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👋 Hi friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter containing my recent Bloomberg stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
Painting of the week, above: Tennis At Newport (1920), by George Wesley Bellows
Here are 10 items worth your time this week:
1) 📈 Big scoop by my Bloomberg colleague Shirin Ghaffary: OpenAI is now the world’s most valuable private firm thanks to its new $500 billion valuation. <– gift link
2) 👉 RIP Jane Goodall, who died at age 91.
3) ✍️ Photos of 2025 Booker Prize nominees’ favorite writing spots.
4) 🇨🇴 “Just as in the United States, where Karen has become derisive shorthand for an entitled, demanding woman, Colombia has its own stigmatized first name: Brayan…”
5) 👟 WSJ: “The Evolution of the Running Shoe and What Comes Next.”
6) 🤖 You may have heard of “AI slop.” What about AI “workslop”?
7) 😴 The science of good sleep.
8) 🚧 Engineering feat of the week: balancing a 700-year-old church on stilts.
9) 📕 What I’m reading: I finished my Bloomberg colleague Parmy Olson’s excellent “Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World” and summarized a few points on LinkedIn here.
🎾 Another excellent book I just finished: Gerald Marzorati’s 2017 work, “Late to the Ball: A Journey into Tennis and Aging.”
Marzorati, then editor of the New York Times Magazine, resolved in his early sixties — having never played the sport, and being only moderately athletic — to become good enough to compete in national masters’ tournaments.
In funny, precise, colorful prose, he describes his quest, which involved hiring a coach, attending tennis camps, working with a sports psychologist, and, of course, lots of practice. He muses on his own mortality, questions of philosophy, and, of course, the craft, trends and aesthetics of the game.
Friends and tennis partners come and go. His strokes improve. His serve gets better. He learns to volley. He begins to relax and play each point as it comes — and more that I don’t want to give away.
The central message: Learning as we age keeps us in the present, reminds us that it’s never too late to achieve new goals, and — crucially for intellectuals stuck in their heads — grounds them in the physical. The upshot: it slows down time.
10) 🐕 Dog video of the week: “Dad cuts holes into the fence so dogs can say hi to mom..”
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💡 Quote of the week: “Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.” — Jane Goodall
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🤗 What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of canines who just want to look after their loved ones.
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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,
Newley