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👋 Hi friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
Image of the week, above:
🇨🇳 I was delighted to participate in a Schwarzman Scholars alumni seminar panel here in Hong Kong on Friday.
📚 The program sponsors recent college graduates from around the world to get a master’s in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Alumni met here in HK over a few days.
📱On the panel, Jen Zhu Scott, Angela Huyue Zhang and I discussed AI and venture capital in China, tech regulations, and more. Lujain Ibrahim moderated.
I talked about some of our recent WSJ stories on the challenges U.S. companies are facing in the country. And we answered some interesting questions from the audience.
Here are 10 items worth your time this week:
1) 🍔 What the rising cost of cheeseburgers says about economic pressures on U.S. restaurants. 🎁 <– WSJ gift link
2) 🫀 Why low-intensity Zone 2 cardio is suddenly all the rage. 🎁 <– WSJ gift link
3) 🤑 How a financial advice columnist fell for a complex scam that cost her $50,000 in cash.
4) 🧠 A first-hand account of living life as a sociopath.
5) 💾 Even cooler than music on vinyl: music on floppy disk.
6) 📺 A guide to choosing video streaming services.
7) 🤳 Selfies are bad for museums.
8) 🧐 “Things Unexpectedly Named After People.”
9) 🌌 For those keen to get their celestial bearings, Galactic Compass is a new app that points to the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
10) 📕 BookPecker: “14509 books summarized in 5 bullet points.”
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📖 What I’ve Been Reading
I’m late in mentioning that earlier this year I read, and absolutely loved, the novel “Bangkok Wakes to Rain,” by Pitchaya Sudbanthad.
It takes place over hundreds of years, spanning multiple generations of Bangkok inhabitants, and touches on themes of love, loss, permanence and meaning.
I wrote a bit more about the book on LinkedIn here.
📖 What I’ve Been Watching
🇸🇪 If you’re understandably caught up in the “Love is Blind” series on Netflix, don’t miss “Love is Blind: Sweden“! Still plenty of interesting twists and turns, but the drama is handled more…maturely?
🦴 Dog-related video of the week:
Herding the statues (_Thanks, Dad!__)
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💡 Quote of the week:
“Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength.” — Bruce Lee
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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,
Newley