I recently discovered and subscribed to Packy McCormick's "Not Boring" newsletter. So far it's quite good, and so here I am mentioning it to you all on the blog. In his latest newsletter, he makes the case for why Airbnb and Zillow -- the two largest residential real estate tech companies -- should merge. Naturally this new company would be called Zillbnb. You can read all about why he thinks this is a good idea over here, but I would like to point out one thing that I found interesting.
Packy makes the argument that "easiest-to-book, shortest duration reservations" are a leading indicator for changes in demand. In other words, platforms like Airbnb can start to tell you where people might want to live and platforms like Breather can start to tell you where people might want to work.
To support this argument he uses the example of his Airbnb rental outside of New York City. Sure, demand initially fell off a cliff at the beginning of lockdown, but then it started to surge as New Yorkers sought refuge outside of the city. And while I think that this particular change in demand will likely end up being short-term in nature, a similar trend is being reported around in the world. Did we hear it first on Airbnb?
Lately I have really gotten into Matt Levine’s daily newsletter about “Wall Street, finance, companies and other stuff.” Maybe that’s how I should describe this blog: Cities, real estate, design, and other stuff.
If you aren’t familiar with Matt’s writing, here is an article that he wrote about Kylie Jenner’s recent tweet concerning Snapchat. You know, the one that wiped out $1.3 billion of market value because she revealed – using only 88 characters, I might add – that she was no longer using the app.
sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.
— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018
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The article was spurred on by this question:
“Would it be insider trading for Kylie Jenner to buy short term out of money put options on Snap and tweet out that she’s no longer using Snap?”
And this is the start of his answer:
Insider trading, as I am constantly saying around here, is not about fairness; it is about theft. It is not illegal to trade on your own nonpublic knowledge of your own intentions. Warren Buffett can buy stocks before he announces that he’s bought them, even though that announcement will predictably make the stocks go up.
If I did describe this daily blog like Matt describes his daily newsletter, this post would clearly fall into the “other stuff” camp. But maybe you too will find it interesting. If you do, you can subscribe here.
I came across this tweet last night before bed:
Some pics of my home the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station #11monthsInAntarctica #auroras #milkyway #stars pic.twitter.com/f12tclwoGz
— Dr. C. Corbett Moran (@corbett) May 13, 2016
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I am late to the party on this one, but Dr. Christine Corbett Moran has been living in the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station since January 2016. She is “wintering” with the South Pole Telescope and studying Cosmic Microwave Background radiation with the University of Chicago.
I don’t profess to be a student of CMB, but I am so intrigued by her settlement situation. She is living in a place where there is effectively one long day and one long night. There’s sun for 6 months and then no sun for 6 months.
I’m not sure how I would feel living in such a remote place with no sun for half of the year. I’m thinking about it now and it’s making me a bit anxious. I’m not sure if the remoteness would make me feel liberated or trapped.
Thankfully, Christine has a newsletter where she shares her experience in the South Pole. I signed up for it last night and I’m looking forward to seeing what she publishes. If you’d also like to give it a go, you can sign up here.