The Dann Chronicles
The Dann Chronicles Podcast
The Dann Chronicles: September 🥾
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The Dann Chronicles: September 🥾

Inside the mind of Zuck, a bittersweet farewell, some emails from powerful people, addressing holes in the market, and a fun new nostalgia machine.

September 2022

Hey all,

I feel like every year I'm counting down the day until September. For me, it's the perfect month. The heat of the summer finally starts breaking, and the cooler days just feel refreshing in a way that's missing from other fall and winter months.

I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that this is around the time that I first moved to New York from Arizona. The heat of August breaking into the cooler evenings of September is a microcosm of the move from Arizona to New York.

A YouTuber that I like, Casey Neistat, recently moved back to New York City after a brief stint on the west coast, and his video encapsulates a lot of the feelings I have about living in this city. Avi and I watched it together, nodding our heads.

I feel like September is peak New York City. It's when the city that feels like home most feels like itself. And that's why I love September.

October is my second favorite month. Bring it on.

-Dann


🏄 The Art of Zuckoldry

I hate-listened to Mark Zuckerberg's conversation with Joe Rogan so you don't have to.

I listened mostly because Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most influential entrepreneurs of our time, and his companies have had (in my opinion) a quite negative impact on our society, and I know almost nothing about him.

I came away with a greater sense of dread than I was anticipating. I guess I was expecting an interview on the level of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Bill Gates (or at least in that ballpark). A conversation that, whether you agree with him or not, you walk away with some sort of new perspective.

The challenges that Meta faces are nuanced and complex. From designing a system that can amplify or suppress certain voices, to combating advanced society manipulation tactics, to dealing with sovereign countries using the platform to harm its people.

When pressed on any of the topics above, Zuckerberg added zero to the conversation. All difficult questions were countered with a "We don't think about it that way. Here's a simple tagline instead."

Meta (and thus Zuckerberg) has made a big bet on Virtual Reality (thus the name-change from Facebook to Meta, and the huge investment in the space). I wondered if maybe they had some larger driving philosophy behind that big bet. There doesn't seem to be, and it almost sounded as if he's deeply worried about his company's big shift.

My takeaways from Zuckerberg are:

  1. Facebook/Meta made the bet on VR/AR (virtual reality and augmented reality) years ago, and reading between the lines he sounds like he worries they made the wrong bet (he complains about business feedback loops being long…).

  2. He doesn't have any strong opinions/answers to the big ethical dilemmas his company faces. He's just a dude taking it one day at a time.

  3. Being the CEO of Meta is like waking up every day and being "punched in the stomach." (oof)

  4. The only way to cope is to start the day with strenuous physical activities that require full focus (surfing, MMA). Running gives you too much time with your thoughts.

That being said, historically his instincts have been spot-on, specifically the acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp (both of which were great moves for Facebook). VR/AR is the big wildcard here, and it’s the first time I feel like the space isn’t growing quite the way he expected.

Also, I also don't see Zuckerberg leaving his post any time soon. So I imagine we'll be seeing this dude doing his thing for quite a while.


📱 Farewell, and thanks for all the Minis

For me, the crushing blow from Apple's new iPhone lineup is the omission of a Mini version of the phone.

Two years ago, I got my hands on the new iPhone 12 Mini, and it's been my absolute favorite iPhone to date. But I was apparently in the minority, and so Apple made just two models total (iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini) before removing it from its lineup.

So it goes. There's speculation that it might not be gone forever. The optimistic take is that the Mini may just have a longer refresh cycle (much like the iPad Mini). But I'm not holding my breath.

Aside from that, I think the new iPhone 14 Pro is pretty snazzy. Dynamic Island is the hot new "feature," and I think it's a pretty creative way to handle the notch. It's not revolutionary, but definitely gives the phone a stronger sense of personality. As usual, I imagine we'll see it copied in almost all non-Apple phones in the next few years.

By far, the best implementation yet of the Dynamic Island is in the Apollo Reddit app, which gives users a cute little virtual pet that hangs out as you browse Reddit.


👂 Behind the curtain

Speaking of Apple, I find the Twitter account Internal Tech Emails to be one of the most fascinating accounts out there. It publishes private emails from major tech executives and leaders, most of which have been made public due to lawsuits and court filings.

Want to know what Steve Jobs emailed himself, to keep as a reminder? Or how he negotiated the 1997 Microsoft bailout? It's all there, and more.

It's always fascinating to read this type of content. Not just to get a peek behind the curtain of huge news-breaking deals, but also to catch a glimpse at how powerful people communicate with each other. My biggest takeaway, being a long-time reader, is that the higher-up you are in a company, the shorter your emails need to be.


🚧 Holes in the market

Sometimes I think about Twitter purchasing Vine in 2013 and promptly running it into the ground.

When Twitter announced that Vine was shutting down, I was shocked. The market had proven that there was room for a short-video form of Instagram, and created a whole new category of "Vine Celebrity." Now there would be a void, soon to be filled by someone else. And sure enough, Musical.ly (which later turned into TikTok) stepped in to fill that role.

I'm seeing it happen again with Instagram proper. Meta (and Zuckerberg) has no idea what its doing (see above). They're ruining Instagram by filling the feed with TikTok-like videos and other junk people don't want to see. By creeping into TikTok's lane, Meta is opening up space for a new still-photo sharing app to take its place. I'm excited for some new company to come around and make a photo-sharing app similar to the original Instagram and steal some marketshare.

I had the same immediate response after seeing the news that Adobe purchased Figma for $20 Billion (with a B). The buzz from Silicon Valley is around the valuation (50x current ARR) but all I hear are all the designers that were using Figma because it wasn't Adobe.

Last month, I talked about a movement to move away from Google. There's a similar movement with Adobe. But they keep pulling people back in.


📺 Glued to the boob tube

Television used to be considered lowest-common-denominator entertainment. Before streaming, and a vast quality improvement in programming, parents worried about their kids spending too many hours in front of the "boob tube." There was a certain prestige in telling everyone "I don't even own a TV."

That started shifting in the mid-2000s, with shows like Lost (regardless of your opinions on the ending) proving that television could be just as high-quality as cinema. Then streaming came around, and the ability to catch an episode if you missed the original air time. Everything changed.

But now you can go back. Feel free to slip back into that mindless-zombie state on my00stv.com, where you can flip through channels, watch old commercials, or generally get sucked into a pool of nostalgia. The water is warm.


End note

If you've enjoyed this, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend. You can send them here to sign up.

I'll be sending out these emails once per month, and I'm happy you're along for the ride. I'm trying to make it one of the best things that arrives in your inbox each month, so thoughts and feedback are always appreciated. You can just reply to this email.

Also, if you find anything interesting, send it my way.


Thanks for reading. Until next time, Dann

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