Bhuvan
The Roman Empire is often regarded by white people as one of the greatest civilizations ever. Of course, I, as a self-respecting Indian, can't and won't agree with this, but let's go with it for a second. Even before the Roman Empire collapsed, it faced several epic disasters, like the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, during which Emperor Nero is supposed to have DJ'd while Rome burned, and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Now, imagine you were king when these disasters occurred, and instead of solving them, you decided to monetize the catastrophe by offering paid seats to the unfolding disaster. Well, the US feels a little like that to me.
Just one day before Trump assumed office as the president of the most powerful nation on the planet, he launched a meme coin. In essence, Trump is the first president to overtly monetize the presidency. What a legend. Now, just to make the gravity of what happened clear: Trump, the incoming president, not only launched a pump-and-dump scheme one day before he assumed office, he turned into a meme. That's some phenomenally sad commentary on the state of the United States. As if that wasn't enough, Trump's shitcoin launch was followed by a fresh shitcoin launch by his wife, Melania.
The utter lack of pretense or concern about ethics and decorum is just stunning. It's an outright grift to exploit gullible followers. They're not even pretending anymore.
Krishna
Since I was reading up on currency markets, here are a few things I learned about how today’s modern currency came into being. I’ll skip step-by-step details and focus on the broader picture. First, there was the good old barter system, which most people know about. This worked for a while, but it wasn’t practical as economies grew.
Then came the gold standard. During this period, currencies were pegged to the value of gold. For example, if India had 100 rupees' worth of gold, it could only print that much value in paper money. But this system didn’t last. The gold standard failed because it tied money to gold, making it difficult for countries to print more money or deal with economic problems effectively.
Next came the Bretton Woods system. Since the U.S. held around 70% of the world’s gold reserves, every country pegged their currency to the U.S. dollar, and the dollar itself was pegged to gold. For instance, 1 ounce of gold was fixed at $35. However, this system also failed. The U.S. didn’t have enough gold to back the growing supply of dollars, leading to a loss of trust. In 1971, the U.S. ended the dollar's gold backing, and the Bretton Woods system collapsed.
After this came the system we use today—fiat currency. Fiat money isn’t backed by gold or any physical asset. Its value comes from trust in the government (don’t @ me, crypto bois). Central banks control the money supply and manage inflation, interest rates, and the economy. This system works as long as people trust the government and its monetary policies.
This is just my understanding from a few hours of reading on the topic. I’ll write again when I’ve learned more.
Tharun
OpenAI's getting heat for not dealing with their copyright problems. They're basically grabbing content from everywhere - YouTubers, Instagram influencers, TikTokers - and all these creators are pissed. They've started suing OpenAI because their AI (including Sora) is just taking their work from the internet and using it however they want. Like yeah, the stuff's online, but that doesn't mean it's free for the taking.
OpenAI tried to save face by saying they'd make this thing called a Media Manager - supposed to catch when they're using copyrighted stuff like videos or songs. But guess what? Some insiders spilled that OpenAI's not even working on it. They're just not bothered.
That's pretty much it - they promised to fix things but they're just... not doing it. Classic big tech move right?
Pranav
It should come as no surprise that the government wastes a lot of tax money that it can put to better use. Most of us think that wastage is because of corruption. But here's an interesting fact that I picked up from Karthik Muralidharan's excellent book, "Accelerating India's Development": corruption makes for a meagre 17% of waste in government. The other 83% is simply lost to inefficiency. Wild, isn't it? Of every 6 Rupees our government wastes, only one actually goes into somebody's pocket. The rest is just thrown away. It disappears into poorly done jobs. It literally helps nobody, including corrupt officials!
So, how do we stop all that wastage? That's what his book is about, as is the entire field of public policy. I'll probably cover some of my other "aha!" moments from the book in coming posts.
Anurag
Recently, I caught an interview with a marketing veteran from an FMCG giant, and one particular insight stood out to me. He mentioned that while youngsters bring in fresh energy into organisations, they often tend to overlook the immense effort that goes into building brands or organisations from the ground up.
Fresh perspectives are undoubtedly valuable, but what's equally crucial (and often harder) is the ability to build on what has been carefully created over the years.
This disconnect is creating a divide.
Young professionals are failing to appreciate past work, and seasoned professionals, as a result, are distancing themselves from them. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle that could ultimately hinder meaningful creativity and modernisation in the long run.
That's it for today. If you liked this, give us a shout by tagging us on Twitter.