What I’m Reading - 2/16/25
Final days at Camont
It’s my last day at Relais de Camont. 😭It has been a life-changing experience, which I will explore in depth in Wednesday’s newsletter. For now, I’m soaking in all the Gascony goodness I can.
Today, Kate is inviting some folks over for Sunday supper. We’ll make the rabbit we bought at the market in Nèrac on Saturday. I get to be her sous chef. Watching her process of reading recipes and deciding what to make is fascinating. She wrote about it a bit in her last newsletter.
I’m also excited to meet some fellow Substackers and artists who have nothing to do with tech or politics, though they’ve certainly heard a lot about it. At the market yesterday, we met a friend of Kate’s, Colin, who runs another creative retreat, Studio Faire, with his wife. Watching them compare notes about who makes good residents and the types of people who apply to come was so much fun.
Here’s a pic of the market bag I bought myself as a souvenir! More pictures and videos on Wednesday. I’ve taken over 1,000, so I have much to go through.
Have a great Sunday!
What I’m Reading
Must-Reads
I have three must-reads, though two make related points.
The first is a story about a poet I’ve followed on Instagram for a while: Jennae Cecelia. Last year, she wrote a poem about getting coffee with her younger self, which has exploded on Instagram and TikTok. Not everyone realizes this poem started the trend, so I wanted to raise awareness so she gets the credit she deserves.
Second is an interview Ezra Klein did with Yuval Levin. Levin makes a point about incentives - particularly ones the online world has wrought - that I’ve thought about for a while. He is talking about Republicans here, but I think it applies to both parties:
“The question is: What does it take to succeed? What is the definition of success that they’re operating with? I think a lot of that is a function of the kinds of incentives that the political system sets up for them.
And in this moment, a lot of the definition of success involves having a prominent place in our political theater, which is a very fragmented, partisan theater, and looking like you are doing a great job of speaking for the team.
So every Republican member wants to be seen as the person who really says that thing that the left doesn’t want to hear. They define success by their social media following, by their prominence in the cable news outlets that matter to their older voters. They don’t define their success as much by legislative work, by what they bring home.”
What Levin doesn’t mention are the fundraising incentives as well, something Bubba Atkinson wrote in his newsletter this week about the dysfunction of Congress:
“One development that does offer some hope is the slow collapse of the current campaign fundraising model. Politicians have pushed relentless fundraising tactics to the brink, bombarding people with texts and emails packed with apocalyptic rhetoric and over-the-top requests. For years, this has worked—an 80-year-old might still be convinced to send $20 a month to Lauren Boebert because of some fear-driven promise—but younger generations are growing more skeptical.
Fundraising is evolving the same way media did. In 2014, cheap clickbait ruled. By 2020, the companies that built their strategy around it were collapsing. The same fate awaits politicians who depend on unsustainable, exploitative fundraising, and that should in theory usher in a new generation of politicians that are hopefully different.”
These incentives will change rapidly over the coming years as people grow tired of online fundraising and AI changes how we engage with content online. A question I’m thinking a lot about - but don’t have an answer to yet - is what incentives will lead us to the outcomes and behavior we want.
AI Developments
Financial Times: Match enlists AI to nudge men into better behaviour on dating apps
Mayer Brown: EU AI Act: Ban on certain AI practices and requirements for AI literacy come into effect
Porta: Canada and Japan sign Council of Europe’s first ever global treaty on AI
Stories About Specific Countries
The New York Times: Ecuador’s Presidential Race Heads to a Runoff
Lawfare: Systemic Risk Assessments Hold Clues for EU Platform Enforcement
European Council on Foreign Relations: Transatlantic twilight: European public opinion and the long shadow of Trump
POLITICO: As USAID retreats, China pounces
POLITICO: JD Vance attacks Europe over migration, free speech
Reuters: China builds space alliances in Africa as Trump cuts foreign aid
Political & Social Commentary
Semafor: ‘Almost like surrender’: Steve Bannon on the media in Trump’s ‘Days of Thunder’
Office of Inspector General / USAID: Oversight of USAID-Funded Humanitarian Assistance Programming Impacted by Staffing Reductions and Pause on Foreign Assistance
The Wall Street Journal: ‘We’ve Already Won’: Podcasters and Influencers Gain New Standing in Trump’s White House
Forbes: JD Vance Knocks EU’s Regulation Of US Tech Giants: ‘America Cannot Accept That’
404 Media: Wikipedia Prepares for 'Increase in Threats' to US Editors From Musk and His Allies
POLITICO: JD Vance warns Europe to go easy on tech regulation in major AI speech
The Guardian: Zuckerberg’s swerve: how diversity went from being a Meta priority to getting cancelled
Chaotic Era: Is politics making a comeback on Facebook?
The Wall Street Journal: Steve Bannon’s Freewheeling Show Is the Hottest Stop on D.C.’s Media Circuit
Change is here*: What is Micro-retiring? Learn Millennials and GenZ Workers are Changing Everything
The Washington Post: Vance pushes ‘America First’ AI agenda, accuses allies of overregulation
Euronews: Online platforms disinformation code going formal, but X is out
TechPolicy.Press: Embracing Expression at Meta Requires Changes that Transcend Politics
CNN Business: Trump’s world is all happening on X
Day One Agency: Life Actually, A No Bullshit Study
The New York Times: Elon Musk and the Right Are Recasting Reporting as ‘Doxxing’
BrabenderCox: Let's Review Trump 2024
Center for Democracy and Technology: First Amendment Tech Transparency Roadmap
Brennan Center for Justice: Tech Companies Pledged to Protect Elections from AI — Here’s How They Did
Legal & Regulatory
The Information: Meta Curbs Privacy Teams’ Sway Over Product Releases
Pew Research Center: How news influencers talked about Trump and Harris during the 2024 election
The Wall Street Journal: Exclusive | Musk’s X Agrees to Pay About $10 Million to Settle Trump Lawsuit
Bloomberg: Apple, Google Restore TikTok App After Assurances From Trump
Miscellaneous Insights & Reports
Pathways to Prosperity: Louisiana Report 2025
Career Advice
Unmoderated Insights: Layoffs suck, but you don’t.
Company Announcements
Munich Security Conference: Multipolarization - Munich Security Report 2025