Five Things: Evacuation Day, Influencer, NATO Training, Dog Sled Racing, Struck by Lightning
It's Sunday. Read this now.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things!
This past week I went to Cologne for a startup conference, aptly called Startupland. Cologne has never been “my” city. I used to work there for two years over twenty years ago and we lived in Bonn, just south of Cologne, until my wife said she wanted to go back to Hamburg. Of course she was right, Hamburg really is our city.
But, every time I go back to Cologne, I realize that I really do like the people there. There is this dialect, the certain warmth and affection that comes along with it, some attitudes toward life, manifested in the “Rhenish Commentments”, which boil down to “watt fott es, es fott” - what’s gone, is gone and other such ideas about taking life as it is and enjoying the moment. Also, when I go to Cologne, I realize how many people I do know there and how great it is to reconnect with them. And sometimes I even like to drink this weird beer called Kölsch.
The other thing I have been doing is wrangling with lobsters. I used the train rides to Cologne and back for an extensive and maybe even excessive session with OpenClaw. And I built two Skills plus platforms along the way:
Let’s see how this evolves. 🦞
Enjoy these Five Things!
‘Evacuation Day’ and the American Character
Americans might have won the battle, but they still had to win the war. Bostonians faced a long rebuilding and healing process, with many years of fighting left. Washington wrote to the Boston selectmen, the governing body for the city, applauding their commitment to the revolutionary cause. “Your virtuous efforts in the cause of freedom, and the unparalleled fortitude with which you have sustained the greatest of all human calamities, justly entitle you to the grateful remembrance of your American brethren.” Bostonians had not endured British troops marching through the streets for themselves alone, but instead had fought for all Americans. They had inflicted a serious defeat on the mighty British army and navy and secured valuable stores for the Continental Army. “I heartily pray that the hand of tyranny may never more disturb your repose,” Washington concluded.
Some thirty years ago I studied American history and I still like the period around the formation of the United States a lot. So much thought was put into establishing a society governed by good laws. And it pains me to see how this is all under siege right now from Trump and his MAGA assheads.
The Power Brokers Behind the $250 Billion Influencer Economy
These days, there is practically no limit to what influencers can do—and how much they can earn for it. They’re starring in Netflix series, launching pop careers and running brands that rake in nine figures a year. Those at the top of their game are now up against actors and athletes for the biggest endorsement deals. They’ve appeared in Super Bowl commercials, staked out lucrative investment opportunities and scored ambassadorships for some of the biggest companies in the world. In 2015, influencer marketing was a $1.7 billion global industry; by 2025, it topped $32 billion, according to research company Statista. When Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research last sized up the creator economy as a whole, in 2023, it put it at $250 billion.
More than 20 years ago I ran what was the first influencer campaign in Germany, even though these influencers were called bloggers back then. This industry has grown to absurd proportions.
War in a Box
By the time I arrived, a mock battle had been underway for several days. We peeled away from the base camp, rumbling down silty tracks and past dreamy apple trees, pale clouds floating overhead. The American army unit fighting inside the Box was the Second Cavalry Regiment (2CR), a brigade of 4,700 based in Germany and ready to deploy on a moment’s notice in Europe. Established in 1836, they’re the oldest continually serving regiment in the U.S. Army, first used by President Andrew Jackson to forcibly remove Native communities from their territory during the Florida War, one of the earliest violent expressions of American imperialism. More recently, they have supported NATO operations in Poland.
This is an interesting account of how NATO trains for warfare and what role drones play these days. It’s basically “Call of Duty, Sponsored by Palantir,” except everyone insists it’s just training and definitely not a dress rehearsal for the next forever war.
‘Their Power Feels Like Mine’: A Dog Sled Racer Says Goodbye to Her Pack
As a lead dog, running in front of the others, Pepé’s job is to guide the team. Where she goes, the other dogs follow, and eventually I — swinging behind them on a sled with no steering and only a metal claw that scrapes snow as a suggestion of a brake — follow, too. A musher is like a water-skier behind a boat, making requests he cannot possibly enforce. For this reason, the relationship between musher and lead dog is intimate and intense. Each time I call directions to Pepé — gee and haw for right and left, or on by, or straight ahead, or whoa — it’s with the understanding that she will comply only if she agrees, and she will agree only to the extent that she regards me as competent and useful. I prove my use by learning and anticipating her needs. I lose credibility by doing silly things like crying into the fur of her neck.
Somewhere on my bucket-list is still a dog sled race somewhere in Canada. I find it so fascinating how dogs and their human interact in the bitter cold while doing a high-speed pursuit with a sled.
What 100 Million Volts Do to the Body and Mind
The most fundamental consequences of being struck by lightning are often metaphysical, and not easily communicable. How does falling victim to one of the most notoriously unlikely of all misfortunes reorient your sense of chance, of fate? How does it feel, when you’re trying to describe the most transformative experience of your life, to be met, routinely, with disbelief?
As a kid we used to count between thunder and lightning to figure out how far away the lighting was. Even after reading this article I cannot really imagine what it must be like to be struck by lightning.
That’s it. Have a great Sunday! If you missed last Sunday’s edition of Five Things, have a look here:
— Nico