Summer Reflections
Hello, I hope that your summer has been great.
My sons went to academic camp this summer. I am Asian after all. I went to the same camp when I was their age. That’s why I’m President today.
Dropping them off made me nostalgic for summers from my youth. Do you have songs you associate with summers long-gone-by? I certainly do, with the summers of 1988 – 1994 particularly prominent. The anthem of this academic camp is “American Pie” by Don McLean, so that song is embedded in my teenage soul. It gives me joy that my kids now know that song too.
Maybe the biggest change from my childhood to now is that it’s too hot to let kids run around outside all summer long. I remember spending countless hours outside during camp. Just running for entire afternoons. Now, you’d better have a pavilion or a fan or air conditioning somewhere.
Lazy days and warm nights. I miss the World Cup, even though I’m not the biggest soccer fan.
This summer was my reality TV premiere. As you may know, I’m now off the show, officially not the Nation’s Dumbest. It was a lot of fun pulling up on the sofa on Wednesdays with my family watching the episodes together. We’ll still do it to root for my friends from the show, though I kind of know what happens.
My niece upon watching Nation’s Dumbest asked my brother, “Daddy, what is Uncle Andrew’s job?” It’s a good question, one I get all of the time.
(By the way, my official job title nowadays is CEO of Noble Mobile, which is saving people money right and left. We get the average user’s cellphone bill down to ~$40 a month and reduce your screentime by 17%. We also pay 5.5% interest on your savings! For 3 months off your mobile bill with Noble Mobile, click here or email matt@noblemobile.com and use my name to switch or explore. Plug ended.)
Another big part of summer - the movies. The Odyssey and Spider-Man were definitely the hits of the summer. Whenever I’m borderline on bringing the boys to a movie, I do it because it feels like they’ll form memories.
I conducted a social media poll asking people how their summer ’26 has been. The results were 30% fair, 29% good, 21% not good, and 20% great. Those results were a bit better than I expected, given the grim economic climate. Credit card delinquencies have spiked to 13% and school loan delinquency to 11%, both heading upwards. The summer politically has had a real anti-incumbent bent.
As if on cue, Anthropic is heading to a Fall IPO valuing the company at over a trillion dollars. It’s going to be one of the biggest stock offerings in history. Anthropic is much more of a pure AI play than SpaceX was, which will give us a sign as to what inning we are in of this particular buildout boom. I suspect we’re in one of the later innings.
My summer’s not over yet. I’m heading to Birmingham, Alabama for a charity event for invisible disabilities this weekend and then to Yellow Springs, Ohio for a comedy show. One of my boys is celebrating his birthday this week too. Going to try to stretch the summer through Labor Day, which falls reeeeeeaaaaally late this year.
Look up this summer, there’s still time to make a good memory or two. The Fall will be here soon enough.
This week on the podcast we have Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Steven Rathje with Michael Chad Hoeppner from the Hudson Valley Ideas Fest on how tech use affects our brains. To check out Forward Party candidates including U.S. Senate candidates Todd Achilles, Brian Bengs, and Seth Bodnar, click here. For 3 months off your mobile bill with Noble Mobile, click here or email matt@noblemobile.com and use my name to switch or explore. It will save you money and time. To get a copy of “Hey Yang, Where’s My Thousand Bucks?” click here and use the code “UBIUBI” for 25% off.