Everyone is tuning into the break-up of the year. The memes are perfect but this NY Post cover is leading the pack. Steve Bannon is floating deportation and one of the allusive Musk baby mommas is offering the President some relationship advice. Maybe if they’d just put down the damn phones we could all be spared another meme war. The lore is good though, we love a messy public meltdown.
Hilariously, there are very serious economic and geopolitical ramifications tied to the breakup etc. etc. - but its too played out; and we're all just trying to make a bag. Your boss still wants that client deck by EOD (this is the final round of edits, they promise), and you still need to catch up on missed texts over the weekend.
That being said, there’s something sort of nice that happens when the absurdity peaks. It stops feeling chaotic and starts to feel almost inevitable? Of course Addison Rae is the soundtrack of the Tech-Right fallout.
It feels a little like how we imagine 2008 outside. Except maybe it’s not the crisis, it’s the afterparty. Everything's cursed but the music is still bumping and no one wants to leave just yet. It’s financial collapse, but make it communal.
Stay loose fam. It’s getting bumpy out there.
Let’s get into it.
Hoh, man. The girls are fighting, aren't they?
— AOC
And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.
— John Steinbeck
Top of Mind
The Man Who Spent Forty-two Years at the Beverly Hills Hotel Pool (New Yorker)
Nearly every day for decades, Irving V. Link tanned by the luxury pool. Then his idyllic life style came under threat from the hotel’s owner, the Sultan of Brunei. … Except for a brief period in the early sixties … one day of Irving’s has been almost exactly like the next.
Breakfast at seven, chaise at nine, gin at two.
A Teamster scandal, an IRS audit, Bobby Kennedy’s stabbing finger, none of it shifts Link’s 7 a.m. order.
That loop runs 15,000 times, long enough to turn habit into equity.
Producers drift over for cards, pay two-percent finder’s fees, and leave believing the deal was theirs.
Studios topple and a sultan shutters the doors, but Irving still reclines against that iconic sherbet-colored wall.
This is a timeless and incredible story of a man who tumbled through the life at one of Los Angeles’s most iconic venues, the Beverly Hills Hotel. He was there, every day, through the rise and fall of it’s power as a central hub for Hollywood. It’s a timeless piece, published by the New Yorker, originally in 1993. It is well worth the long read, maybe on a leisurely Sunday morning with a cup of coffee. The type of story that seems impossible to find anymore.
How Qatar Bought America (Honestly)
In the past 15 years, Qatar has developed a sophisticated apparatus to embed itself into American society in a way that would shock most Americans. They’ve done it by investing in our politicians, universities, newsrooms, think tanks, lobbying firms, and corporations—all on an unprecedented scale.
Yes, we know that Honestly is everywhere now — but in the words of Bari herself, this is maybe the most important story the free press has broken this year. It details the web of money and influence that has flowed form the Gulf States since the bonanza of liquefied natural gas transformed the region — and in particular, the Qataris.
In short, many key players in the Trump admin, like Pam Bondi, Susie Wiles, Kash Patel, Lindsey Graham, are all either bankrolled by or former lobbyists for the nation of Qatar.
More than that, higher-ed institutions across the country have had donations pouring in and are opening campuses in Doha at what’s being called “Education City.” We’re talking everything from Texas A&M’s School of Engineering to Northwestern’s School of Journalism.
Put on your tinfoil hats and buckle up, team — it’s a wild ride.
Trading Margin for Moat: Why the Forward Deployed Engineer Is the Hottest Job in Startups (a16z)
The rise of AI has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build new systems of work, but successful implementation requires embracing a truth that Silicon Valley has long rejected: sometimes human-intensive services are necessary to create transformative software.
When I (Macke) joined Palantir as a forward deployed engineer a few years ago, the role was looked at as a niche mix between consulting and engineering, often times seen as a dead-end to a traditional technologist’s career path. However, this blend of product development and hands on implementation has become a wildly successful strategy in the realm of AI products.
Best of Substack this Week
Travels with Brad: Rules for Living in a Jeep with Your Father across America -
Here are 28 albums from 2025 you need to hear, described in one sentence -
Two Exhibits Closing in San Francisco and Paris -
ICYMI: Happy Hour Edition
If Hunter S. Thompson had decided to start an ultra running career.
Freidbergs based anti-doomer takes and David being back *bosh.*
Mary Meeker released her AI deck and some of the messaging choices created deep teapot lore.
Although I (Jack) have a self made rivalry with Satisfy… their possessed magazine is really, really cool and they have stuff on both of my all time favorite runners (also Macke almost bought a Moth Tech cutoff this week and chickened out).
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.
We also have Quick Reflections you can check out:
Subscribe and leave us a comment so we know you’re out there.
the real ones are those terminally early to really. true ground floor day ones in the trenches 😤
Tim is cursed