Hasnain says:

This was really hard to read - and I must leave it with a trigger warning.

“A few weeks after Henkel’s death, the sense of being haunted began to recede. “The freedom came slowly,” Marco told me. “It was like a hunger that grows stronger and stronger. I don’t know how to say it, but it was the first time that I figured out that I am living a life with a billion different possibilities. I could have been anything. My inner voice became stronger, my intuition that I don’t have to live my life the way he taught me, that I can keep going.””

Hasnain says:

To think this was all preventable. I don’t even know where to begin with this.

“Here’s an even scarier statement, from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s strategies during crisis standards of care:

“Universal DNR Order: Adult patients hospitalized during a public health emergency, when crisis standards of care have been declared, should receive aggressive interventions; however, they should receive NO attempts at resuscitation (compressions, shocks or intubation if not yet intubated) in the event of cardiac arrest. The likelihood of survival after a cardiac arrest is extremely low for adult patients. As well, resuscitation poses significant risk to healthcare workers due to aerosolization of body fluids and uses large quantities of scarce resources such as staff time, personal protective equipment, and lifesaving medications, with minimal opportunity for benefit.””

Hasnain says:

“The measures represent nothing short of a revolution in the way salaries are negotiated, especially in white-collar jobs. Study after study shows that greater transparency narrows pay inequities based on race and gender. That on its own is an outcome worth celebrating. But I think these new laws could end up doing even more. If enough states enact pay transparency, it could forge a new national norm — one in which companies are as upfront about salaries as they are about prices. Think about it: Every business, from tiny boutiques to online giants like Amazon, tell you exactly how much each of their items costs. Why shouldn't it be the same when we're shopping for a job? “

Hasnain says:

Very well researched piece on society and economics. The estimated GDP losses from not building more housing was staggering - $16k per person in America (almost double the GDP loss caused by COVID). Too many data points to quote, so I’ll leave with the kicker:

“But whether this or another approach is the best solution is not the key question. What matters is that housing shortages may be the biggest problem facing our era, and solving it needs to become everyone’s highest priority. And as important as it is, we should be wary of letting it become politically tribalised: the disastrous politicisation of Covid vaccines in the United States highlights the danger of that. Some kind of creative, below-the-radar solution that turns this zero-sum game into a positive-sum one is likely to have a better chance. In a tug of war, it’s often surprising how far you can go if you tug the rope sideways.

If we’re right about this, it means that fixing this one problem could make everyone’s lives much better than almost anyone realises – not just by making houses cheaper, but giving people better jobs, a better quality of life, more cohesive communities, bigger families and healthier lives. It could even give renewed reasons to be optimistic about the future of the West.”

Hasnain says:

This was really interesting and matches stories of successes I’ve seen in my career.

“As all of these pieces came together, app teams outside Studio took notice. For a typical paved road application with no unusual security complications, a team could go from “git init” to a production-ready, fully authenticated, internet accessible application in a little less than 10 minutes. The automation of the infrastructure setup, combined with reducing risk enough to streamline security review saves developers days, if not weeks, on each application. Developers didn’t necessarily care that the original motivating factor was about security: what they saw in practice was that apps using Wall-E could get in front of users sooner, and iterate faster.”

Hasnain says:

I learnt a lot about processes, management, and business from this one.

The most interesting quote, here, though, is where the article quotes one of the Stripe cofounders:

"When we started, a lot of people told us that payments is a scale business. You'll never make it son. And only the very large companies can survive. We were like, No, you don't realize things are different." Now, that we've gotten a chance to actually become familiar in our operating. We're like, "Wow, this really is a scale business." In that, as you look at what's required in operating, payments is a business where you make literally pennies on a per transaction basis and you have to have an enormous number of them to actually be able to operate with any modicum of profitability. And you would not believe, I mean, it's fairly obvious that it's a fixed cost business and then you need to get enough business flowing through you to make the economics work. I think what's interesting is as things have moved online, the fixed costs have gone way up compared to what was needed to run a domestic only payments business. If we think about just again, going back to your "invest like the best premium model" where you got access to exclusive content, for smart people, the Patrick interviews are only available on the paid product. And so as we think about that business, and again, just Stripe to do to unlock the payment system for that. We have engineers who are based in Singapore. They have built custom integrations with the local Malaysian bank transfer system. And they actually are now friends with the people, the engineers at the local Malaysian bank transfer system, because it's still work in flies itself. And so they're kind of working with them on some of the functionality that's needed. And so that way, if you have someone, a listener who's from Malaysia, they can pay the way that they're used to doing so, not just with a credit card, but with a bank account in Malaysia. Stripe has engineers in Ireland who are similarly a French local card switch is actually different to visa Mastercards and you need to be able to support that, to be able to properly serve French customers.

And so we've just been shocked, the degree to which, if you want to be able to reach every global customer, there really are very large economies of scale with that."

Hasnain says:

This was written *before* the judge's ruling in the Apple v Epic case. But I think most of the arguments still apply and it will just be more relevant than ever.

"This improves the margin on currency purchaes from about 70% to about 85%, at a stroke, which is an incredible 20% lift for one engineering sprint.

Genshin Impact has transacted more than a billion dollars through app stores to date. Imagine that you are the PM of revenue for it. Not implementing this costs millions of dollars per week you delay.

I predict, with over 90% confidence, that games are going to implement experiences like this within 6 weeks. Genshin Impact will almost certainly roll it out by October."

Hasnain says:

Incredible chronicling of the US response to 9/11, how the government approached the situation and how things played out in hindsight.

“In fact, the OLC lawyers rely on assurances from the CIA itself to endorse such powers. In a second memo from August 2002, the lawyers ruminate on the use of cramped confinement boxes. “We have no information from the medical experts you have consulted that the limited duration for which the individual is kept in the boxes causes any substantial physical pain,” the memo states. Waterboarding likewise gets a pass. “You have informed us that this procedure does not inflict actual physical harm,” the memo states. “Based on your research . . . you do not anticipate that any prolonged mental harm would result from the use of the waterboard.”

You have informed us. Experts you have consulted. Based on your research. You do not anticipate. Such hand-washing words appear throughout the memos. The Justice Department relies on information provided by the CIA to reach its conclusions; the CIA then has the cover of the Justice Department to proceed with its interrogations. It’s a perfect circle of trust.”

Hasnain says:

This is quite scary.

(Trigger warning, for obvious reasons)

“The final act of the U.S. war in Afghanistan was a drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 people. Our latest investigation shows how a man the military saw as an "imminent threat" and "ISIS facilitator" was actually an aid worker returning to his family”

Hasnain says:

Worth reflecting upon. As a non-American I learnt more about the reaction to 9/11 than I knew before.

“The answer, unfortunately, will be simple: We are confronting the current crisis with little of the hope, goodwill, and unity that 9/11 initially created, and that reality is inseparable from the fear and suspicion that came to dominate America’s reaction to the 2001 attacks—and yielded a long succession of tragic consequences, cynical choices, and poisonous politics. Looking back after two decades, I can’t escape the conclusion that the enemy we ended up fighting after 9/11 was ourselves.”