Fighting for Survival

Welcome to This Week’s Leyendecker View

Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.
–Anaïs Nin

FAVORITE READS OF THE WEEK

Restoring Meritocracy and Eliminating Reverse Discrimination

Trump’s Counterrevolution Is Only Beginning

THINKING OUT LOUD

Fighting for Survival

An old and dear friend recently wrote and published an interesting novel. A good amount of his personal experience is used in framing up the main character, which is great because my friend is one of those people always asking, thinking and talking about the hard questions. 

How are we governed, or how do we choose to be governed? Why do we choose to be governed a certain way? What is spirituality? And of course the age-old question, what or who is God?

The overarching challenge for the book’s protagonist is trying to determine the difference between disinformation, misinformation and, of course, the actual truth.

Truth? What is it? Who defines it? Why is something true to some people but not to others? In my friend’s novel, the protagonist goes on an intellectual journey in search of truth, in search of the right thing to do, the right thing to think.

The book reminded me of an epiphany from a number of years ago…

The truth is what we want to believe.

The truth is what we need to believe.

The truth is what the powerful convince us to believe.

My friend’s book inspired me to think more about truth, disinformation and power.

Since the core motivation of all institutions is to sustain themselves and grow their power and influence, aren’t they naturally biased to “inform” their followers with information that serves their survival? If so, then the followers of legacy institutions are by definition the most susceptible to disinformation, particularly during periods of step change because step change threatens legacy institutions. During step change periods, legacy institutions tell us what they need us to believe in order for them to survive.

We must sue the president, says Harvard, a legacy institution. Tariffs are hurting stock market investors, say the legacy investment banks and wealthy investors. You can’t fire us, say the legacy government unions. You’re destroying education, say the legacy educational institutions and teachers unions. You’re hurting the world, say the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are funded by the government. Your new policies are going to lead to more deaths, say the legacy health care institutions. Trump is a Hitler, say many on the left and in the legacy media.

It’s only natural for legacy institutions to be kicking and screaming. Massive technological changes are radically transforming them. Massive technological changes are radically transforming our own lives. Millions of workers have been losing and will continue to lose their jobs and require retraining. That’s what those in the horse and carriage industry had to do after the automobile was invented. That’s what candle makers had to do when electric lights showed up.

Maybe we should remember that dramatic change can’t come without some drama. Drama is especially useful to the mainstream news institutions since it attracts and holds eyeballs, ears and minds, which makes media more advertising revenue, which may keep some of them from going out of business.

Many readers know I believe the news business has turned into the soap opera creation business because soap operas are addicting. From my point of view, today’s news business is less focused on informing people than it is on making money. It is a business, right? Not a philanthropic effort. And it happens to be a business under threat. So crank up the drama to an eleven.

But it’s not just all fun and games for the media elite raking in the dough off drama. They aren’t selling news and unbiased information that helps people better understand the world and make informed decisions. They’re selling a drug. One that is highly addictive, poisons the mind and as well all know, has significantly sewn division in our citizenry.

Thrashing about and screaming are all these old legacy institutions built up over decades and more. Of course it is scary. Of course it will lead to pain and suffering for some. End of the day, after this painful period, we will get new institutions that ideally, hopefully, will be more economically and socially productive.

The news media and all the legacy institutions are “informing” us what they need us to believe or need us to think in order to sustain themselves. It’s a loud and rowdy effort, a very large distraction to all of us. But it makes sense in its way—it’s a desperate and final attempt to survive.

Step change is here and threatening all the old legacy institutions. Naturally, they are fighting for survival.  

THE RANDOMS

How many years from now do you think it will be before PG movies are the most anticipated?

Why is Europe depending on President Trump to negotiate a peace deal in Europe? Where is Europe’s backbone?

Looks like the massive power outages in Spain and Portugal were caused by too much solar power.

What does it tell us when every mainstream media company writes a story like this that is incorrect?

Here’s a story you might find interesting: Pablo Picasso was born small and frail and thought to be stillborn until an uncle blew cigar smoke in his face. The smoke woke up Picasso. See, tobacco has been good for something. 

If China actually did take some aggressive action toward Taiwan, do you think foreign companies and investors would abandon China? If so, what would this do to China’s economy?

I wondered what percentage of Americans turn on the television as soon as they wake up. Google’s AI couldn’t find any recent research on this, but here are some results from a 2014 study. Has television become the center of our “everything,” and, if so, is this healthy?

The BLS tells us the average person spends five hours a day on leisure. Watching TV represents over 50% of that time, while we spend about 15 minutes a day participating in sports, exercise and recreation. No wonder we need drugs to lose weight.

Have you noticed that technology seems to be getting more and more complicated and bulky for us average users? Case in point: This article lists twenty settings you need to adjust on your phone to make it more productive. Who’s going to change 20 settings on their phone to increase its productivity? Why aren’t phones productive by default? Is all this complexity really to make it easier for the sellers to extract more money from us customers?

Man oh man, every day it seems, there is something new to learn. How does the average person keep up?

ECONOMIC NEWS

Economy

Job gains more than expected
Q1 GDP went negative
McDonald’s economic indicator not good
Consumer confidence at 13-year low
Middle-income consumers more judicious
More people only paying credit card minimum
Buying groceries with funny money

Labor

Job openings continue to decrease
AI is helping people find jobs
2023’s hottest job didn’t last long
Is everyone miserable at work?

BUSINESS

Finance

Meet your new AI investment banker
KKR grows “ownership culture” at portcos
Buy-the-dip investors need to be patient
Cracks are widening in private credit

Real Estate

Home builders pile on discounts
The Florida dream unravels
In half of states, starter home costs $1MM
Climate change fears influence home buying

Tech

Apple to source US-made chips in supply chain
Apple struggles in China
Amazon goes after SpaceX
Meta continues to prey on children
Quantum messaging breakthrough

AI

Google’s click-through rates are falling
You may not need you soon
Is the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership fraying?
Five ways criminals use AI

Energy Transition

US green steel startup raises $129MM
How about a $20K US-made EV truck?
Learn more about small nuclear reactors

THE NATION

The Washing-Tone

More broken government
Trump wants to slash billions from budget
Sanctuary cities in Trump’s crosshairs
Elite universities team up against the president
Trump wants legal migrant farm workers

Tariffs

China is coming to the negotiating table
Why do our pharmaceuticals come from China?
Parents need to get creative this Christmas
Autos get some tariff relief
Autoworkers cheer tariffs
Trump wants tax cuts to pay for tariffs

The Tariff Effect

Kimberly-Clark to invest $2B in US
China’s export orders plunge
China doesn’t need US ag or energy
IBM commits $150B to US investment

Social Trends

Yale professors call out bloated administration
NY joins school cell phone ban
One-size-fits-all health care needs upgrading
Has America reached peak truck?

GEOPOLITICS

Global

Argentina’s Milei racks up another win
Poland has their own Elon Musk
Russia to help Iran develop oil fields
An India-Pakistan war may be coming

Europe

Q1 GDP grows a little
Airline emissions going nowhere but up
Germany’s central bank has a huge loss
Europe to use AI to forecast the weather

Ukraine

Ukraine and US sign minerals deal
Time to crack down on Russia?
Putin demands more Ukraine land
Russian moves worry Europe
A peace deal doesn’t look close

Middle East

Sectarian clashes grow in Syria
Netanyahu sets Gaza war deadline
Houthis claim US strike killed 70 people
Saudi Arabia and Qatar to pay Syria’s World Bank debts
Israel keeps pressure on Hezbollah
What caused Iranian port explosion?

China

China approves 10 more nuclear reactors
Huawei gets more powerful after US ban
They have matched Nvidia chips
Beijing throws insults at US

War Creep

US Army going big with drones
Global military spending soars
India to buy French fighter jets

MAKING A BETTER YOU

Mind
Get more quiet time.

The best advice on how to be happy
Think like a pragmatist
Mental health is communally influenced

Body
Get more outside time.

Why fasting works
But breakfast is still important
Your midlife eating habits are important

FUN STUFF

Let your hair down, baby! Even if you’re all alone.

The Extraordinary

Our stunningly beautiful national parks
The five oldest businesses in the world
They’re still making discoveries in Pompeii

Music That Found Us

“Steve’s Lava Chicken” from Jack Black.
Takács Quartet plays Joseph Haydn
Rilo Kiley returns from the ashes
“Portions for Foxes” and “It’s a Hit”

Worth a Watch

Thunderbolts looks fun.
Mountainhead might be tedious.
One to One: John & Yoko trailer.
A sweet squirrel on my shoulder.

The Yum Yums

Cauliflower Alfredo pasta
Orzo shrimp risotto
To-die-for carrot cake
The only scone recipe you need

PARTING THOUGHTS

Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me…they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone…I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone…Not on a committee. Not on a team.
– Steve Wozniak

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Don’t Panic, Yet
April 25, 2005

Why Manufacturing Matters
April 18, 2025