What We Published

This week's output: 4 articles and 3 podcasts

In Defense of WeWork's Community-Adjusted EBITDA

by Evan Armstrong in Napkin Math

Whether you heard about EBITDA for the first time in the recent WeWork documentary, or have been aware of it long enough to be shocked by Adam Neumann's "community-adjusted" twist to the term, Evan's latest primer is for you. The twist? He doesn't think it's as wonky as everyone else might. "EBITDA is made up," he writes, "but so is the rest of finance"—which makes it useful. Evan's takes keep getting hotter, but they're always backed up by facts—and his trademark wit.

Read (11 minutes)

Apple is Holding Back the Creator Economy

by Li Jin, Nathan Baschez & Yash Bagal in Means of Creation

MOC reads a little differently—and urgently—this week, as Li and Nathan outline their issues with Apple's App Store policies, and how they might harm creators most of all. The giant began as a product company—but, they write, "iOS is a platform," and Apple could be doing a better job taking care of the people who make a living off of it.

Read (10 minutes)

Albrey Brown hopes we never have to have this conversation again

by Sherrell Dorsey & Annaliese Griffin in Free Radicals

Entrepreneur Albrey Brown walked an uncommon path to his present position as Airtable's head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. But as he tells Sherrell, his background outside of the D, E, & I sphere informs his metric-based approach—and is emblematic of a large-scale shift happening in the space. Tech companies have a ways to go in terms of representation and equity, Brown says, and a key part of that is giving underrepresented people the space to define themselves by their knowledge and skills, not just their identities.

Read (23 minutes)

Oh, to be young and online!

by Fadeke Adegbuyi in Cybernaut

The first edition of Fadeke's "cyberbits"—a curated group of the most fascinating corners of the internet your probably wouldn't have found otherwise—takes us from ex-racists on Reddit to marriages arranged by strangers, all with Fadeke's trademark wit and warmth. It's a perfect addition to your weekend reading—as quick as it is useful.

Read (5 minutes)

#18 - Unsticking yourself (Part I)

The Long Conversation with Rachel Jepsen

Our personal favorite TLC installments usually revolve around an exercise, and this one is no exception. Walking Dan and Nathan through an exercise based in "word clouds," Rachel hones in on the quirks of our memories—and how we travel to them in our minds.

Listen (24 minutes)

#76 - Introducing Executive Editor Rachel Jepsen

#77 - Under Talk Therapy's hood, with guest host Freia Lobo

Talk Therapy with Dan Shipper & Nathan Baschez

Talk Therapy was graced with two extremely special guests from within the Every community this week. On Monday, Dan and Nathan announced Rachel's new full-time position as our Executive Editor, charting her journey to the company and going deep on her editing philosophy. On Wednesday, Freia Lobo—an initial Every investor and longtime listener—put the hosts in the hot seat for a behind-the-scenes discussion about how they organize the show, what they won't talk about (it's a short list), and what almost a year of podcasting has offered their hearts and minds.

Listen to #76 (32 minutes) & #77 (19 minutes)

What’s Going On

News you might have caught or missed this week.

• San Francisco tech companies are sitting on record amounts of empty space they can’t fill
• The Gateses’ Public Split Spotlights a Secretive Fortune
• The Colonial Pipeline Hack Is a New Extreme for Ransomware
• World’s largest crypto exchange Binance is reportedly under investigation
• Stephen and Ayesha Curry join One Million Black Women initiative

What We’re Reading

Our favorite writing from beyond Every.

• Building the World of Alex Danco's Newsletter (Alex Danco's Newsletter)
• The one where writing books is not really a good idea (The Novelleist)
• The Untold Story of the NFT Boom (The New York Times)
• From Winner Take All to Win and Help Win: the Original Vision of the Internet is Making a Comeback (Sari Azout & Jad Esber)

Tweet of the Week

Reason #173 to join our Discord page: this week's extensive debate over whether this dragonfly is cute or not:

Steve Stewart-Williams@SteveStuWill

A dragonfly wiping rain from its face. Such incredible footage. https://t.co/eqspRrzzAO

May 10th 2021, 7:12am EST

1k Retweets7k Likes

An Invitation to Every

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