# Rule \#1- Never Be In The Middle

Hello friends! You look fantastic today.\
\
Quick halloween recap: I saw 4 Bob's Burgers group costumes, 3 Squints
and Wendy couples, and 2,321 superheroes. Best costume: a cowboy with
his clothes on backwards. A reverse cowboy! Hope your halloween was full
of sugar and good times. And now, the reader's equivalent of a pillow
case full of candy:\
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**In some industries there is no room for the middle man.** You wanna
make the raw materials or be the reseller, and not in between. This is
the "smile curve" and it appears to be coming to the world of online
content. You want to be a writer or a focused publication (the raw
materials) or you want to be Google or Facebook (the resellers). I
highly recommend [reading Ben Thompson's essay about publishing's
no-man's land](http://stratechery.com/2014/publishers-smiling-curve/).
It's one of the smartest things I've read about publishing.\
—**Related**: [It's about to get ugly in media startup
land](http://rafat.org/post/101378283686/its-about-to-get-ugly-in-media-startupland).\
—**Also related**: the people behind the magical and frustrating
[Facebook newsfeed
algorithm](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/business/media/how-facebook-is-changing-the-way-its-users-consume-journalism.html). \
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**A question I like to ask my friends**: If you were dating someone and
after a month and you discovered they had a six-figure debt, how would
that affect the relationship? Money and relationship are [more tied up
than we
think](http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/10/28/life-stage-lessons-relationship-serious-money-talk/?ncid=edlinkusdail00000001).\
\
**Verizon is sponsoring a tech news site**. Guess what two issues the
site [is barred from
covering](http://www.dailydot.com/politics/verizon-sugarstring-us-surveillance-net-neutrality/)?
I, for one, welcome our corporate overlords.\
\
**There are more qualified workers and less jobs than ever**. So what
happens when we [automate ourselves out of
work](http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/searle20141026)?\
— **Related**: Uber claims its drivers make \$90,000 a year. [They are
lying](http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/10/uber_driver_salary_the_ride_sharing_company_says_its_drivers_make_great.html).\
— **Ironically related**: Will Bunch is a columnist and reporter for the
*Philadelphia Daily News*. UberX is coming to Philly, illegally. When an
UberX car was towed away, Bunch wanted to send a reporter out to cover
it. But then, he realized [he was the only reporter in America's fifth
largest
city](http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/UberX-Spotify-Facebook-and-Americas-slow-devaluation-of-work.html).
"I found myself covering 'the sharing economy' of transportation—thanks
to the 'sharing economy' of news."\
— **Related to the ironically related**: Philly Mag [interviews an
anonymous Philly
cabby](http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/10/27/philly-cab-driver-speaks-anonymously-ppa-uber-uberx/).
Selected quote: "I had one guy jump in and look at me and say, 'Hey, you
scared?' And I fucking floored it. Floored it. I tore around the corner
and then looked at him and said, 'No, are you?'"\
\
**58 percent of overweight people incorrectly describe themselves as
normal weight**. Are [we in denial about our
weight](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/are-most-people-in-denial-about-their-weight)?\
\
**Men are often told they need to be the one to lean in for the first
kiss, the one to "make a move" and ask a woman out.** But with
"affirmative consent" laws hitting the books, [how does this change the
dynamics of the dating
world](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/why-a-college-student-abandoned-affirmative-consent/381650/?single_page=true)?\
\
**The 51st state won't be Puerto Rico**. [It will be
Miami](http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/10/23/south_florida_as_51st_state_the_city_of_south_miami_votes_to_break_away.html).
The reason? Global warming.\
\
**Entrepreneur Rachel Sklar on** [what it is like to be 41, single and
pregnant](https://medium.com/theli-st-medium/im-41-single-and-pregnant-9b2da840a45a)
(and how "untraditional" paths motherhood are becoming more common).\
\
**I've watched or listened to *Pardon the Interruption* every day for
the past seven years**. Bruce Buschel sums up why PTI is the best sports
show on TV: "\[Hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon\] are just two
good friends who sit and talk. With exquisite timing. Without punchlines
tread upon. When one gets hot, the other goes cool. Yin juggles yang.
Yang jiggles yin. They agree or disagree with equal fervor; they hold
back nothing, [and nothing holds them
back](https://medium.com/the-cauldron/why-espns-pti-is-the-best-news-show-on-television-e47373391155)."\
\
**What percentage of girls 15-19 are pregnant in the US?** How many
Americans are Muslim? Christian? Immigrants? Your answers to all those
questions [are probably
wrong](http://qz.com/288707/everything-you-think-you-know-about-the-news-is-probably-wrong/).\
\
**Just 40 years ago, there were only three metro areas larger than 10
million in the world: New York, Tokyo and Mexico City**. Now there are
28. By 2030, the UN predicts there will be 41. And these "mega cities"
will control most of the world's financial resources. [Is this a good
thing](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/10/28/the-future-of-innovation-belongs-to-the-mega-city/)?
Also, [most of them will be in
Asia](http://www.bloomberg.com/infographics/2014-09-09/global-megacities-by-2030.html).\
\
**Do you remember when CJ Cregg defied temporary president Walken** and
leaked the assassination story to Danny Concannon on the *West Wing*?
No? Well, [that's pretty much how real life
works](http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/whats-in-a-scoop-the-white-house-has-a-strategy-for-that/2014/10/28/819dc72a-5df6-11e4-91f7-5d89b5e8c251_story.html). (also,
that full episode is here, [ahem](http://www.flasharc.com/bsa))\
\
**"There is no time for shame in a recession. You do what you have to
do."** This is a story about how an Emmy-award winning, *New York Times*
bestselling author and Harvard grad [couldn't even land a job at The
Container
Store](http://www.cafe.com/r/14ade7c5-7d6c-4809-a538-01331085f475/1/the-illusion-of-control-or-how-i-got-rejected-from-a-job-at-the-container-store).
This is also a reminder that most people [still aren't feeling any
recovery](http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/five-years-of-recovery-havent-boosted-the-median-household-income/).\
\
**You probably keep in touch with your high school or college friends**
even though you don't live within 30 miles of them. This is the "modern
friendship" and it [could be holding you back in the long
run](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/31/column-change-life-modern-friendship-oliver-burkeman).\
\
**You don't have ADHD** you're [just living in the wrong
era](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/a-natural-fix-for-adhd.html?referrer=&_r=0).\
\
Jimmy Eat World, [play us
out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsxPW6i3pM).\
\
--Sean\
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PS. Respond to this email with any awesome links you think I missed. You
*will* receive credit in the next edition!