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kleptonancydrew · 3 years ago

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Nancy Drew and Education

So apparently the Clue Crew is full of teachers? Who knew. Well, as a former homeschooled student, current teacher, and (hopefully) future homeschooling parent/teacher I have been planning on integrating the games into lessons for a long time. Below the cut I have just a few of my many ideas (some more fleshed out than others). Feel free to use, adapt, or add your own!

SCK:

- Braille

o How blind/vision impaired people navigate the world

§ How we can make it more accessible for them

o How do braille books and printers work

- ASL

o Memorizing the alphabet and basic signs

§ Build up fluency

o How HOH/deaf people navigate the world

§ How we can make it more accessible for them

o Connections of ASL to other signed languages

§ French Sign Language versus British Sign Language

- Dangers of gas leaks

o What to do if you smell or hear gas

- Inequalities between mens and womens sporting opportunities

o See Women’s Soccer

- What are performance enhancing drugs

o What is the difference between #steroids and the steroids your doctor might prescribe

- How drug running is a gateway crime

- Why blackmailing people isn’t good

- More reasons to never move to Florida

- Why you shouldn’t go to an actual high school part one

STFD:

- Television in NYC

o Soap Operas

o How television sets work

o Role of director

o Teleprompters

o Props

o Agents

- Theatre in NY

o Broadway

§ Learn a show

o Carnegie Hall

- Dangers in the ways we obsess over celebrities

o Paparazzi

o Stalkers

o Respecting privacy

- NY taxi system

- NY regional accents

- NY as a center for immigration – salad bowl

o Ellis Island

- History of NYC

o Geography of NYC

- Typewriters

- Towers of Hanoi

- Encoding

- How to make chocolates (with or without poison)

- Read along:

o New York the Novel (Edward Rutherford)

o The Power Broker

o All of a Kind Family

MHM:

- San Francisco Gold Rush

- Earthquake and Fires in San Fran

- Golden Gate Bridge

- Angel Island

o Asian (Chinese) Immigration to the USA

- Chinese Zodiac

- Fortune telling (and why it’s not okay)

- Bed and Breakfasts

- San Francisco today

o Technology boom

o Overpriced everything

§ How this hurts established residents

§ Homelessness in San Fran

- Bandits in the American West

- Hauntings in American buildings

- How to remove and install tile

- Renovations – refurbish something

- Antiques

o Visit an antique shop

- Importance of fire safety

- How to install lighting fixtures properly

- How to fix a dumbwaiter

o How not to be a dumb waiter

- Tangrams

- What is the Victorian period

o Significance of Queen Victoria

- Read Along:

o Little Brother

o Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America

o Angel Island Gateway to Golden Mountain

TRT:

- The French Revolution

o Marie Antoinette

o Women and the French Revolution

o Worldwide effects of the Revolution

o Historians of the French Revolution

- Writing history

o How we can focus on different events in history, how we can be sympathetic to certain people, how we can fulfill different spaces in the historical narrative, criticism of history as a field, entering history as a field

- Wisconsin Dairy industry

- Alarm systems and how they work

- Fingerprinting

- Elevator safety

- Ski lifts

o Skiing

- Vandalism

- Taking care of libraries

- Latitude and longitude

- Keeping records of good events and bad events

o Nothing you do will ever stop me from loving you

- Some people keep different sleep schedules

- Journalism

- Making translations

- Why France has different holidays – to keep the ski lodges from getting too full

FIN:

- History of theatre spaces

- Use of film at theatres

- Magicians

o Houdini

o Learn a ‘magic’ trick

- Library of Congress

- Demolition – wrecking balls

o What’s involved

- Plaster casts

- Historic register of buildings

o Visit a local historic building

- Price of concessions and movie tickets today

- Nickelodeons

- Celebrity stunts for attention from press

o Celebrity endorsements

- Jazz music

o Dancing

- Kidnapping stories

o What to do if someone tries to grab you

- Rubber vs. electricity

- Art/artists of the 20s

SSH:

- Numbering systems (particularly ones not based on 10)

- Cultures of South America

o Maya

§ Cultural understandings

§ Connections to what appears at Beech Hill

o Aztec

o Inca

- Myths of lesser civilizations because of European preconceptions

- Why do countries have consulates/embassies in other countries

- What is amnesia and other medical memory issues

- Provenance and why its important part one

- Roles and responsibilities within a museum

o Visit a museum

o How to be critical of a museum and how knowledge is presented to you

- Modern art

o Make your own

o Visit a modern art museum

- Periodic Table of Elements

- Positive and negative molds for casting

DOG:

- Prohibition

o Speakeasys

o Amendments to constitution

o Drinking age restrictions

§ Comparison of USA to European countries

o Connections to modern drug policies

- Recognizing and photographing local birds

- Dangers in the forest – ticks and other pests

- Why water sources are important

o Flint water crisis

- Visit a state park

o Importance of maintaining public land

- Alcatraz

- How to care for dogs

- Noise pollution

o Light pollution

CAR:

- History of carousels

o Visit a carousel

- Lathes

- Harmonicas

- Band organs

- Writing messages with lemon juice and other hidden inks

- How to iron

o How not to iron

- How to make a sundae

- How amusement park rides are designed

- Soldering

- What is parole

o Welcoming those who have been in prison back to society

o Problems with the American prison system

§ How it disproportionately affects minority groups

o What can be done in prison reform

o Abuses in prison

o Making mental and spiritual help and guidance more available

o Making sanitary products available

o Prison for profit hurts everybody except the prison owner

o Educational opportunities for those in prison

o More half-way help

o Juvenile sentencing reform – more out of system help

o Respecting humanity of prisoners

o Ending the death penalty

- Depression

o How to get help

o How to help others

o Dealing with loss

DDI:

- Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest

- Orcas and other whales

o Whaling industry in Northwest and Northeast

o Things whale products were used for

o Visit natural history museum with whale exhibition

- Visit an aquarium with a good reputation

o Problems with places that do not take care of their sea life – particularly large sea life like whales

- What is a chowder and how is it made

o Try or make chowder

- Crabs

o Restrictions on different types of crabs – what type is local

o Try a crab dish

- Importance of different knots

o Get some rope and learn how to tie different knots

- Know the NATO alphabet and letter flags

- Boating knowledge

o Go on a boating trip – know the port and starboard sides

- Learn how to kayak

- Try to learn how to skip rocks

- Visit a lighthouse

o Importance and histories of lighthouses

- Smuggling – what is it and why does it happen

- Shanghaiing

- Chess

SHA:

- The continuous oppression and mistreatment of Native Americans

o From Mayflower to Pocahontas to Trail of Tears to Dakota to DAPL to Reservations to food deserts to voting rights to much much more

§ How to support current Native voices and concerns

o Why Native Americans are not a costume

o “Possession” of Native American objects and land

§ Arrowheads and native jewelry

o Broad overview of regional Native American groups – using their own voices

§ Special focus on local Native American groups

· Is there a local museum/educational resource that is either Native created or known for respecting Native voices

o Current Native Americans of note (ex: politicians, activists, artists)

o While the previous focuses on Native Americans in the modern day USA – also discuss First Nations from Canada and Native Groups from more southern areas

- Why temperature and pan matters when baking (show what happens in the oven when it goes wrong)

- Magnets and how different metals react differently to magnets

- How to take care of a horse and other farm animals

o Visit a local farm

o Try horse-riding

- Dangers of rattle snakes and scorpions

- Lassos and how to use them

- Legends of outlaws in the American West

- Ghost towns

- Flower stitches when knitting/crocheting

- Petrified wood

- How to make a campfire

- Picking fruits and veggies when they are ready

- Flower language

- Read Along:

o Native American folk tales

o Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

o Gone Away Lake

o Black Beauty?

CUR:

- Where are the moors

- Different regional accents within the United Kingdom

- British foods

- Latin

o Learn fun phrases and prayers

- Ancestry and genealogy

o Map your own family tree and recognize family crests

o How adoption has historically been a binding and irrefutable concept for lineage

o Find places your family lived

o Leaving a history for your descendants

§ Write a story book for them

o British Royal Family

§ Why incest is bad

- Parrots and their intelligence

- Secret passages in old buildings

- Alchemy

o Connections to modern understandings of science

o Historical understandings of elements

- Astrological signs

- Witch trials

- Legends of lycanthropy and other monsters

- Importance of not taking other peoples medicines

- Runic alphabet

- Feeding your pets a healthy diet

- Typing practice

- How to embrace the idea that home taught students are evil geniuses

- Forges and melting points of different metals

- Carnivorous plants

- Succulents

- Constellations in different places

- Read Along:

o The Secret Garden

o The London Eye Mystery

o Beastly

CLK:

- Great Depression

o Causes and effects

o Who was hurt

o Who was not hurt

o Areas of America

§ Dust bowl

o Famous people and literature

o Homelessness and poverty

§ Bread lines

§ Soup kitchens

§ Anti-homelessness architecture

§ Connections to mental illness and veterans

§ How we can help those who do not have homes today

- Early Telephones

- Shakespeare

- History of Nancy Drew

o Mildred Wirt Benson

o Edward Stratemeyer

- Fishing – why different fish respond to different bait

- Orphanages in the early 20th century

- Gas prices and accessibility of cars through time

- How to make pie

- What is jurisdiction and what is significant about crossing state lines

- How do banks work

o Safety deposit boxes

- Identify theft

- How to use a sewing machine

o Sew an item of clothing

- Mini golf – why and what

- Mirrors and their usefulness

- Stamp collections

- Radios and call signs

o Comparison to modern internet forms

- Telegrams

- Read along:

o Shakespeare

§ Midsummer Night’s Dream

§ Others

o Pollyanna

o Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

o The Grapes of Wrath

TRN:

- Trains

o Steam trains

o Visit a train museum

o Take a train ride (if not a normal event)

o Importance of transcontinental railway

o Trains around the USA today

o Trains around the world (TGV, bullet train)

- Abraham Lincoln

- Mark Twain

- How to make a good burger (you leave off the PB&J)

- Slugs

- Periodic Table of Elements – abbreviations

- Gemstones

- History of Mining

o England (Newcastle upon Tyne)

o American West

o Appalachia

o Company Store

o Health issues for miners

o Danger of mines

o Current issues for mining

- Dancing the Hurley Burley

- People who collect creepy dolls

o History of porcelain dolls

- Embroidery

o How to

o Patterns/symbols

- General Stores in the American West

o Sears

- How to make taffy

- Find a well maintained and beautiful tomb and research who is entombed

- Focusing light through a magnifying glass can start a fire

- Read Along:

o Murder on the Orient Express

o Mark Twain books

DAN:

- All lessons in French

- How using different ingredients and different amounts of ingredients can affect the outcome of your cookies

- Paris métro

o History

o How to read/follow a métro map

o RER

- Montmartre and other Parisian neighbourhoods

- History of Île de la France and Square de Vert Galant Parc and Pont Neuf

- WWII and the French Resistance

o Cross of Lorraine

o Vichy France

o Abuses of the French gov’t in this period

- Paris and the fashion world

- Beauty standards and the rejection of natural beauty by society

o Dangers of weight and figure standards

o You are beautiful as you are

- Catacombs of Paris

- Famous French Dishes (from this region)

o Or Bretagne since I know and like them better

- The French Café

- Moulin in France

- Tea and how hot leaf water can taste so bad but still be good for you

- Buildings of Baron Haussmann

- Paris History

- Decoders

- Importance of vitraux historically, culturally, and religiously

- Read Along:

o Little Kids

§ Madeline

§ Babar

§ Petit Ours

§ Plume

o High School

§ Hunchback of Notre Dame

§ Les Mis

§ Dale Van Kley

CRE:

- History of Hawai’i and her native people

o How the USA screwed them over and continues to do so

§ Land colonizing today

o Listen to voices from Native Peoples

- Pearl Harbor

o USS Arizona

- Native myths and legends

- Local flora and fauna

- Surfing

- How to make bead necklaces

- Snorkeling

- Entomology

o Find some local bugs and identify and observe them

- Horticulture

o See if you can graft something

o Watch a carnation placed in water with food dye

o Regrow a fruit or veggie from the leftovers

- Go looking for seashells – see how many complete shells you can find

- Be aware of pesticides and the dangers they offer

o Dangers of organic food too

- Make something with pineapple in it

- Fishing – different kinds of native fish

- Volcanos

- Hula

ICE:

- Wolf sanctuaries – respecting wildlife and their place in the wild and not the domestic

o What to do if you see a wolf in the real world

- Fur trapping in Canada history

- Regions and Capitols of Canada

o Visit Canada?

- How the Canadian government works

- Use of French language in Canada

o Unique features of Canadian French

- Ice fishing

- How to cook omelets, salmon, etc.

o How to not add paprika cause like ew

- Fossils

- Radiation

o Marie Curie

- How to be a good maid

- Snowballs/ice balls

- Ice skating

- Winter weather safety

- Avalanches

- Saunas

- Birthmarks

- Fax machines

- How to not lie about bird watching

- Frozen water safety

- Modern offenses against First Nations by Canadian Government

CRY:

- Culture of the Arawak and Caraïbe

o Voodoo

- Mardi Gras in New Orleans

- Hurricane Katrina and aftermath

- French Influence

- Eyes and their parts and functions

- Teeth and their parts and functions

- Alligators in the Southern USA and how they are dangerous pests

- Graveyards/cemeteries and how to be comfortable in them

o Modern burial practices

o Why are they above ground in Louisiana?

o Places where they are running out of space for the dead

o Historic violations of final resting places

- Ventriloquism

- Lizards and how to care for them

- Rube Goldberg machines

- Curio shops

- Crystal Skulls

VEN:

- International crime

- Organized crime

- Scopa

- Italian basics

o Learn an Italian aria

- Italian food

o Not just spaghetti

- History of Venice

o Current issues in Venice

- Carrier pigeons

- Micro-dots

- “Observing the architecture”

- Try to make gelato (or just get gelato, either way you get gelato)

- Disguising yourself – put on an outfit and try to get me to not recognize you

- Picking locks

- Secret codes

- Solfege

o With hand signs

o Learn a song in solfege

- Carnivale

- Learn how the sausage gets made

o How to deal with food poisoning

- How to secure your living space against burglars

o Glass breaks, motion sensors, keypads, magnets, and more

- Read Along:

o Heist Society

o The Prince

o Merchant of Venice

HAU:

- Irish lessons (as much of this in Irish as possible)

o Why the Irish language is important

- Geography of Ireland

o Provinces and counties

- Irish names

- Why Ireland has disliked and should dislike the UK

o Historically

o Famine

§ Emmigration

o Easter Rising

o Troubles

o Present-Day

- Importance of alcohol in Ireland

o Uisce beatha

o Guinness

§ Guinness world records

- Irish music

o Irish instruments

o Learn some Rebel songs

- Ogham runes

- Irish foods

o Something with lamb, who cares what

- Don’t use friends for land development

- Bogs

- Chemical Reactions

- Rockets

- Inventions and secrecy during WWII

- Religion in Ireland

o Pagan traditions

o Christianity

o Catholic/Protestant tensions

- Irish wedding traditions

- How printing presses work

- Irish castles

- Sheep sheering/raising sheep

- Irish legends

o Fae

o Leprechauns

- Don’t drive and talk on the phone

RAN:

- Why blackface is problematic? (the fact that this needs to be said is problematic in and of itself)

- Scuba diving

- Sailing

- Bermuda Triangle

- Bats

- Primates and their intelligence

o Problems with animal research

o Koko

o Jane Goodall

- Island resort culture

- Metal detectors

- Pirates

o And the Caribbean

o Their abuses

o Different kinds

o Modern day pirates

- How do walkie-talkies work

- US mistreatment of island territories

- Read Along:

o Bloody Jack (Meyer)

WAC:

- Edgar Allan Poe

o Stories

o Baltimore

- Piano

- Victorian Dining traditions

o How to set a place for fancy dining

o How to fold napkins

o Table manners

o How to serve someone at a fancy dinner

o How courses might work

o How to use your silverware

- Why you shouldn’t go to an actual high school part two

o Just fyi – that’s not how uniforms work

§ Have a school inspired dress code for a week

- Bullying and why you absolutely will not be a bully

o How to respond to bullying

o Importance of talking to adults and counseling

- Logic puzzles

- Research the founding of a local school

- Stringed Instruments

- Plagiarism

o Turnitin

- Making sandwiches – like a good deli style sandwich

- Photography scavenger hunt – make a digital (or physical) yearbook

- Squirrels

- Orthographic projection

- DNA/RNA

- Saving every major project on three different thumb drives

- Getting along with roommates

- States and Capitals

o Countries and capitals of the world

TOT:

- Tornados

o Technology used to observe tornados

- Meteorology

- Prairie dogs

- Life on the great plains

- Great Plains Native Americans

- Small towns in the Midwest honestly be like that

- Defensive driving

- Make a disaster kit

- Know what to do in various natural emergency situations

o What is the local alert protocol

o What do local authorities recommend

- How to maintain and fix a car

- How to fix a broken device

- What is tenure

- How to budget

o Go to the grocery store on a strict budget (however much you come in under budget is your candy budget)

- Read Along:

o Little House

SAW:

- Basic Japanese phrases

o Learn to count

o Writing in Japanese

- Sudoku, nonograms, renograms

- Japanese ghost legends

- Japanese culture

o Tourism

§ Ryokans

o Space – everything small

o Politeness/formalities

o Hot springs/baths

o Tatami and paper walls

- Japanese cultural dress

o Kimonos

o Lolita? Fashion

- Japanese names

o Last name first

o How to address others in Japan

- Martial Arts

o Ninjutsu

§ Traditional tools

- Japanese tea ceremony

- Schools in Japan

- Teaching English as a foreign language

- Japanese subway/train system

- Pachinko and Japanese gaming

- Japanese vending machines

- Robotic animals

- Bento

- Japanese foods

- Origami

- How to fake a haunting

CAP:

- Basic German phrases

o How to make a German word

o Connections of German to English

- German food favourites

o Especially cakes

- Storytelling as a cultural entity

o How memory has worked differently in different times

- Glass blowing

- How castles provided for the local community

- Bavaria in Germany

o Cultural dress

- Glockenspiel

- How to make board games

- Monster stories of central Europe

- How to monitor security camera remotely

- Read Along:

o Heidi

ASH:

- Arson

o Watching how different accelerants burn a piece of paper

- All politicians are at least somewhat self-serving

o But write a letter to a local politician anyway

§ Different ways to contact elected officials, and why some don’t work

- How to make ice cream

- How a police investigation works

o Problems with police departments around the world – specifically USA

o Ways that police work unfairly targets minorities

§ If Nancy is innocent how many others are

- How to use matches and lighters safely

- Why you should not return to the scene of a crime – particularly a fire

- Making sure smoke detectors work properly and the system is connected

o We might not go to school but fire drills are still important

- What is a mass spectrometer

- Who to call if you’ve been arrested

- What to do if you get pulled over

- How the media can skew the truth and make their own narratives

- Sound mixing

- Be careful with what you say/post/record

o Keep receipts and clarify when possible

TMB:

- What not to do at an archaeological site

- Ancient Egyptian History

o Pantheon, notable figures, relevant events

o Pyramids, sphinx

o Pharaohs

- Modern Egypt

o Arabic alphabet

- History of archaeological digs in Egypt

o Why they’ve been problematic

- Dangers of the tombs

- Mummys

o How they are put together

- Tomb raiders

- Importance of water in the desert

- How to piece together a broken artifact

- How to gently brush off an artifact

- There is no such thing as a dictionary for ancient Egyptian

- Aliens did not build the pyramids

- Senet

- Desert life safety

- How mirrors can be used to light a room

- Read Along

o Rick Riordan

DED:

- Nikola Tesla

o All his fun stuff

o Tesla Coils

- 3-D printing

- Gummy fingerprints

- Faraday Cage

- Basic electric concepts

o How to build a circuit board

- Chemical safety

- How a lab might work

- Valuing different skills within academia

- Ultraviolet light

- How motorcycles work

- Freelance photography

- How to use academic databases

GTH:

- Slavery in the United States

o Origins

o ‘End’

o Civil War

o The connection to “southern culture”

o Continued abuses of Black people in America

§ Importance of recognizing Black voices and what they are saying

§ Listening even when it’s uncomfortable

§ Checking privilege when you have it

o Jim Crow Laws

- Plantations

- Gone With the Wind

o The good and the bad

- Civil War spies – female

- Carbon monoxide poisoning

- Burned out houses are not a safe space

- Do not go digging through people’s coffins – rest in PEACE

- Understanding that your family can be flawed

- If you don’t want to get married, if you’re not happy in a relationship, end it

- When a member of your family is sick you take care of them

- Make a will, just in case your cousin kills you

- Bachelor and bachelorette parties should feature activities that everyone is comfortable with

- Read Along:

o My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier

SPY:

- Scotland and their identity

o Celtic Nations

o Independent Scotland

o Call a Scottish person

- Unicorns and other mythical creatures in Scotland

- Scottish food

o The appetizing parts

- History of spies

- Biowarfare

o Code Orange

o Other teenage stories dealing with anthrax

o Current events and concerns

o Historical biowarfare (smallpox blankets)

- Ziplining

- Archery

- How to bug someone

- Tartans and plaids

o Kilts

- Augmented Reality Glasses

- Record players

- How to reset a circuit breaker

- Read Along:

o Gallagher Girls

o Code Orange

o Little House (Martha)

o Little Brother (Doctorow)

MED:

- Don’t meet your heroes

- New Zealand

o Maori culture

- Survivor style game shows and realism

- I’m not saying Aliens can’t exist, I’m saying they def aren’t involved here

- Kayaking

- Submarines and what they can do

- Turtles

- Earthquakes

- Be careful with rope bridges

LIE:

- Provenance and why it’s important part two

- Greek art and how it was originally painted vibrantly

o Abuses of Greek art through the ages

- The British Museum and the issues with that

- Greek pantheon

o Legends and notable figures

o Religious traditions

- Iliad and Odyssey

- Art forgery

- How to fire clay pots and pottery

- Memorizing lines for a play

o Staging for a play

o Role of a director

- Theatre

o Lights

o Curtains

o Fly system

o Sound

- Greek alphabet

- Historical importance of the Greek language and culture

o Alexander the Great and Hellenization

- Olympics

o Historic and modern

- Greece and the European Union

- Make something with pomegranates

- Read Along:

o Iliad

o Odyssey

o The Thief

o Percy Jackson

SEA:

- Iceland

o Culture

§ Naming traditions

o Language

o Music

o Food

- Shipbuilding

o Historic and modern ships

- Ice caving

- Northern Lights

- Tides

- Snowmobiling

- Poetry

- What is xenophobia

MID:

- Some games just shouldn’t be made

- American witch trials

o What actually went down

o Misconceptions

- Treating people with albinism as real people

- Arson is bad

- Herbal remedies and how they can interfere with modern medicine

- Witchcraft and how not to

- Salem MA

- Ignorance promotes fear and hatred so we do our best to learn about others

#Nancy Drew Games #Clue Crew #Teaching #Education #Nancy Drew

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psalmsofpsychosis · 3 years ago

Text

Tag 9 people you want to know better

Thank you for the tag @isitandwonder bae 🌟

1. Favourite piece of clothing you own? fluffy yellow socks that end with a black cat head design on the ankles, with ears and all.

2. Your comfort food? ajfjskl i'm marie antoinette cake!

3. Fav time of the year? winter solstice and Christmas. We dont officially celebrate christmas here, but winter solstice is called Yalda in my culture and we ensure good luck for the rest of the year by eating a lot of... watermelons???? in a cold ass season????? there is also a lot of pomegranate and homemade cotton candy involved, dont ask me what is happening here

4. Fav song? of all time? Kensington's "do i ever".

But right now it's "first light of winter" by Miranda Lee Richards.

5. Do you collect something? hoo boy, i'm a whole entire dragon. artbooks of 1920s illustrators, children's illustrated books, books in general really, cherry chapsticks, notebooks, music, very old black and white photographs, and a couple of other things i'm missing probably.

6. Fav drink? Masala tea with cinnamon.

7. Fav fanfiction (if you are comfortable to share)? Oh jesus- just one? i read so many good pieces every week. But if i'm stranded on an island and can only take one story with me it'll be "from crumbling temples" by @alienfuckeronmain

no pressure tags: @silvyri @grimfey @lowstandards @darkisrising @agildedspacepug @brightmouth @stupidfatpenguin @treescape @tunglo

#The yalda thing is wild #we also get a lot of nuts and seeds and dried figs #and the fav fic thing broke my back but i'm not worried about having one choice #one of these days i'll complete my dinluke fic rec lists and then it's over for you bitches #about

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themovieworldaccordingtotps · 4 years ago

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BEST MOVIES OF 2020 (Arranged alphabetically)

1. David Byrne’s American Utopia Director: Spike Lee Cast: David Byrne, Chris Giarmo, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Angie Swan, Bobby Wooten III, Mauro Refosco, Tim Keiper, Gustavo Di Dalva, Jacquelene Acevedo, Daniel Freedman, Stephane San Juan Critic’s Notes: Stop Making Sense is my favorite concert of all time. So, American Utopia easily slots in as one of my favorite. And boy, this is the most urgent film of 2020. It is that watchable as David Byrne possesses his inner Mr. Rogers to guide Americans to an ideal society.

2. Driveways Director: Andrew Ahn Cast: Hong Chau, Lucas Jaye, Jerry Adler, Robyn Payne, Christine Ebersole, Brian Dennehy Critic’s Notes: Just the sweetest swan song from Brian Dennehy before his passing. Generally, this film is a slice-of-life story of the unlikely friendship between a lonely boy and a lonely senior, and the poignancy is too precious that it struck a chord.

3. Fan Girl Director: Antoinette Jadaone Cast: Charlie Dizon, Paulo Avelino Critic’s Notes: For my native pick from Philippine cinema, here is an unlikely story between a fan and her idol. It is a predictable deconstruction of an acclaimed, who becomes an over-the-top antithesis to his onscreen persona. But the script is sharp, so as the delightful leads.

4. First Cow Director: Kelly Reichardt Cast: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Ewen Bremner, Scott Shepherd, Gary Farmer, Lily Gladstone, Alia Shawkat Critic’s Notes: Kelly Reichardt became the Yasujirō Ozu of 2020, for this film contains the year’s most meditative shots and moodiest atmosphere on an otherwise simple story of friendship.

5. I’m Thinking of Ending Things Director: Charlie Kaufman Cast: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis, Guy Boyd, Hadley Robinson, Gus Birney, Abby Quinn, Colby Minifie Critic’s Notes: Charlie Kaufman is one of the pioneers of meta storytelling. And him helming one of the most unnerving suspense novels is a strange one. But it brings to light the subgenre of existential horror. First viewing may not be scary, but lingering on its subtext is the scariest part.

6. Minari Director: Lee Isaac Chung Cast: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Youn Yuh-jung, Scott Haze, Will Patton Critic’s Notes: My pick for the best film of 2020, Minari is another slice-of-story about a Korean immigrant family wanting to achieve the American dream in Arkansas. What it lacks on dramatic stakes, it has the heart of a striving family. And the best subplot comes from grandma Soon-ja.

7. Palm Springs Director: Max Brabakow Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, Peter Gallagher, Chris Pang, June Squibb, J. K. Simmons Critic’s Notes: The emblematic comedy of the last year, Palm Springs takes in the time-loop trope and gives it a fresh twist. The true heart of it is the chemistry between Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, whose signature personas seemingly blend.

8. Soul Director: Pete Docter Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, Angela Bassett Critic’s Notes: Aside from Brad Bird, Pete Docter just become one of the Pixar directors whose films are worth waiting. Soul is an intriguing character study of two souls needing to find the purpose of their lives. With its layers and layers of themes, this is the boldest Pixar project since The Incredibles.

9. Sound of Metal Director: Darius Marder Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff, Mathieu Amalric, Chelsea Lee Critic’s Notes: Riz Ahmed is the reason to see this film that honors the deaf and disabled community. His character’s deconstruction and subtle expressions give such gravitas that it is heart-wrenching to watch. Also, the best sound design of the year. (Sorry, Tenet.)

10. Wolfwalkers Director: Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart Cast: Honor Kneafsey, Eva Whittaker, Sean Bean, Simon McBurney, Tommy Tiernan, Jon Kenny, John Morton, Maria Doyle Kennedy Critic’s Notes: Cartoon Saloon just landed itself as one of the prime animation studios, next to Pixar, Studio Ghibli and Laika, with their most ambitious film yet. Wolfwalkers is perhaps their Princess Mononoke with a fresh twist on Irish history.

Runners-Up: Hamilton, The King of Staten Island, Run, The Trail of the Chicago 7, The Vast of Night

Missed Masterpieces: Nomadland, One Night in Miami, Promising Young Woman, Rocks, The Father

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amphtaminedreams · 5 years ago

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S/S 2020 Fashion Month: A Basic, Uneducated Fashion Heaux’s A-Z of Everything Noteworthy (Part 3/3)

Hi to anyone reading,

I’m finally at the end!

It’s only taken me, like, over 2 months but I’m finally about to review the last 5 shows I wanted to talk about from this year’s RTW offerings for S/S 2020. It’s very frustrating that I couldn’t include them in the last post and make this a nice, neat, equally sized two part thing but Tumblr was being difficult and so here I am. On the plus side, I guess I can also make this post a bit of a round-up of my ultimate favourite collections of this year and some of my absolute favourite looks!

To quickly finish my review though, I’m gonna start this post with Vivienne Westwood’s S/S 2020 collection!

And I hate to start the post on a downer but I wasn’t wild about it. The bridal look worn by Bella Hadid and the similarly structured red dress are the only pieces that I really love. The accessories are beautiful, especially the shell necklace, and the fitted corset upper halves are very flattering, however, there’s just nothing particularly exciting about this collection for me.

As for YSL’s S/S 2020 collection, my opinion is pretty similar. Don’t get me wrong, I personally love the embroidered pieces, and the jewell tones, and the whole art teacher/female Russell Brand vibe (I’m aware this is my second Russell Brand comparison of this review, don't @ me) but why does there have to be SO GODDAMN MANY FUCKING SEQUIN SUITS? I included a couple of the more interesting ones just for reference and can you believe that’s only about 1/10 of the sequin suits that were actually shown. I feel like they genuinely made up a good 33% of the show. It’s so boring and overdone from Saint Laurent, like you really can’t convince me that they didn’t do this exact same thing last year and the Eiffel Tower being in the background and the presence of the goddess that is Naomi Campbell and all the fancy lighting in the world isn’t a distraction enough because they DID THAT LAST YEAR TOO. It’s just disappointing from a brand like YSL who really has the money to take it to any wacky and inventive place that they want, and who has drawn on so many historical and cultural references in the past; the bohemian looks I am here for, everything else can go.

Next is Zadig and Voltaire, which is obviously more of a pedestrian brand than YSL, but still...disappointing.

I guess disappointing is the wrong word really because it’s not as if I had especially high hopes, it’s just that in comparison to a collection like Off-White’s, which was also a lot more of a “wearable” line, this is very Stradivarius/Zara/H&M/any member of the Inditex group. I like the ruffles, but we’ve seen them done in a much more interesting way in pretty much every other show and same with the blazers and suits. Even the styling of the teal faux fur coat, which I adore, is meh. Even Emily DiDonato can’t save it for me and that’s saying something because she honestly might be one of the most beautiful women on this planet.

On a more positive note, Zimmerman was beautiful. In a collection inspired by the ocean, the tranquil colour palette, the ornate, frothy ruffles and the flowing materials are dead on, and indulgently so. I can see most of these pieces having universal appeal and looking good on anyone, and yet this wearability doesn’t make the collection boring by any means; I think it really is a matter of having a clear concept and attention to detail that save more subtle shows from falling by the wayside.

And lastly, Zuhair Murad, which is always a designer I look forward to; I love a good princess dress and on that, he always delivers.

However, whilst there’s a similar feel and colour palette to Zimmerman, I’d say this collection doesn’t have quite as clear a direction. There’s definitely a lot of recurring themes of the ruffles and the high necks and the bohemian prints and suits that we’ve seen throughout fashion month, but this still doesn’t feel like the most relevant or current collection I’ve ever seen from Murad. It goes without saying that the dresses are beautiful but in the context of a red carpet where every dress is a princess dress, I can’t imagine any of these taking my breath away which is usually the case.

I really WANTED to end on a positive note, I’m sorry! And there were so so many amazing moments this season. In general, I’m excited for a lot of the trends that are seemingly going to be coming up: more of the milkmaid thing, peasant blouses, bohemian influences and a shit load of gorgeous suits!

I was going to try and do a top 10 but I honestly have too many favourites so I’m making into a...top 20. It sounds like a cop-out, but when there’s THIS many shows to go through I think a top 20 is perfectly fair.

1. Gucci

It has to be my favourite overall. The clearest concept, the most beautiful colours, and a whole range of interesting accessories and structures. Blew everything else out the water. Might make like Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade and just start randomly saying Gucci out loud at totally inappropriate moments to express my love.

2. Marc Jacobs

Kooky and in your face but also thoughtful and delicate. Every piece is a statement.

3. Moschino

The intersection where art meets fashion is always my favourite place to lurk and so it’s not surprise that Moschino’s Picasso inspired collection ticked so many boxes for me. Aside from that, the structures are gorgeous and on trend and I love the accessories.

4. Valentino

So. Many. Heavenly. Dresses.

5. Mugler

Definitely the sexiest S/S 2020 collection.

6. Paco Rabanne

I mean, yes, it is a little primary school teacher-y (it’s probably the coloured socks), but a fashion-y, wear-it-to-the-club version of primary school teacher style.

7. Ralph and Russo

A prissy pastel dream that channels the Sandra Dee sleepover scene from Grease in the modern day, the only thing that could’ve added to the Ralph and Russo show would be a more diverse group of models.

8. Brock

There’s never going to be an appropriate moment to wear any of the garments from the Brock collection. Does that mean I’m going to stop thinking about it? Never.

9. Balmain

I know Balmain didn’t go down too well with the fashion critics but the noughties pop girls obsessed child in me loveddddd it.

10. Etro

Not the most high-fashion but I would wear.

11. Dion Lee

Dion Lee took corsets and suspenders and harnesses and turned that whole dominatrix trend on its head by pairing them with androgynous silhouettes, fresh whites and subtle nude tones, and I’m here for it!

12. Alessandra Rich

Eighties presidential candidate’s wife/sorority queen realness.

13. Dilara Findikoglu

Definitely my favourite of the more “avant-garde” shows we saw this year.

14. Oscar de la Renta

These dresses speak for themselves, do I really need to say any more?

15. Christopher Kane

Christopher Kane made galaxy print cool again for the first time since it was murdered by 2013 “hipster” Tumblr and then buried 6ft under by the plethora of £5 and under wholesale retailers who thought it would be a good idea to mass produce leggings with said print on.

16. Loewe

Delicate, purposeful and refined, Loewe put out a practical yet very, very pretty and season-appropriate spring collection.

17. Thom Browne

Thom Browne brought Marie Antoinette onto the runway. ‘Nuff said.

18. Louis Vuitton

I will never turn my nose up at anything 70s influenced and Louis Vuitton’s collection was probably the most authentic (and thus kinda ugly at times) that I’ve seen.

19. Simone Rocha

If I ever became part of some modern day witchy, forest-God worshipping cult, I would expect us all to be wearing Simone Rocha’s 2020 S/S collection and nothing less.

20. Vera Wang

Jenny Humphrey in Gossip Girl for the 2019 e-girl xoxo

SO.

3 parts and 3 months later, this is my review of fashion month 2019 coming to an end. I mean, it’s actually closer to A/W 2020 fashion week now than it is to S/S 2020 buuuut let’s just forget that little detail because I had NO FUCKING IDEA it would take this long.

If there’s anyone out there who read this to the end (and I highly, highly doubt there is and I don’t blame you) or even anyone that looked at the pictures (which is probably what I would do), please let me know! It got a bit long at times but I have generally reallllly enjoyed doing this and more than anything it’s got me sad that I’ll never see these shows in person :( sad times :( oh to be on the benefiting end of nepotism :(

Thank you sooo much!

Lauren x

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fuelcut · 5 years ago

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A thought experiment on Silicon Valley’s third era

[ read the tweetstorm if you’re in a rush]

June 19th marks the end of American slavery, July 4th American Independence and July 14th the storming of the Bastille. It’s also my 40th birthday, and I’m exploring what we can learn from the past to help navigate today’s struggles for racial justice and economic freedom.

1940-1980: “Atoms” and the military-industrial-labor complex

My dad arrived in the Bay Area in 1970-1971 to get his PhD at Berkeley - just as the area was being rebranded as Silicon Valley.

Free from the stifling hierarchy of the East, the Bay was America’s center for social, technical and institutional change. Black Panthers policed the police in Oakland, shiny BART trains crossed the Bay to SF where the Gay Rights movement was flourishing. My family tree waited a millennia for India to recognize intercaste marriage. My parents would see radical social change in America across every axis in a single generation. Bold leadership in the 60s expanded civil rights and embraced immigration. They (and I) benefited greatly from an economic and social foundation that had been laid over many decades.

Caterpillar Tractor - founded in the Bay Area - embodied the spirit of this era. It went from liberating France in WW2 to building a massive middle class, unionized labor force. Cat later moved its headquarters to Peoria, Illinois - because in this era, cities across the country - not just the coasts - had the ability to compete. Since WW2, America pursued an intentional strategy of geographically broad-based economic development - via highways, airline regulation and distributed national labs.

Caterpillar didn’t just give Peoria a chance, it also gave my dad a chance to put down roots in America by sponsoring his green card. There was no H1B limbo. The nexus of military, industry and labor unions brought immigrants, Women and Blacks into the workforce - with paid apprenticeships (not exorbitant higher education) and technically-focused community colleges paving the way for millions. My mom learned COBOL while her toddlers played in the back of class. Even Hunter’s Point in SF was vibrant during much of this period. (Of course, it was far from a halcyon era - the war machine had massive human cost globally and civil rights were far from evenly enforced in America.)

And while atoms reigned supreme during this era, the military and government patiently invested risk capital in advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and software/networking to prepare America for its future.

1980-2020: “Bits” and global capital, jackrocks and polarization

In 1980, Reagan was elected President - and I was born. This would also be the peak of private sector labor employment in the US and the beginning of global capital (and the multinational companies they backed) as the leading force in forging the social contract.

They promised us that countries with McDonald’s would never go to war with each other. Indeed the Berlin Wall fell, Asian laborers got jobs and Americans could buy cheap stuff at WalMart. Global capital (bits) put atoms inside shipping containers and sent them around the world - abstracting consumers from the manufacturing base.

The writing was on the wall for unions.

As a middle schooler, I saw Cat management and labor (UAW) locked into a multi-year strike over the future. The front line was not in a boardroom or on the picket line. It was neighborhoods, schools and community groups. I remember when a classmate whose dad was in the union talked about how folks in the factory were peeing on effigies of management - including my dad.

Naturally I knew which side I was on. Cat needed wage concessions and freedom to operate to be globally competitive. I’d read Akio Morita, TPS and Lee Iacocca. I worried about Japan Inc. eating our lunch (yes as a 12 year old!) UAW workers and families were much more grounded. They needed a livelihood and wanted certainty for their future.

---

War continued to wage into high school. We came home one day to find “jackrocks” outside of our driveway - a tool used in feudal Japan to thwart the advancing armies - horses, chariots - etc. of those in power. In <60 years, Caterpillar had gone from transforming America’s agrarian society to becoming the enemy of American workers. We had the GOP’s Contract with America (stored in my Trapper Keeper) and Clinton signing NAFTA within a couple years. Both parties supported global capital and global capital supported both parties. Maybe jackrocks worked better than voting?

Corporate America soon figured out that if your workers were in China, Mexico or the South, it’s harder for them to stick jack rocks in your driveway. If your kids go to private school or you live in a quasi-private suburb, they’ll be insulated from the wrath of the have-nots in heavily policed, declining urban centers. No peeing on your effigy or having your kid hear about it!

---

After college, I became an analyst at Bain & Company. Once an auto parts company hired us to do a “portfolio review”. I meticulously compared the costs of building mirrors in Eastern Michigan or Malaysia - creating a zero defect Excel model. Guess which location won? The auto parts company - like Cat - had the freedom to choose where to put jobs.

But what freedom did the workers have? Marie Antoinette once said “let them eat cake”. The elites of our era now say “let them move”. Social capital is critical for folks navigating change. The educated elite take the portability of social capital (embedded in college degrees and iMessage threads) as a given.

But place and social capital are deeply intertwined especially if you’re poor or a minority. While the deep introspection elites once had during 2016 has now been paved over by new crises, we should never forget that there’s a cost to society of losing its manufacturing base and jobs. How do you model the costs of broken families, drug addiction and a polarized electorate in Excel?

---

I grew disillusioned with management by spreadsheet. But I saw a bright spot on the horizon: tech. I remember opening my first iPod, getting 1000 songs in my pocket and believing that America had a shot at leading a new generation of consumer electronics when everyone a decade earlier had written us off in favor of the Japanese. Perhaps tech could bring jobs and prosperity back to the country? I wanted to be part of it.

So I moved to the Valley in 2004 and joined a VC fund. I saw how the VC funding model that Silicon Valley was built on incentivizes high-risk, high-leverage and massive-scale. It encourages companies to cherry-pick top-end talent (immigrants, marquee college grads) to build the differentiated bits. Pick the highest leverage point in the stack, outsource everything else - by building in China and/or pushing the last-mile to an ecosystem that you can control at arms length.

Tech companies could more than pay back the largely fixed costs of software / semiconductor design from the large and homogenous American market. This dynamic attracted massive amounts of private risk capital and enabled aggressive expansion abroad. This model didn’t work for everything (I got burned with cleantech) - but it worked amazingly well for broad swaths of enterprise software, consumer services and marketplaces. I saw how tech could be an incredible lever for wealth creation. But every visit back home to the Rust Belt made me wonder - wealth creation for whom?

---

2020+ - A thought experiment on institutional innovation and putting people first

July 14, 2020 - Q2 Earnings - CEO, MEGA TECH CORP - Hi everyone. These aren’t normal times. We’re not going to talk about our 10Q on this call. We’re here to talk about the next 10 years. So if you’re here for DAUs, ARR or CPC, you can drop off now. 

We’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the race, health and economic crises our country faces. Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked our exec team to leave their homes, their Zoom calls, their DoorDash deliveries - to join protests and explore our community through new eyes.

Race & Place: On Juneteenth, we biked from Sheraton Place to Hunters Point to Tanforan. We saw the real life impact of redlining, mass incarceration of Blacks and the lack of jobs from decades ago - and how our headquarters sustain - rather than disrupt - the region’s policies of de facto segregation. We also remembered how political demagogues once imprisoned our neighbors of Japanese descent. We see today how their rhetoric affects our Black neighbors and colleagues. What might it do tomorrow to folks without legal status in ag/service industries that California depends or the H1Bs we depend on? What does diversity & inclusion mean in this context?

Jobs: The next Friday we biked from SRI to PARC to Sunnyvale and Moffett Field. Our industry once dreamed of a bicycle for the mind and embraced technical education and apprenticeship as a path in the door for Women and Blacks. Meanwhile we’ve pushed vast swaths of work to contractors or platform-mediated transactions - making it harder to use up-skilling as a talent lever like manufacturing employers did in the last era. What’s the impact on income mobility? At what point will 40 million unemployed Americans affect our share prices and the stability of society?

Climate: On Independence Day, we biked on the Bay Trail past landfills, superfund sites and the 101 - alongside poor and minority neighborhoods with terrible health outcomes. We talked about the Bay Area weather forecast for 2060 “fire with a chance of flooding”. We passed abandoned railways and dreams of regional transport - the result of which is folks commuting hours each way from the central valley to work service jobs in our campuses. We wondered about the long run political consequences of isolating our employee base inside the WiFi confines of a private bus network. Where is the voting base to drive institutional change? How many axles or tires will our commuter buses need to keep them safe from jackrocks on the 101?

Health: Last week, we rode from the old Permanente cement quarry to 101 (built by the same cement workers.) We talked about how Kaiser - a private employer of low-skilled workers - internalized their healthcare needs, pursued disruptive innovation and faced fierce clashes with the medical establishment. We thought about how COVID is exposing the brittleness of our employee’s isolation inside a private insurance bubble. No one can be healthy in a pandemic without competent public health infrastructure. Meanwhile, the growing cost of private healthcare makes it harder for tech - let alone the rest of the country - to employ American workers across the wage spectrum - exacerbating job loss and instability.

And as we spoke with others, we saw how the issues that Silicon Valley faces are not unique to one metropolitan area or one industry. It just happens to be the ultimate archetype of Global Capitalism and de facto segregated American metros.

What we now see - more clearly than ever - is that our entire company, our entire industry, our entire Valley - is built on a flawed foundation.

We can no longer just focus on the magical software bits and hope someone else figures out racial equity, employment, climate and health. This is Joel Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions on the ultimate scale. The abstractions are failing - and we’re seeing bugs and unintended consequences all around us. And the more we invest to deal with one-off bugs, the more likely we are to calcify change and imprison ourselves inside a failing stack.

It’s like we decided to build the world’s notification service on Ruby on Rails - or building an iPhone competitor on Windows CE. Fail Whale everywhere. Unfortunately, America’s democratic institutions are in poor condition. They are struggling to deal with inequality let alone looming environmental disaster. A polarized electorate - particularly at the national level - leads to populism and makes it hard for these institutions to execute meaningful, long-term plans.

We talk a lot about speech, misinformation, fairness of targeted ads etc. But it’s becoming clear that UX, linear algebra/training data and monetization in our products is just the tip of the spear to address polarization. We believe polarization is a product of the underlying conditions of civil rights, education, health and climate debt that affect Americans differentially based on race, wealth, neighborhood and region. e.g. If we care about justice, how far does focusing on the fairness of employment ads get us in a world when many people lack the skills and negotiating power to secure a living wage?

So will today’s peaceful protests for racial justice expand into tomorrow’s revolution(s) for economic freedom? If you don’t think things are bad now, think about what happens when the stimulus checks run out. Take a look at the amount of debt in the public sector, use any imagination about COVID, work out what happens to their tax base / pension returns and consider the impact on public services, public servants and their votes. MMT better be a real thing. Maybe we didn’t start these fires, but that refrain won’t save us when the flames come our way.

We’re done debating why we need to act. It’s clear America needs our help. Let’s talk about how we’re going to rise to the occasion. Our mantra will be “internalize, innovate, institutionalize”.

First, we’re going to internalize our problems. I’m here to tell you that issues of racial and economic justice are not just moral issues but they’re financial issues. Racial debt, education debt, health debt, climate debt will hit us harder and harder each year. (By the way, revolution probably won’t be great for your DCF models.) So we’re going to recognize these off-balance sheet liabilities - which amount to a few hundred billion in the US alone over the next 10 years for a company at our scale.

Second, we’re going to innovate against these systemic problems - but our only shot at making progress is if we realign the entire company’s mission to address them. This is not about optics. This is not about philanthropy. This is not another bet. We’re putting all our chips behind one bet - America. It's the country that backed us in the first place, it's where most of our people are and most of our profits. The job for our existing products, platforms and cash flows will be to advance four areas: place / race, skilling / manufacturing, health / food and climate / mobility - starting in America. The board will measure me based on job creation and diversity. It should go without saying that we’re pausing dividends and buybacks for the foreseeable future. Every dollar will serve our mission. Every senior leader will need to sign up for our new mission - and those who choose to stay will receive a new, back-end loaded, 10 year vesting schedule. We want them focused on the long-term health of society - not the whims of Robinhood day traders or strengthening the moats of existing products. We will need to invent entirely new ways to operate and ship products. As Joel Spolsky said, “when you need to hire a programmer to do mostly VB programming, it’s not good enough to hire a VB programmer, because they will get completely stuck in tar every time the VB abstraction leaks”. We need engineers, designers and product managers that will look deep into the stack, confront the racial, job access, health and climate debts that our products, our companies and our communities are built on top of. This is not about CYA process to protect cash cows or throwing things over the fence to policy. We will need to innovate across technical, cultural and organizational lines. This requires deep understanding and curiosity. This will bring more scrutiny to our company - not less. Not everyone’s going to be on board - so for the next 12 months, we’re giving folks a one-time buyout if they want to leave.

Third, we can’t do any of this by ourselves. The problems are too big. Our role will be to provide enlightened risk capital (from our balance sheet or by re-vectoring operating spend) alongside R&D, product, platform leverage to help leaders and innovators pursue solutions in these areas. Of course we will work with our peers and the public sector wherever possible - buying/R&D consortia, public-private partnerships, trusts, etc. But the new era and landscape demands that we explore institutional models beyond global capital/startups, labor unions, NGOs or government. We need models that can more flexibly align people and purpose, that innovate on individualized vs. socialized risk/reward - and that ultimately help build and sustain local, social capital. It’s difficult to say what these will look like - but increasingly figuring this out will be existential for our core business too. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you’re designing the best cameras in Cupertino or the best way to see their snaps in Santa Monica - we’re all just building layers of an attention stack for global capital. Our Beijing competitors have figured this out. ByteDance is already eating our lunch. They’re using the same tech inputs as us - UX, ML and large-scale systems - which are now a commodity - but with vastly lower consequences for the content they show - creating a superior operating / scaling model. They’re not internalizing social or political cost.   What we need in this era is the accumulation stack - where each interaction builds social capital. This is not about global likes. This is about local respect. We’ll create competitive advantage when we build products that reach across race / economic lines to harness America’s amazing melting pot and do so in ways that build livelihoods / property rights for creators and stakeholders.

With this operating model in place, we’re committing to fundamental change in four areas:

Place & Race - We’re done with de facto segregation. Over the next 10 years, 100% of our jobs will be in diverse communities that embrace inclusive schooling, policing, housing and transit policies. (Starting tomorrow, we’re putting red lines on our maps around towns with exclusionary zoning.) This is not about privatizing cities or an HQ2-style play to extract concessions. This is about investing our risk capital and our reputation to innovate alongside government. How do we bring world-class education to neighborhoods with concentrated poverty? What is the future of digital/hybrid charter schooling? Unbundled, community-driven public safety? We’ll embrace “remote-first” as a means to this end. The Bay will become one physical node alongside others (e.g. Atlanta, DC, LA) creating an Interstate Knowledge System that develops diverse talent across the country. We’re going to coordinate our investment with leading peers - since after all, this isn’t about cost savings or cherry-picking. It’s about broadening our country’s economic base.

Skilling & Manufacturing - We will 10x the tech talent pool in 10 years - by inventing new apprenticeship models that bring women, minorities and the poor into the workforce. We’ll start with our existing contractor base, convert them to new employment models with expanded benefits and paths for upward mobility. Next, we will invent new productivity tools for all types of workers - from the front office to mobile work to call center - that brings the power of AI and programming to everyone. These will be deeply tied into new platforms for work designed from the bottom-up to build social and financial capital for individual workers and teams. Last, we’re going to manufacture most of our hardware products - from silicon all the way to systems - entirely in the US within 10 years. This will require massive investment, collaboration and innovation. It may require a revolution in robotics - but we will pursue this in a way that makes the American worker competitive - not a commodity to be automated away. If we’re successful, the dividends of our investment here will have massive spillover benefits to every other sector of manufacturing in the US - autos, etc. - including ones we have yet to dream up.

Health & Food - We’re not going to tolerate a two-class system for healthcare anymore. As we convert our contract workforce to new employment models, we’re going to have to innovate on the fundamental quality/cost paradigm across our benefit stack. This may feel like a step down but it will put us (and the rest of society if we’re successful) on a fundamentally better long-term trajectory. Food is part of Health, and we’re going to innovate there too. Free food for employees is not going to come back post-COVID. Instead, we’ll use our food infrastructure to bootstrap cooperatively-owned cloud kitchens. We’ll provide capital to former contractors - mostly Black and Hispanic - to invest and own these. We’ll build platforms to help them sell food to employees (partly subsidized), participate in new “food for health” programs and eventually disrupt the extractive labor practices we see across food, grocery and delivery.

Climate & Mobility - Lastly, we’ll be imposing a carbon tax on all aspects of our own operations - which we’ll use to “fund” innovation in this space - with a primary focus on job creation. This is an area where we’re going to be looking far beyond our four walls from the beginning. As a first step, we’re teaming up with Elon and Gavin Newsom to buy PG&E out of bankruptcy and restructure it as a 21st century “decentralized” utility. It will accelerate the electrification of mobility - financing networked batteries for buses, cars and bikes along with charging infrastructure - and leading a massive job creation program focused on energy efficiency. Speaking of mobility, private buses aren’t coming back after COVID. Instead, we’re teaming up with all of our peers to create a Bay-wide network of electric buses (with bundled e-bikes) that will service folks of all walks of life - including our own employee base. Oh and one more thing - we’re bringing together the world’s most advanced privacy/identity architecture and computational video/audio to bake public health infrastructure directly into the buses. For COVID and beyond. None of this is a substitute for competent, democratically accountable regional authorities. This is us investing risk capital on behalf of society - with the goal of empowering these authorities. Yes the New York Times will have a field day with this. Maybe in time they’ll leave their bubble, enter the real world, see the sorry state of their institutions - the behavioral health and infrastructure crises on their crumbling streets - and get on board. Until then, our job is to be patient longer than they can be inflammatory.

Open technology for global progress - While we have to prioritize America given the scale of problems, the intent is not to abandon the rest of the world or hold back it’s progress. We feel the opposite - that over the coming decades each country’s technology sectors will thrive. To get there, we will continue to invest patiently - hiring, training, partnering, investing and innovating - but with a clear north star to help each country develop local leaders in new areas. Long-term, we’ll continue to contribute open technology that others can build upon.

America should be the proverbial city on a hill for everyone - not a metaverse for the rich with the poor dying in the streets. We don’t have much time so we’re getting to work now. See you next quarter.

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This call may be imaginary but none of this is sci-fi or requires MMT. What it requires is us to care. To act. Join me on bike rides to explore our past and discuss what tangible actions Silicon Valley’s leading companies can take in the coming quarters and years. Logistics here for rides on June 19, June 26, July 2 and July 10!

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