Every Friday
If you’re a Blackout Wednesday enjoyer, good luck. If you work in retail, godspeed.
Given we’re less than a week out from Turkey Day, it’s officially time for bulking season. The winter layers are coming on in more ways than one. The Relay gang will be spreading out across all different areas of the United States and Mexico to celebrate and partake in the festivities. Joey Chesnut style levels of eating.
The next time you hear from us the big day(s) will have passed. If you’re a Blackout Wednesday enjoyer, good luck. If you work in retail, godspeed.
Happy holidays.
“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”
– Oscar Wilde
“If you think you are enlightened; go home for Thanksgiving.”
– Ram Dass
Top of Mind
8 Life and Business Lessons Buried in Warren Buffett’s Last Shareholder Letter, (Pirate Wires)
“With a little luck, Berkshire should require only five or six CEOs over the next century. It should particularly avoid those whose goal is to retire at 65, to become look-at-me rich or to initiate a dynasty.”
Warren Buffett has been a fixture of philanthropy and American success while refusing to indulge in the antics of our younger tech overlords - and we’re poorer for his taking a step back from public life. Here’s the tldr version:
You don’t have to live in The Big City to make it big-time.
Luck is real, but it doesn’t last.
Age is an asset — to a point.
Mistakes can’t be avoided.
Don’t ruminate.
Don’t wait to change your life.
Be kind.
Or at the very least, abstain from being a jerk.
Peter Thiel: Capitalism Isn’t Working for Young People, (The Free Press)
“I think you can reduce 80 percent of culture wars to questions of economics—like a libertarian or a Marxist would—and then you can reduce maybe 80 percent of economic questions to questions of real estate.”
The affordability crisis is the talk of the town since the Mamdani, Spanberger, and Sherrill wins across the Northeast this month. Everyone ran on some flavor of an affordability platform, and it worked. Tim Dillon opened his show with a blistering critique on the state of New York today and
has a great writeup on how the Democrats have successfully shifted their focus onto these issues.Will socialism fix the affordability crisis in New York? We’re inclined to side with Thiel, but as he said, maybe the first step is talking about it.
ICYMI: Happy Hour Edition
A new developing technology dubbed “mind captioning” translates mental imagery from subject’s MRI scans into text. A brain scan goes into the system and a GPT-like description representing the brain scan’s content emerges. This tech is still early, but it feels pretty insane.
This place just oozes cool. +5 points for Tennessee. If you haven’t checked out any of the other Huckberry Homes videos, they’re a good watch.
In 2011, the thesis was that software was eating the world. That was correct. Software devoured every industry, every service, and every business model. Today, a deeper, more fundamental force is at work: Brainrot is eating the world.
Best of Substack this Week
In Pictures, White Gold in the Cascades
–the morning shakeout | issue 523 (for you runners)
–Building silly little projects off the side of my desk –
This Week in Relay’s Shopping Cart
The Earl, (Jack)
Who will be attempting to pull these off alongside me? We need to support one another (my girlfriend doesn’t approve).
Premium Slip-On 98 Sneaker, (Ian)
Ordered these pre pandemic and have been wearing them ever since. You can never go wrong with slip on vans but it’s time I own a pair that has less holes in them.
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History, (James)
The author of Too Big To Fail is finally back. He’s been doing the podcast rounds to promote it and:
He’s a fascinating guy and i’m jealous of his career
The 1929 crash has some wild overlaps with 2025
It’s Not That Deep, Randy
Thanks for reading—or for mega scrolling all the way down here.
The internet is an overwhelming mess of headlines, ads, and mid takes from the worst people you know. Big Tech owns our attention spans. Everything is content. Nothing makes sense.
We’re not here to “fix discourse” or “build a better internet.” Relay is just our attempt to riff on what we’re already talking about at happy hour without feeling like we’ve been hit by a content truck. Some analysis, some memes, call it a day.
You might like it. Tag along.
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