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Midweek greetings to all, as we unveil the 291st chapter of Weekly Olio — a delightful concoction of laughter, insight, and a sprinkle of mystery. Within these pages, you'll discover a handpicked selection of fascinating finds from the vast realms of the internet.
Keep your eyes peeled for this week’s Publisher’s Parmesan, arriving this Sunday!
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The Quote 💭
“No method is more effective than a good example.”
The Tweet 🐦
Pocket FM is an Indian audio entertainment company that recently claimed to have crossed a $500M ARR threshold. All of this by building an AI content factory - more than 90% of the content on their platform is generated using AI.
The Infographic 💹
PISA is a basic test that measures the science, math and reading skills for 15 year olds. The recent results are quite abysmal. Almost everywhere, scores have been falling. There are multiple contributing factors including CoVID and now the rise of AI.
Your idea makes perfect sense in your head. Somewhere between the introduction and slide 12, things get complicated. What’s missing is a story people can understand, remember and repeat.
Join Shalaka Kulkarni and Paul Finney for a hands-on storytelling workshop for founders, leaders, VCs and operators.
October 8, 4 PM · SF Tech Week · Register here.
The Short Read 📝
The Principles of Getting Ahead - by Hades
Two people of similar age, intelligence, and daily hours can end up in completely different places after five years—one building valuable skills, networks, and opportunities while the other works hard yet barely progresses. The gap often comes less from pure luck, talent, or discipline and more from choosing actions with asymmetric upside, where the potential reward far outweighs the effort or risk.
Success favors those who seek such opportunities (publishing work, side projects, early skills), build leverage through code, content, products, or systems that multiply output beyond their own time, place themselves near ambitious people and information-rich environments, make themselves easy to bet on by creating visible proof of competence, play compounding games like reputation and audiences that make future progress easier, combine complementary skills into rare talent stacks, and increase their surface area for luck through consistent experiments. Getting ahead is less about working harder and more about directing effort toward places capable of disproportionate returns. Read more…
The Long Read 📜
Mark - by Colossus
Jeremy Stern's September 2026 Colossus profile frames Mark Zuckerberg as an Augustus-obsessed emperor of a 3.6-billion-user empire that nobody can remove from power. The article traces the Roman fixation from his high-school Latin through his children's names, and argues he is caught in the "dictator's dilemma": the more powerful he becomes, the less candid information reaches him. Stern suggests his MMA training may be one escape, since it is a room where he actually gets hit.
Strategically, Stern reads Zuckerberg's many ventures as attempts to break free of Apple's control over his distribution, with AI glasses as the latest. After Llama 4 flopped, he replaced his AI leadership within weeks and committed hundreds of billions to Meta Superintelligence Labs. Rivals concede he wins whether or not AI commoditizes.Stern also argues that he serves as society's convenient scapegoat, noting that a UK regulator's investigation largely debunked the Cambridge Analytica story. The piece closes with Priscilla Chan concluding he cannot stop building, because building is who he is. Read more…
Join Anthropic, Kalshi, and Clay at Pioneer on October 7th
Pioneer, the summit where CX leaders redefine what’s possible, is on October 7th.
Join leaders from Fin, Anthropic, Clay, and Kalshi for an insightful conversation on the state of AI transformation.
You’ll discover how some of the most innovative minds in CX have transformed their organizations, learn how they think about CX, and hear how they're planning for what's next.
Join the conversation in San Francisco, or tune in virtually.
That’s all for this week. If you enjoyed this edition, we’d really appreciate if you shared it with a friend, family member or colleague.
We’ll be back in your inbox 2 PM IST next Wednesday. Till then, have a productive week!
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.