Weekend Briefing No. 627
Xi’s Loyalty Problem -- AI and Ads -- Backcountry Rescue
Welcome to the weekend.
Prime Numbers
3.2 billion - New York City's MTA ordered 3.2 billion MetroCards over the system's decades of use, and with the card now discontinued in favor of tap-to-pay OMNY, artists are scrambling to acquire the remaining dead cards from a high-security facility in Queens.
124.93 million - Super Bowl LX averaged 124.93 million viewers, making it the second most-watched telecast in American history, trailing only last year’s Super Bowl LIX by just two percent.
2.05 - The average American has been passionately in love just 2.05 times in their lifetime, according to a Kinsey Institute study of over 10,000 single adults, with 28 percent saying they’ve experienced passionate love only once and 14 percent saying they never have.
Xi’s Loyalty Problem
Xi Jinping hand-picked China’s military leadership to build a world-class force, then systematically purged nearly every one of them. Of the 30 generals and admirals running specialized departments and theater commands in early 2023, almost all have been expelled or disappeared—including his top general just months ago. The one remaining member of the Central Military Commission is the officer who ran the purges themselves, leaving command posts either vacant or filled by people with weeks on the job. When even loyalty isn’t enough to survive, you don’t have a stronger military—you have officers optimizing for invisibility instead of readiness. NYT (5 minutes)
AI and Ads
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads mocking OpenAI for putting ads in ChatGPT were my favorite commercials of the game. One depicted an AI workout buddy pivoting mid-advice to hawk shoe insoles for “short kings.” Another showed a therapy chatbot pushing a cougar dating site on a guy trying to improve his relationship with his mom. The tagline landed perfectly: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.” But Altman’s defensive response contained an uncomfortable truth. Most people use AI for throwaway tasks like emails, recipes, and homework help, things that used to be free via Google and don’t justify $20/month. Only 5% of ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly users pay for subscriptions. Advertising is the obvious business model. The resistance to AI ads isn’t principled, it’s performative. The same internet that gave us universal access to information did so because ads subsidized it. If you want AI to reach everyone, you’re going to serve them hotel recommendations alongside their answers. A16Z (6 minutes)
Backcountry Rescue
The Great Smoky Mountains gets 14 million visitors a year—more than Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon combined—and most of them have no idea what they’re doing. A volunteer rescue squad of élite outdoorsmen spends their weekends hauling unprepared hikers off cliffs, out of rivers, and down from peaks they had no business climbing in the first place. The gap between the park’s accessibility (it’s free, no entrance fee) and its actual danger (hypothermia, falls, drownings) creates a perpetual mismatch: people treat it like Disneyland when it’s actually wilderness that kills. The easier you make it to walk through the front door, the more you’ll need someone standing by to carry people back out. The New Yorker (17 minutes)
Seven
Norway's EV dominance remains strong despite the country cutting its generous electric vehicle incentives at the end of 2025. In January 2026, EVs still captured 94% of new car sales, only a slight dip from 95.8% the previous January. Just 98 diesel cars, 29 hybrids, and 7 petrol-only vehicles were sold across the entire country. Overall sales volume dropped sharply to 2,218 units, well below the typical 10,000–15,000 monthly average, but that's largely because buyers rushed to purchase EVs in December before incentives expired, pushing that month past 35,000 sales. Fossil fuel car sales actually decreased year over year. The takeaway is that Norway's EV transition has become self-sustaining. Norwegians now have widespread experience with electric vehicles and see no reason to revert. The article argues Norway's example demonstrates that once EVs gain a real foothold in a market, the shift can hold even without government support. Electreck (5 minutes)
Swim For It
A family holiday in Western Australia turned into a life-threatening ordeal when strong winds swept Joanne Appelbee and her three children out to sea on inflatable paddleboards and a kayak near Quindalup. As conditions worsened rapidly, Joanne made the agonizing decision to send her 13-year-old son Austin to swim for shore and get help, knowing he was the strongest swimmer. Austin swam 4km through dangerous waters, then sprinted another 2km to reach a phone and call emergency services before collapsing from exhaustion. Meanwhile, Joanne clung to a paddleboard with her younger children, Beau (12) and Grace (8), in freezing darkness, fearing Austin hadn't survived. A search party eventually located the family about 14km offshore. All four were rescued and treated for only minor injuries. Austin, who started swimming lessons at age four, returned to school on crutches days later. The Guardian (6 minutes)
Can Society Function Without Alcohol?
Roughly 30% of Americans participated in Dry January in 2025, reflecting a broader cultural shift away from alcohol. But the drink’s role in civilization runs deeper than happy hours and hangovers. Evolutionary psychologists argue it functions like singing or dancing, releasing endorphins that build trust between strangers, a critical need once humans began living in cities. Historically, alcohol-fueled gatherings catalyzed everything from the American Revolution to the Stonewall riots, though also darker movements like Nazism. Now several forces are eroding alcohol’s dominance: a hardening medical consensus that no level of consumption is safe, smartphone surveillance discouraging intoxication, and Gen Z’s shift toward intentional rather than habitual drinking. Potential substitutes each fall short. Cannabis tends toward introspection, kava is too mellow, and psilocybin remains far from mainstream. GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic may reduce drinking inadvertently by dampening reward pathways. History suggests societies can transition away from alcohol, but only when adequate social substitutes emerge. What replaces it next remains unclear. The Future Market (7 minutes)
Are All-Inclusive Resort Cool?
A generation that once prided itself on backpacking off the beaten track is now embracing the wristband. Forty-one percent of millennials planned to take an all-inclusive holiday, more than any other generation. Psychotherapist Anna Mathur attributes the trend to decision fatigue and burnout. In a culture that glorifies multitasking, the appeal of a holiday where meals, activities, and logistics are handled feels less like laziness and more like genuine rest. Mathur describes feeling "mothered by the hotel," with the mental load of cooking, cleaning, and planning lifted entirely. Budget predictability also plays a role. Knowing everything is paid upfront removes the stress of tracking spending throughout the trip. While millennials acknowledge trade-offs like missing local cuisine and foreign supermarkets, the promise of a truly decision-free break is winning out during an era of chronic overwhelm and rising costs. Hello! (6 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.
Weekend Wisdom
Iceland helvetica before they sold out activated charcoal, tumblr meditation polaroid knausgaard lumbersexual heirloom biodiesel. Intelligentsia taxidermy listicle, kinfolk kitsch bitters tote bag succulents.
"tote bag succulents" is better than having to carry them by hand.
Thank you for the very thoughtful assortment 👍🏻