Tippets #184
Stablecoins, superconductors, aliens, and more. Enjoy!
A warm welcome to new readers getting this for the first time. Thank you for letting me be a small part of your week. As a reminder, Tippets are tidbits and snippets (aka. tippets!) from my reading around the web.
Tippets from Around the Web:
Stablecoins: The Next Financial Platform
Over the last few months, I’ve been spending time learning about stablecoins, cryptocurrencies designed to mimic the price of another stable asset (eg. the US Dollar). This article by the team at
does an excellent job explaining what they are, how they work, real-world applications, and potential challenges. With over $125B of stablecoins outstanding, and $7T of stablecoins transferred in 2022, some form of stablecoin, whether government regulated or otherwise, will likely exist going forward. This primer is well worth a read.(22-minute read - )
Scientists might have made the ‘biggest physics discovery of a lifetime’ – or not
This week South Korean scientists released two papers that claim to have developed a “new superconductor that works at room temperature and ambient pressure.” This is important for a whole host of reasons, including new battery technology, lossless transmission of energy, expansion of constraints on nuclear reactor designs, and more. But, it’s unclear whether or not it is, in fact, a real discovery or whether the experiments are replicable. Lots of people are trying though! And while indications are that it isn’t the real deal, I’m excited to keep following this story, and I strongly recommended reading to all my science nerds out there.
(4-minute read - The Independent)
Congress Wants Answers on UFOs: ‘The American People Deserve the Truth’
Speaking of science nerds, as it turns out, we might actually have had interactions with aliens…WTH!
Witness David Grusch, a former member of a Pentagon panel on UAP, has said the federal government has withheld information about the recoveries of aircraft of nonhuman origin from Congress and the public.
The witnesses also include two former U.S. Navy fighter pilots who have said they saw “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP, a phrase the federal government uses to refer to what are commonly known as unidentified flying objects.
(4-minute read - WSJ)
Running a Successful Design Partner Program
Figuring out product-market fit at a startup is a tough exercise. We at Garuda Ventures are big proponents of companies setting up a structured Design Partner Program to help arrive at feedback-driven answers to the question. My partner
pulled together a great collection of tips and tricks founders can use to build their own design-partner program.(7-minute read - Garuda Ventures)
Aided by A.I. Language Models, Google’s Robots Are Getting Smart
Google unveiled its new Robotics Model, RT-2 this week. Thanks to AI, we are one step closer to the robot assistant Tony Stark had in the Iron Man movies, and I’m here for it.
An engineer gave the robot an instruction: “Pick up the extinct animal.”
The robot whirred for a moment, then its arm extended and its claw opened and descended. It grabbed the dinosaur.
Until very recently, this demonstration, which I witnessed during a podcast interview at Google’s robotics division in Mountain View, Calif., last week, would have been impossible. Robots weren’t able to reliably manipulate objects they had never seen before, and they certainly weren’t capable of making the logical leap from “extinct animal” to “plastic dinosaur.”
(7-minute read - NYT)
The Blackstone of Innovation
A thought-provoking piece by Kyle Harrison on the venture capital industry, incentive alignment, and asset accumulation.
As you evaluate every different venture fund, and the strategy they employ, be sure to consider their business model. Consider their incentives. And try to clearly understand whether you are a partner with them or a notch in their AUM collection.
(12-minute read - )
Gap Poaches Mattel Executive Who Revived Barbie to Be Its CEO
After a yearlong search, Gap has found its new CEO - Richard Dickson, a veteran exec who was most recently the President and COO at Mattel. Here’s to hoping he can do for Gap what he did for Barbie!
A few years after Dickson joined Mattel in 2000, Barbie began a steady decline. He set out to eliminate what he called “brand goulash.” Retailers such as Walmart could order up custom dolls. That led to 17 shades of pink and six different logos. Dickson distilled it to one shade of pink, Pantone’s No. 219. He also whittled the number of licenses, which at one point numbered 1,000.
In 2010, Dickson joined Jones Apparel to run its branded businesses, which included Nine West and Anne Klein. After the private-equity firm Sycamore Partners bought Jones and split it into six companies, Dickson rejoined Mattel in 2014.
At Mattel, he led another overhaul of Barbie, which was again in a sales slump, by adding more body styles and ethnicities to the brand’s lineup.
(4-minute read - WSJ)
Quote I'm thinking about: “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” - Ray Bradbury
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