Iterate Weekly - Issue 26
Slack hopes to clip its way to better meetings, the vinyl record lives on, we're building with bodily fluids on the moon, no need for AC when your walls are white, and yes Jerry, it is something.
Welcome to issue 26 of Iterate Weekly!
Just a reminder that you can always reply to this email or leave a comment on the web version. I do read all of them and I appreciate the feedback, questions, and insights from all of you.
Let’s jump into this week’s stories.
🤖Tech
Can Slack finally put a stop to useless meetings?
Slack has been revolutionizing the workplace for the past few years. Its latest feature hopes to cut down the number of useless meetings that people need to join in person or more likely, on a video call.
The new “Clips” feature allows users to record and post quick video snippets that could end up replacing the need for synchronous real-time meetings. These videos could be used for tutorials, screen shares, meeting agendas, etc. With the hopes that employees could respond directly back with text or easily record their video response on their own time.
This obviously could be a huge game-changer if it’s adopted on a large scale. With more employees working in different time zones, the logistics of even a 15 minute meeting can be challenging. If this technology works as seamlessly as Slack claims (a big if) it could allow for meetings to happen on independent schedules with explanations that go far deeper than just an email or text-based response.
Of course, there are risks to this. Receiving six disparate video clips from co-workers over the span of a day could be much more of a headache than even an hour-long meeting where everyone chimes in. Also, this technology has certainly existed for a while (screen capture platforms like Loom have seen a huge bump in downloads since the start of the pandemic) but people can be uncomfortable recording themselves on video.
It may not end meetings overnight, but I applaud Slack for adding another tool to our kit that will help facilitate better workplace communication.
🎓🎭Education/Arts
Long live the vinyl record
This comes as no surprise to me based on my listening and buying habits, but vinyl records have made a huge comeback.
My wife and I have been members of the record subscription service “Vinyl Me Please” for years. You get a new record each month that is usually an exclusive pressing with bold colors and artwork. There is just something magical about listening to music while watching a colored disc spin around. It really wakes up all your senses (maybe not taste, although Vinyl Me Please often includes paired cocktail recipes!)
In 2020, U.S. vinyl sales topped CD sales for the first time since 1986. That’s pretty incredible and something that no one would have predicted even ten years ago. People still clamor for something tangible in our mostly digital world. While putting on a record requires more effort than asking a smart speaker to play any song in the world, it still fills a need and creates a different experience.
Trends tend to be cyclical, and naturally, I’m asking myself if cassette tapes and CDs will have a resurgence as well. Seeing how my wife did gift me a cassette tape earlier this year, I could see that trend growing. It’s still pretty tricky to hunt down tapes and cassette players right now but we said the same thing about record players a few years back. Now, you can pick up a record player at most big-box stores and any reasonably sized music shop.
Let the retro audio revival continue!
🩺Health
Let’s use our bodily fluids as building material!
Scientists hope to have a new building material to use for future colonization efforts on the moon. Would you believe that it could be made from human blood?
While researching the ever-evolving industry of synthetic silk (it seems like you can pretty much make silk out of anything these days, happy days for all the silkworms!) researchers have stumbled into a potential new compound that could be as strong as concrete.
By combining regolith (moon space matter) with a protein found in human blood and urine, durable building material is formed. This may sound gross, but it could prove to be far more efficient, affordable, and sustainable than sending building materials from earth to the moon.
No, we won’t have houses build with pee-blood-cement anytime soon, but all gross jokes aside, it’s a fascinating discovery that could shape future lunar development.
🛍Grab Bag
Who needs AC when you have white paint?
It’s pretty normal for homes in the Bay Area to be lacking air conditioning. Our relatively moderate climate only offers up a handful of hot days each year. So by no means am I an expert when it comes to AC.
But I am really fascinated by the idea of paint that can have cooling properties.
This paint would be most useful on outdoor facing walls and rooftops, but there could potentially be indoor use cases as well. I’ve seen this concept used in some futuristic new clothing fabrics that claim to cool the body more than wearing nothing at all. It’s a novel idea that still needs a few more years to become more widely accepted.
You likely won’t see this paint in your local hardware store for a few years, but I think it’s a sign to come that something as mundane as paint could actually have a function in your home.
💬Quote of the Week
“Life is made up of a collection of moments that are not ours to keep.” - Rachel Brathen
📚Content Recommendation
Jerry Seinfeld - Is This Anything?
Recently, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld in audiobook form (read by the author of course) while taking several road trips.
Yes, this is another audiobook by a comedian. After listening to Seth Rogen and Colin Jost, I’ve been on a comedic audio kick.
To be clear, this isn’t as much of a book as it’s just Jerry telling jokes. The “book” is broken down into the decades of Jerry’s career from the ‘70s to ‘10s. Some jokes will sound familiar as a loose premise of a Seinfeld episode or an actual standup bit from the show’s opening or closing segments.
It’s the perfect entry point if you’ve (somehow) never heard any of Jerry’s standup material. And if you’re an insane Seinfeld fan like yours truly, you’ll still appreciate some of the more obscure one-liners or dated references from his early career. Answering machine humor sadly does not hold up today.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!