427: The Founding Story of Marvel Studios, Apple Vision, Twitter vs Google, Amazon, GM+ Tesla, Huberman, Prius, and Nirvana

"any good idea pushed too far can become bad"

People in distress will sometimes prefer a problem that is familiar to a solution that is not.

—Neil Postman

Eye-tracking sensors in the Apple Vision Pro 👀

🎥👁️👁️ The few people who have tried Apple’s Vision Pro headset seem to be universally impressed by the eye-tracking. The word “magic” comes up again and again.

This makes me wonder if Apple can eventually bring that kind of eye-tracking to other devices like Macs and iPad 🤔

Today you need lots of sensors very close to someone’s eyeballs, but maybe someday sensors around a laptop screen could be precise enough to allow you to do some interaction just by looking around 👀

iTelepathy 🤔

Also, as a follow-up to edition #425 where I shared my initial thoughts about the Apple Vision Pro:

Apple execs confirmed on John Gruber’s live show that everything we saw in the product demo was captured on device and wasn’t simulated.

They said that they had to do some compositing when you see the person using the headset in the room, but all the interface and environment stuff was from the device. Impressive!

🦺 🤿 🏊‍♀️ This is a follow-up to the guide on how to recognize signs of drowning from the intro of Edition #425.

I received an email from supporter D.G. (💚 🥃 ), and with his permission, I’d like to share his story:

I did feel compelled to respond to your article on drowning. Unfortunately I almost drowned off the coast of KIHEI in Maui in the summer of 2019. 

After spending three straight days doing some of the most incredible snorkeling, with huge green turtles, I decided after 3 cups of coffee on a Saturday morning to go out by myself even though the waters were rough. It was a horrible decision. I got caught in corral. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get out. 

I’m 6'2", 220 pounds, and in pretty good shape. I couldn’t swim an inch after about 2 to 3 minutes of struggling. 

I looked toward shore, and I thought to myself I am not gonna make it. I was about to involuntarily give up. 

I saw women swimming nearby and she asked me if I needed help and I said "absolutely!". She and her husband came and pulled me out of the corral. 

It’s the craziest thing, you literally lose all your strength and you cannot move an inch after struggling. I was probably hyper ventilating and had way too much adrenaline going through my body. 

It’s scary to think that at any time, there are just a few breaths and heartbeats between us and death.

Stay safe, my friend! 🧡

🚿💭 One problem I have right now is that I tend to have multiple ideas while in the shower, and no easy way to remember them all. I’ve lost countless ideas down the drain…

Maybe I should buy some kind of waterproof notepad 🤔

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🏦 💰 Liberty Capital 💳 💴

🦸🏻‍♂️🍿How Marvel Studios was incubated inside of Marvel (Innovative on the creative and financial front)

This is a very interesting podcast interview with David Maisel, the founding chairman of Marvel Studios:

• 🎧 #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking

As the title says, a lot of this was never shared publicly before.

I’m impressed by how Maisel both had the creative and business vision.

He dreamt up the MCU at a time when Marvel basically had nothing to make its own movies and he figured a way to structure the company to be lean and effective and negotiated very low-risk financing and a very attractive deal that kept all the upside.

We’re all sick of sequels now, but his idea had quite a run for about a decade. I don’t hold it against him — any good idea pushed too far can become bad…

🐦✂️☁️ Twitter won’t pay Google’s Cloud Bills, plans to move off platform