The $12 billion problem in plain sight
Alt title: There are 5 distinct types of graffiti?
No urban landscape is complete without graffiti everywhere. And the majority of it (gang, tagger, vandalism) isn’t art.
But a small percentage of it is, as the 1982 movie “Wild Style” showed us. Oh Zoro, will you ever fit into high society!?
Amidst all the junk, once in a while you get a Banksy, or a genuinely beautiful/provocative piece of social commentary.
But we spend $12 billion annually painting over and otherwise erasing graffiti. Which says nothing of the billions spent on the spray paint to create that graffiti.
Sometimes graffiti is spectacular human expression, and sometimes it’s toxic sludge.
Sometimes buildings are worth preserving, and sometimes they’re dystopian, ugly boxes.
But how much time and money do we spend as a society undoing each other’s efforts?
What Sliding Doors can teach us about big life choices
Sliding Doors, the 90s romantic comedy that everyone can’t stop talking about cough, is one of the best examples of how our lives can change based on a single, binary moment.
Either she makes the train or she doesn’t.
Either you take the city job, or you don’t.
A single moment can change the entire trajectory of our lives (and also Gwyneth Paltrow’s hairstyle).
But just as important as how much our lives can change, is the ending of that story.
At the end, her life is largely the same whether she makes the train or not.
Because we can’t escape who we truly are. And we’ll always find our way back to who we’re meant to be.
Instant prototyping
Need a landing page, sales funnel, or Kickstarter site?
By now you know you can generate copy with ChatGPT or your LLM of choice.
But if you take that copy into Vercel’s v0.dev, it can generate a silly responsive page in under two minutes, in highly optimized React.
We’ve been using Vercel for years for our high-end development projects, and of all the no-code builders out there, v0 appears to be the most instantly useful.
You’ll still need coding knowledge to add functionality, but it’s never been easier to go from brand new idea to lightning fast landing page in a cutting-edge tech stack.
And we’re just getting started…
My money’s on the following companies to “win” the current race:
• Figma
• Vercel
• OpenAI/Codex
• Google Gemini/Veo 3
While scores of other familiar names will soon fade into obscurity.
The EV industry has quietly changed

As the founder of Electrify Expo explained to me, we are no longer at the early adopter stage of electric vehicles.
While there have been numerous attempts to politicize the nascent industry, the fact remains: More people than ever are interested in the future of EVs.
And these people aren’t just hippies, or hipsters, or hippopotamuses… Hippopotami?? They are from all backgrounds and all walks of life.
There’s something in the industry for everyone, whether it’s the family that wants to joyride with two kids, speed demons who want to race at the upper limits, comfort-seekers looking for the latest in sleek, quiet, luxury, or even people who rely on these tools for daily mobility, it’s never been more clear that this movement goes beyond a die-hard niche.
But don’t celebrate this positive change! Because that will alert them that we’re winning.
Instead, just keep your cool, and watch things slowly unfold as if you don’t care.
The “you’re an idiot” pop-up
The rule is something like this: “Consumers” get one button, “prosumers” get 10, and “professionals” get 500.
Grandma shouldn’t be able to mess up an iPhone, but the seasoned pilot can crash a jet any way she chooses.
That’s the logic.
But as we head into a world of ubiquitous AI, every device still needs the “you’re an idiot” warning.
“Your audio is 15dB in the red. You’re an idiot.”
“Your video is 5 stops over exposed. You’re an idiot.”
“You left your broadcast on mute. You’re an idiot.”
Devices shouldn’t assume that just because someone is a professional they don’t need the warning. Now if the pilot still wants to crash the jet after repeated idiot warnings, that’s on her.
But product and software manufacturers? Don’t assume that intelligent, well-trained people don’t also need “you’re an idiot” pop-ups, even if they choose to ignore them.
