The Chinese tech ecosystem has become a mirror world to the West tech world, innovating in divergent and parallel ways to their counterparts. English information on the state of Chinese tech is limited and refracted through narratives that do not deliver reality. This newsletter wants better for its readers.

Why you should become a subscriber

    You get deeper (and more accurate) insights into what’s happening in one of the most (if not the most) exciting tech scene in the world

    You get my unique perspective as:

        A westerner who has a Chinese lens or a Chinese that has a western lens

        A VC and growth investor with 5+ years of SaaS and consumer tech investment experience

        A management consultant who spent time making slides, I mean, extracting, structuring and presenting insights

    This will make you more informed and a better investor / product manager / tech aficionado

Chinese Characteristics

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As AI, synthetic biology, renewable energy, among others, mature, they will challenge our economic and social fabric in chaotic ways. Exponential View brings clarity to this chaos while helping you identify new opportunities in your industry. 

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Why subscribe?

Disclaimer: This newsletter is not investment advice.

This newsletter is a place where you can get plain English explainers of semiconductor companies and what they do from an investment focus. I want to help save you time on semiconductor research as well as teach you something along the way. Welcome!
What is the Future of this Newsletter?

I hope to write long-form primers, actionable research (such as my post on Inphi), and other interesting topics from an investment perspective focused on semiconductors. I may add additional interesting writeups that are not semiconductor focused under “everything else” but will remain focused on semiconductors for the foreseeable future.
Who Am I?

Hey! I’m Doug. I formerly was employed at a firm in Texas called Bowie Capital where I started out of college. There I focused on compounders, quality-focused investing, and had an incredible experience that let me grow as an investor. From there I became interested in semiconductors, specifically the changing story of the end of Moore’s law and what that means for semiconductor stocks. 

Fabricated Knowledge

Here’s why you should subscribe:

* You want to hear the real stories behind the power struggles _inside_ Silicon Valley venture capital firms.
    
* You want to read lively interviews with people like [Dara Khosrowshahi](https://www.newcomer.co/p/a-chat-with-dara-khosrowshahi), [Chamath Palihapitiya](https://www.newcomer.co/p/the-man-with-six-spacs), [Bill Gurley](https://www.newcomer.co/p/above-the-crowd), [Keith Rabois](https://www.newcomer.co/p/taking-his-talents-to-miami-beach), [Laurence Tosi](https://www.newcomer.co/p/airbnbs-ex-cfo-on-airbnbs-ipo), and [Ellen Pao](https://www.newcomer.co/p/a-conversation-with-ellen-pao).
    
* You’re tired of GPs’ anodyne, self-congratulatory Medium posts that don’t even dish out their ownership share.
    
* You want to learn about fundraising rounds _before_ they close.
    
* You want to support independent financial journalism.
    
* You want to read about the next big technology startup long before it’s in the _Wall Street Journal_.
    
* You want to take your seat at the cap table for _way less_ than it costs to actually invest.

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“Platformer gets big tech scoops.” — Slate

“Widely read in Silicon Valley.” — NBC News

“Casey Newton[‘s] opinions hold sway among social media executives.” — New York Times

Platformer is your daily guide to understanding social networks and their relationships with the world. It's the best way to keep up on the events that mattered at Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, and TikTok — with regular guest appearances from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and the upstart platforms that are challenging them.

New issues arrive at 5PM PT from Monday through Thursday, and on particularly newsy Fridays. It’s written by me, Casey Newton. I spent the past 10 years covering Silicon Valley for The Verge, CNET, and the San Francisco Chronicle. And now I’m reporting directly to you.

In addition to the below, I’ve written a more extensive guide to what Platformer covers, how I do my work, and how I see the world — you can find it here. I also invite you to read my ethics policy and the Platformer posting schedule.

But first, here are some reasons to consider subscribing.

Join the club. Every day at 5PM PT, thousands of top tech executives, journalists, academics and civil society workers read my reporting on — and analysis of — the day's biggest events at the intersection of technology and democracy.

Meet the community. Platformer is part of Sidechannel, a Discord server shared among some of the best independent journalists working today. As a member, you’ll be able to meet like-minded people in text chat, discuss the news of the day, and listen in on live interviews with leading industry CEOs and newsmakers.

Understand perception. Who's up, who's down, and what will it cost them? Amid a global reckoning over the impact of technology on society, Platformer helps you keep score.

100 percent signal. 0 percent noise. Expertly curated links catch you up on what you missed during the workday, with the relevant data highlighted for you.

No hot takes, ever. Platformer is written for an audience that understands that inventing the future is complicated. Expect plenty of criticism — but also an open mind, too, as well as regular updates on what I've been wrong about.

Reporting with impact. I produced a series of investigative reports about content moderation in America that became a finalist for the 2020 National Magazine Award for reporting, and helped lead to a $52 million settlement with Facebook moderators who developed PTSD on the job. Platformer will continue in that tradition.

Invest in a healthier democracy. Your subscription to Platformer helps chart a path forward for journalism outside the ad-supported, what-time-is-the-Super-Bowl web. Help me build a more sustainable, replicable model for independent journalists working to hold power to account.

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## Our lives are dominated by software, but we don’t understand it very well

You might work at a tech company, a bank, a financial services firm, or in healthcare, but there’s one common thread that pervades your professional circles: software. This is probably one of the 8+ hours a day that you spend using your phone or computer (check your screen time: it’s depressing). And man, software is _complicated_.

Ideally, we’d all love to understand what an API is, how to talk to your coworkers about programming languages, and why your laptop won’t connect to the goddamn airport WiFi. But this stuff is _hard_. You’ve tried googling things you don’t get, but every concept seems to require understanding _another_ concept, and the people writing these guides aren’t very…er…engaging. **That’s what Technically is for**.

### What’s Technically?

Technically sends out engaging, simple explanations of technical concepts that are useful for your day to day job and _fun to read_. A few examples of the kinds of topics that you’ll be getting comfortable with:

* [What’s an API?](https://technically.substack.com/p/whats-an-api)
    
* [What does “Cloud” mean, and who is AWS?](https://technically.substack.com/p/whats-cloud)
    
* What’s a website Domain?
    
* How does Machine Learning work?
    
* [What does Github do, and why does my company use it?](https://technically.substack.com/p/whats-version-control-and-github)
    
* Why do I need to use a browser to access the internet?
    

If these questions sound interesting to you, great! You’re a nerd (kidding) and you might enjoy this newsletter.

Technically

The Diff is a daily newsletter covering inflection points in finance and technology. I aim to answer a simple question: in a few centuries, when historians reach a consensus on what was happening today, what will they believe?

Here’s what I believe: in 2021, our institutions are designed for a much simpler world with faster productivity growth. Outside of computers and communications, scientific progress has slowed abysmally since the mid twentieth century. Meanwhile, in government, media, and education we’ve moved backwards; we’re less efficient and less effective than ever before, despite shinier tools and lavish spending.

Pundits like to talk about how the pace of change has never been faster. They’re right, but in the wrong sense: the pace of fundamental change is slowing down, so unpredictability represents less progress and more chaos. 

The Diff

What to expect:

* **Actionable advice for engineering managers and engineers.** Topics covered are relevant to those working at tech companies. Get tools and insights to become a more efficient engineering leader. If you use just one approach to make your project, team, or company more efficient, the weekly newsletter already pays for itself.
    
* **Big tech and high-growth startups focus**. Tech is accelerating rapidly: but some fast-moving companies are ahead of the rest of the pack. What are they doing differently and why? I go deep.
    
* **An independent viewpoint.** I don’t take sponsorships of any kind, and disclose any affiliation I would have with companies covered. Read more about the [lack of sponsorship in the newsletter](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/sponsor/).
    
* **Join 34,000+ subscribers** on the #1 technology newsletter [on Substack](https://substack.com/discover/category/technology/paid).
    

🔒 For paying subscribers:

* **Weekly long-form articles**, plus occasional bonus ones. [See the full archive here](https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/archive?sort=new).
    
* **🔒 Resources and templates** for engineering managers and engineers. [Access them here](https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/templates-as-inspiration-for-engineering).
    
* **No job ads**. No sponsored content or other types of ads.
    
* **Suggest topics** [through this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBJIIBqe2aHZaZU2AVE_lWNlSO2EDOy4VsDL7yGf7T8tu5VA/viewform?usp=sf_link).
    

🙌 For free subscribers:

* Monthly emails (plus occasional bonus ones). Roughly a quarter of the issues that paying subscribers get.
    
* Featured jobs from [The Pragmatic Engineer Job Board](https://pragmatic-engineer.pallet.xyz/jobs) at the end of emails. No sponsored content or other types of ads.

The Pragmatic Engineer

trusted by 120,000+ specialists from all over the world, including the top AI labs like DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Brain, MSFT Research, LinkedIn, universities like MIT, Cornell, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, and hundreds of large enterprises. 

Who has time to regularly read long AI research papers? Or test the new frameworks and platforms entering the space? If you are a new developer or aspiring data scientist, where do you even get started?

This challenge overwhelms individuals as well as companies trying to become more proficient in AI topics.

TheSequence’s goal is to make you smarter about artificial intelligence (AI) 5 minutes at a time.

TheSequence Edge (Premium content): Every Tuesday we discuss core ML concepts, summarize groundbreaking ML research papers in a few paragraphs so that you don’t have to spend hours reviewing complex papers. We also explore new frameworks and platforms you should master, keeping you up to date with the technological developments in the AI field.

Every Thursday we do a deep dive into one of the freshest research papers or technology frameworks that are worth your attention. Super helpful.

With TheSequence you steadily become knowledgeable about the most important developments in the AI space.

TheSequence

TimeMachiner helps curious readers find that next great article by sharing the best in tech, culture, and nostalgia. 

TimeMachiner is actually two newsletters: The Stream and The Longform.

The Stream: 
3-6 valuable or interesting articles about what is going on in the world.
At least 1 thought-provoking article you’ll want to send to your friends.
Free - Sent every Tuesday & Saturday

The Longform:
A deep dive into fascinating corners of the internet you never even knew existed.
Interesting and personal stories that will inspire thought and critical thinking.
Stories for the forever-curious that are great conversation starters.
Paid - Sent bi-weekly on Thursdays

TimeMachiner

Culture

Have you noticed how it feels like the world is evolving faster and faster? Like we can’t keep up with what’s happening.

I believe this is just the beginning.

I believe that some of us alive today will live forever. Maybe you, reading this. 
I believe AI will make our lives unrecognizably better. It will also push many into poverty. 
I believe wealth will keep concentrating in the hands of a few, especially the hands of builders of aggregators.
I believe nation-states will drift into irrelevance.
I believe geography will matter less and less. 
I believe remote work will do to white collar workers what it has done to blue collar workers over the last 50 years. 
I believe Bitcoin will replace gold, cryptocurrencies will replace fiat currencies, and smart contracts will upend how we deal with each other.
I believe tech corporations scientifically enslave us into unhappiness. 
I believe we don’t fathom yet the consequences of fertility collapse, and are utterly unprepared for it.
I believe most people are not developing the crucial skills they will need to surf these trends. Instead, these trends will overwhelm and crush them.
I believe all these themes are interconnected.
We’re entering a world of change, full of unknowns that will challenge everything about how we live and work. We’re entering uncharted territories.

Technology

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