Napkin Math

Business breakdowns, by the numbers.

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Napkin Math

The Bugman Cometh

My sick, unexplainable desire to buy a face computer

60 Jun 6, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

Napkin Math

The Cost of Greatness

What will be the blood sacrifice on your altar of ambition?

208 Jun 1, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Dying Whales and Dying Billionaires

A note about power

127 May 25, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

Napkin Math

Meet Your New Finance Intern: GPT-4

How AI will reshape what finance professionals do

98 May 18, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

Napkin Math

Why Are Republicans Better at Making Money on the Internet?

What consumer tech and media got wrong

70 May 11, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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7 Reasons Media Is a No-Good, Horrible, Rotten Business That I Love Anyways

Plus a few things that bring me hope

57 May 4, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Death of a Flywheel

How Amazon and Berkshire got too big

95 Apr 27, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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You Probably Shouldn’t Work at a Startup

It’s overrated—both financially and emotionally

119 Apr 20, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

Napkin Math

Steve Jobs’ Legacy for Builders

A book that lit a fire in my soul

118 Apr 13, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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We Don’t Know Enough About the Pornhub Acquisition

One of the world’s most important websites was sold and nobody cares

227 Apr 6, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Tinder Is Way More Important Than You Think

Forget AI, the people want to bone

133 Mar 30, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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How AI Changes the Media Business

Why community and social network effects will be key to winning the future

71 Mar 23, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Technology Is Good Actually

Startups screw up sometimes, but making things cheaper is a moral necessity

76 Mar 16, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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A Dearth of Secrets, an Excess of Capital: SVB’s Explosion

We may be entering a more ruthless era in tech

90 Mar 13, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Recommendation Algorithms Are a Necessary Evil (Sort Of)

AI is about to remake our information ecosystem and it is past time for us to prepare

51 Mar 9, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Should I Quit and Start a Franchise?

I’m wondering if I can deep-fry my way out of the apocalypse

77 Mar 2, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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When Content Creation Goes to Zero

AI is making a world where it costs nothing to produce anything. What happens next?

63 Feb 23, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Bada Bing: Why Microsoft Wants Google to Dance

Surely nothing bad will happen with an AI hooked up to the internet

96 Feb 16, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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The Meditations of Vinyl Jesus

Music producer Rick Rubin explores the creative process

94 Feb 9, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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AI Looks Like a Bubble

Investors need to take a cold shower

141 Feb 2, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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How Technology Giants Die

GE, Amazon, and the flywheel of death

93 Jan 26, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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In Defense of the Unoptimized Life

Give yourself the space to be inspired

348 Jan 12, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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It Is Always Time to Build

Interest rates do not equal innovation rates

71 Jan 5, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Meditations on AI Mecca

A dispatch from a hacker conference in San Francisco

106 Dec 21, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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Should You Fire This Newsletter?

In which I analyze whether I’m good at my job

99 Dec 15, 2022 by Evan Armstrong