Iterate Weekly - Issue 149
This week we're looking at Disney+ on the Apple Vision Pro, Viral layoff experiences, California Forever, a new desert ski resort, and "The Holdovers"!
Welcome to issue 149 of Iterate Weekly.
Hope you’re all doing well. This is just a friendly reminder that you can always reply directly to these messages or leave a comment on the Substack post. Feedback is highly encouraged and I’m happy to answer any and all questions that come up.
Thank you as always for reading!
🤖 Tech
Disney embraces the Apple Vision Pro
The Apple Vision Pro has gotten a lot of airtime on these pages recently, and I think it’s for good reason.
It’s been a while since we had a new product like this that has been so divisive. Some reviewers are saying it’s a revolution in the way we interact with computers and others think it’s an expensive albatross of a product that won’t find much on an audience. Well regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, there is one company that is betting big on the Vision Pro. Disney.
Disney has been developing their user experience on the Vision Pro for nearly two years and that should give them a nice leg up on the competition. Their Disney+ app will run natively on the headset’s VisionOS and offer easier navigation and a more immersive experience with far less friction to get started.
While other streamers like YouTube and Netflix have been reluctant to pour a ton of resources on unique versions of their apps for the new Apple headsest, Disney+ is hoping that its the killer app for the Vision Pro that gets all the kids at school begging their parents to buy it for them.
It could be a wise move for the future, but the $3,500 price tag is still going to get in the way of the average kid who wants to watch “The Little Mermaid” in a truly immersive environment. But the innovation of the headset will be lost if companies just port over versions of their iPad apps. And in the case of Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, they’re requiring their services to be used within the Safari browser on the Vision Pro at launch.
I don’t think it’s crazy at all to envision a future in the next three to five years where parents are no longer handing their kids an iPad on a long flight or car ride. If Disney plays its cards right, and Apple gets the price of the headset into a more reasonable (slightly more than an iPad) range, this is the product that kids will be wanting for long trips. It may sound dystopian to envision all of our kids wearing these headsets, but we thought the same things about Apple’s previous moon shot products. The Vision Pro could be well on its way as the next example.
🎓 Education/Productivity/Work
Why are employees sharing their layoff experiences?
I have to admit that I hadn’t hurt about this latest trend of sharing layoff stories on social media. In fact, some people have even been live streaming the moments when they’ve gotten laid off from their jobs.
This Axios piece gives a great rundown of how the stigma of being laid off sorta died with the pandemic and modern employers are turning the tables on the process in an effort to commiserate online and land back on their feet.
Remote work has really changed the way that people process a lay off. For starters, you don’t have that awkward eye contact as you walk out of the physical office or the embarrassing brown boxes filled with all of your personal belongings. So in some sense, things have improved.
But you also don’t usually have the opportunity to go grab a beer with your colleague to explain how it went down. Some employees lose access to company communications tools before they even hear the news and they’re left with nowhere to turn for support. Aside from social media that is.
Like all aspects of work in the past few years, getting laid off has changed. I think it’s wonderful that people are able to make the most of the situation by turning a negative experience into a potential positive. And with the more open dialogue these days, companies need to be much better at severing ties with employees in humane, compassionate ways.
♻️ Health & Environment
The more I hear about California Forever, the more I like it
Way back in Issue 127, I first wrote about the idea of a utopian tech city popping up in Northern California not all that far from where I live. At the time I was fairly intrigued but skeptical that the concept would ever get off the ground. And I also commiserated with the existing residents of the area who were nervous about being displaced by a troop of billionaires who thought their corner of California was ripe for new development whether they approved or not.
But in the last few months, this project has taken shape. And while it’s still pretty far from reality, the more I’m reading about it, the more I like the concept in theory. These days, the initiative is called California Forever and it’s less of a utopian idea for billionaires and more of a looses plan for mid-sized city in Solano County.
And I’m not the only one who has taken notice. The fantastic
gives his thumbs up on the project over on his publication Noahpinion and you can check it out below.
To sum it up from my perspective, ideas like this should be celebrated rather than just shot down as some unobtainable playground for the rich. I think it’s fair to say that people of all income levels enjoy living places where they can easily get around without relying on a car. And access to green space can be thoughtfully woven into the fabric of a new community rather than just an afterthought.
California Forever may still turn out to be a big idea that never becomes a reality, but that’s ok! At the very least, it’s had people talking over the past few months and that should only continue. I’m impressed by the progress thus far on their plans and hope to share more about it in the future.
🛍 Grab Bag
A ski resort in the middle of the Saudi Desert
Here’s another semi-utopian development project, but this time in Saudi Arabia.
It’s called Trojena, and yes it’s a ski resort in the middle of a desert.
Sure, there are plenty of natural mountains that get snow but are in relative dry climates. Parts of California and Utah come to mind. But this project is a little bit different. Think of it more like an advanced indoor ski run where the skiing is just one of the entertainment options in the region.
It’s part of a slew of high-profile developments in Saudi Arabia as a means to drive tourism. Trojena claims to be able to offer 3 months of skiing each winter, but will also include an amphitheater, hotels, and the promise of 700,000 tourists visiting by 2030.
It sure seems impressive but the promotional video on their site makes me question if they actually know how downhill skiing works. It looks like the skiers are shooting up the mountain like they have rocket-propelled skis, and there really isn’t a whole lot of snow on that mountain to inspire much confidence in a long season.
But who knows? This could end up being a great destination. I’ll be curious to check out more as they get closer to that 2030 goal.
💬 Quote of the Week
"Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs."
-Thomas Wolfe
🎥Content Recommendation
The Holdovers
Oh yes, it’s time to continue on the journey of watching all of the Oscar-nominated films this year. Recently, I checked out “The Holdovers” starring Paul Giamatti and I really loved it.
The film has two major positive things going for it. It takes place at a boarding school and it takes place over Christmas time. Schools, colleges, camps, all fantastic locales for movies in my humble opinion. And as soon as I finished watching this movie, I thought that it could have legs as a perennial favorite every holiday season for me.
Giamatti is wonderful and it’s a just a mostly wholesome, breath of fresh air in an awards season that is littered with plenty of darker, moodier offerings.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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