Together?
Hi! I’m Kyle. This newsletter is my passion project. When I’m not writing, I run a law firm that helps startups move fast without breaking things. Most founders want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for a flat, monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business. If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit for the firm. Click here to schedule a one-on-one call with me.
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Weekend Wisdom
People are always looking for happiness at some future time and in some new thing, or some new set of circumstances, in possession of which they some day expect to find themselves. But the fact is, if happiness is not found now, where we are, and as we are, there is little chance of it ever being found. There is a great deal more happiness around us day by day than we have the sense or the power to seek and find. - Thomas Mitchell