Field Notes: Pride 2024's equity threat
Also: Google might buy HubSpot, and Gen Z's money dysphoria
Welcome back to Financialicious. This week, I have some field notes from recent Pride reporting, a piece on how to write a great editorial and a mix of hot links to keep your brain hungry. 🧠
—Nick Wolny
Field Notes: Pride 2024's equity threat
I’ve been doing some reporting ahead of pride month this year, and there’s definitely a trend: corporations are pulling back.
Sure, these corporations will continue to do their rainbow washing and their pride campaigns. But what’s missing from the equation is the equity.
This has me thinking a lot about equity in general – with who we spend our money with, but also with our time and our attention.
Here are some notes from the field.
How to write an editorial
If you have a strong opinion about a topic, knowing how to write an editorial essay can help you land more media visibility and readership.
Editorial writing is when a columnist, journalist, or citizen submits an opinion-based article to a media outlet. A good editorial will be measured and fair; it will make a clear argument with an end goal to persuade readers, raise awareness on a particular issue, or both. Editorials give people a chance to present a supporting or opposing view on a topical issue, and they’re usually formatted as first-person essays.
Opinion editorials (Op-eds) can be a great way to land a byline or full article with a media publication. It can let you assert a stance more powerfully than you would in a quotation or interview.
This blog post tells you what you need to know.
Reading is fundamental
Pexels
Online business industry
Scoop: Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is in advanced talks to buy Hubspot, sources say. (Bloomberg)
Substack is launching an incubator for video creators. The program intends to partner with influential TikTokers to help them create shows. (On Substack)
Why ‘adult gap years’ may not work for the terminally online. I do notice a rise in online entrepreneurs taking sabbaticals. (Fast Company)
TikTok sued the government over its divestment law. (New York Times)
ConvertKit released their 2024 State of the Creator Economy report. (ConvertKit)
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MAMAA (Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet)
Microsoft and OpenAI launch a Societal Resilience Fund, aimed at combating AI misuse. (Microsoft Press Room)
In an interview with Bloomberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai laid out the company's AI roadmap. (Bloomberg)
Google's Gemini chatbot has a 27% hallucination rate. That's, uh, terrible. (CNET)
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AI
OpenAI is rumored to be announcing its search engine product on Monday. (Reuters)
A survey by Microsoft and LinkedIn found nearly 3 in 4 employees are leveraging generative AI, with or without their employers' permission and knowledge. (Microsoft Press Room)
ChatGPT OpenAI is exploring letting users generate NSFW content, including p0rn. Deepfakes are still banned. (NPR)
What is multimodal AI? Multimodal language models, explained. (Zapier blog)
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Money
Your neighbors are retiring in their 30s. Why can't you? A Reddit-centric story on the FIRE movement. (New York Times Magazine)
Generation Z has a lot more money than previous generations did at their age. (The Economist)
A study found 1 in 24 New York City residents is a millionaire. (Bloomberg)
How TikTok's financial content has given Gen Z money dysphoria. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Odds and ends
Scientists Use Ultrasound to Make Cold Brew Coffee in 3 Minutes Instead of 24 Hours. (404 Media)
The man who told the world Mount Everest had been climbed. (Outside Magazine)
How to buy any houseplant. (getanyplant.com)
Digestif
Budget your time, but also your willpower.
Roy Baumeister's experiments were all about willpower. They found that willpower is finite, and that when we complete a taxing task, we have less willpower to work with thereafter.
It's not enough to manage your calendar to death. You're not going to get 25 things done today. Stop it.
I saw this all the time with clients. They would smush their writing time between two other high-attention tasks, then wonder why it was so hard.
Budget your time, but also your willpower.
Let's make it a great week!
—Nick