It is rapidly become winter in NYC. I am good with that. I have been gearing up. Spring, summer, and fall were amazing—I happily accept winter now. I really enjoy laying on the couch in the sun as it makes it way across the skyline and behind the last building in our glorious city view. I have a cordless charging pad for my iPhone--my couch in the sun is a “Kin” charging pad. I never get sick of our view from the the first moment the sun peaks up over the East River to when it moves out of view to the south.
I am working hard to launch my new startup at APIDays in Paris December 9th. I haven’t talked in detail about what I am building but starting next week I am going to get pretty loud about it. I won’t need to talk too much about it here, but I ams are I will be processing much of what I am seeing on my Kin Lane blog, and get back to sharing more links here in the newsletter. I am pretty stoked to be building a startup, and I am very interested in sharing my personal views of what it is like unpacking what is happening in tech right now.
Poppy started wearing her Doggles and helmet this week. She’s had them as long as we’ve had the bike, but she never quite liked wearing them. But with all the stuff on the wind while riding, it felt like time to begin wearing the Doggles—the helmet just looks cute. She seems to appreciate the Doggles, but she is not impressed by the helmet. Maybe she’ll get use to it. In the end she looks very cute, and I am endlessly thankful for the dog putting up with my shit.
Audrey has been contacted in the past by the Vatican regarding her critical work around artificial intelligence. She also recently spoke at at event where there were some pretty radical catholic activists sharing the conversation. So, when I saw this image of the Pope this week, I couldn’t help but imagine he was in a conversation with an AI believer on this airplane, and he was firmly explaining his position on artificial intelligence and what this ultimately means for the human soul.
I love seeing Zohran Mamdani, our new mayor of NYC feeding people on Thanksgiving. I know these things are setup as photo opportunities, but focusing on these types of activities in these moments really speak volumes about how someone sees the world. I know that it isn’t going to be easy for Mamdani when he gets into office, but I am confident his heart is in the right place and he will legit fight for what matters when it comes to the average people of New York City.
Poppy and I went for a ride downtown on Thanksgiving. We had to avoid Central Park because of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We managed to see a couple of inflatable heads as we made our way up 38th Street, but then quickly turned down 9th avenue until we got to the mid 20s—then we cut over and rode around Union Square, Washington Park and other interesting places. The bike paths in NYC leave a lot to be desired, but overall the whole system is something I’ve grown to love.
We repeated what we did last year for Thanksgiving—we ate all pie. Audrey got a pecan, berry, and of course a pumpkin pie. I think there is just a single slice of berry left for Audrey as I write this, and we successfully ate it all. It really is a much simpler formula for Thanksgiving. We were fortunate to not have to travel this year, just staying put in the city, and what better way to celebrate than just eating pie. Oh, and we did thanksgiving chicken sandwiches from a sandwich place today—which is another great tradition.
“Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they're falling like they're falling in love with the ground.” ― Andrea Gibson
