PicoBlog

CW: This essay contains links to research, as well as one source quote, that use o-words and other stigmatizing language to discuss weight and kids. Jessica, a mom in upstate New York, braced herself to go swimsuit shopping for her 8-year-old daughter Rose this year. Rose is “about twice the size of many of her peers,” Jessica says, in part due to various medical conditions that require management with medications that cause weight gain.

The first time I saw two friends kiss was in Germany. I was fifteen, spending the summer as an exchange student in the city of Hanover, and my host sister Fritzi and I had just arrived at her school for the morning. Teenagers streamed in and out of the various courtyards where groups of students were listening to iPods (remember those?) and chatting between bites of chocolate croissant. Suddenly, Fritzi’s friend Henni appeared.

Hey, I hope you’ve been well. I haven’t written in a bit. I’m grateful for the beautiful gift of life and I hope you are doing okay, regardless of the current situations life is throwing at you. Life is a duality. It wouldn’t be life if we had only one experience of one thing. I’m learning that internalizing this concept makes it easier to navigate whatever life throws at me.

I first published this post on LinkedIn last week here (and boy, it got 🌶️ spicy). I used to think the "feature factory" was a fundamentally flawed product culture. Lately, my thinking has shifted and I see the feature factory as an optimal product culture in a sales-led company (likely b2b). Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying it's fun or enjoyable to be a PM in a feature factory. I believe product management in an empowered product culture is more strategic & meaningful work.

Between artists, the balance between admiration and jealousy is acrobatics. When art is life, another artist’s success can seem like an invalidation of your own life instead of a triumph to be celebrated. The chemistry between vastly talented people and the rapid-fire exchange of begrudging respect can be dazzling, whether it’s academics, writers, dignitaries, or Steve Jobs yelling at Google co-founder Sergey Brin about poaching Safari developers to build a competing product (Chrome) which would be launched three years later and now owns 67% of the global browser market.

Recently, there has been a brouhaha brewing online about the comic book “superhero” The Punisher possibly being changed even further to stop right-wingers en masse from buying his skull-logo T-shirts in size XL (which was causing a crucial shortage in black poly/cotton blend). Marvel Entertainment (a subsidiary of Disney Inc.) first tried to distance the character by giving him this vague sorta Japanese/“Asian” storyline, possibly in tribute to the oeuvre of notable comics writer C.

New BTP Podcast: Listen on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you find your podcasts. In this week’s edition, my co-host Andrew Vontz and I attempt to break down the news that the fantastic GCN+ cycling-specific streaming service is being shut down in December and dive deep into the potential reasons for this sudden ending. We also speculate on what platform, if any, will allow Americans to watch non-ASO races in the 2024 season, as well as touching on Wout van Aert's apparent plan to race the Giro d'Italia over the Tour de France in 2024 and Geraint Thomas' interesting off-season admissions.

Greetings from the Greater Lafayette Sports Report with a heavy emphasis on covering the Purdue women’s basketball program. Thanks to those who have already subscribed, and feel free to share with your friends, loved ones and even adversaries (maybe you won’t be enemies if you encourage them to join, or they’ll be upset you sent them here and your relationship will never get off the ground). I apologize for bursting onto the scene without an explanation, but hopefully, I can provide some clarity as to why I’m doing this.

A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.