These Are a Few of My Favorite Links: 04/26/22
Every other week, I send an email that solely features great links for you to peruse throughout the week and weekend. Enjoy!
Well, he actually did it. Elon Musk, world’s richest man, bought Twitter. I was sure it was just a rich guy posturing that he could just buy whatever he wants to mold it to his preferences. Turns out, he really did spend $40+ billion to take charge of a platform that most active users of have a love/hate relationship with (myself included).
Who knows why he did it — $40 billion could have done so many other things — but there’s no doubt that the implications are bigger than just Elon owning Twitter. How does it affect Big Tech (which I’m part of), how does it impact the broader business world, does it give Elon more political power/sway…? We’ll find out soon enough.
In the meantime, read up on the bizarre acquisition here. Other articles are sure to come and I know I won’t be able to resist sharing them with you.
Onto the other links!
“A Bookstore Revival Channels Nostalgia for Big Box Chains” — There’s been a small renaissance for bookstores housed in malls. Turns out that big box stores, which are treated as the enemy, can sometimes act as anchors for an entire industry. The NYT also recently wrote about this in an article titled “How Barnes & Noble Went From Villain to Hero.”
“Why Frankenstein Still Sells 40,000 Copies a Year” — Another bookselling tidbit for you. This is a fascinating piece of not only industry insight, but also marketing and writing advice.
“Can getting dunked on online win an election?” — How internet virality and political campaigning overlap. I was especially interested in this one because of the local angle. The people trying to unseat Lauren Boebert have been at it basically since she won on Election Day in ‘20; can anyone actually do it, though?
“What Happened to Jon Stewart?” — I’m always going to click on profiles of late night TV show personalities. Their work is fun and interesting and more important than it probably seems. Stewart has been a fascinating and complex character, as is evident in this piece.
“How to Learn Everything: The MasterClass Diaries” — For the last few weeks, I’ve been doing a deep dive into the science of learning and how to create online educational experiences that actually work. MasterClass is a huge player in that space, so this article, published a couple years ago, caught my eye. The lowdown: online classes aren’t the panacea they’re often pitched as.
That’s all for this week. Stay well, my friends!
-Jeremy