Kathleen Quinn

Connecting startups, corporations, and investors to catalyze innovation worldwide ⚡️ 🌎

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.

Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.

I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."

"They just come with the table, man."

They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.

This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.

I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.

"Did we…?"

"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."

Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.

My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."

Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.

I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.

Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.

I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.

Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.

[Ryan McEntush @rmcentush]

never met a man who hates costco. it transcends race, class, and creed. i’d trust a costco hospital with my life. i’d send my kids to costco daycare. i’d be laid to rest in a kirkland signature casket

[Build Canada @build_canada]

The federal workforce has grown to an all-time high while delivering diminishing results. Since 2008, Canadian public sector productivity has flatlined, despite growing the number of workers. Citizen satisfaction is at an all-time low with only 16% of people saying they receive good value from government services.

This is not only inefficient, it is a discredit to the actual talented, hardworking members of our public sector.

We can do better. It is possible to have better services at lower costs.

In fact, we did it before. In 1993, facing a large deficit and ballooning debt, the Liberal government under Jean Chretien pushed to restore fiscal discipline. Every government service was subjected to rigorous evaluation based on "six tests" to determine if the service was necessary and how it could be delivered more efficiently.

The result? Federal spending as a share of GDP fell from 22% to 17% and the budget was balanced in just 3 years.

Let's take a similar approach and reform our public services to create a leaner, more accountable and results-driven civil service:

- Set ambitious targets: Introduce a performance and results system to set and cascade clear, ambitious, aligned, and measurable targets for service levels and costs in all departments.

- Improve Accountability: Currently, only executives are judged based on service performance, and >97% meet their expectations and are given their full bonuses or more. Enhance the current performance system to include all civil service employees.

- Review Our Services: Create a tough review process to ask if a program serves the necessary public interest, was affordable, and fits the federal mandate. If the answer is no, eliminate the program.

- Reset to a New Baseline: Rapidly return to a reasonable size for the civil service through a combination of a hiring freeze, buyouts, early retirement, and transition support to encourage voluntary departures following the approach that Jean Chrétien used in the 1990s.

- Streamline Dismissals: Amend the Financial Administration Act to allow termination after two consecutive quarters of unsatisfactory performance.

By rewarding performance, cutting waste, and increasing accountability, taxpayers will save billions, businesses will thrive under a more responsive system, and we will develop a government that prizes excellence and works for Canadians.

[Kathleen Quinn @KateQuinn03]

@natfriedman I’m hosting a party today - Will you still be building tmr ?

[Brett Adcock @adcock_brett]

Another huge week of AI and robotics news.

I summarized everything announced by OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Microsoft, Figure, Cognition, GM, Midjourney, Tesla, Replit, and Meta.

Here's everything you need to know and how to make sense out of it:

[Kathleen Quinn @KateQuinn03]

@thesamparr Top 5 - 3 years strong !

[Tim Denning @Tim_Denning]

4. "Institutions are over. It’s all individuals now.

White House → Trump
60 Minutes → Rogan
NYT → Greenwald
NASA → Elon

Just replace them (legacy media) with individual voices at 1/100 the price and 100X the quality."

Anyone can have a voice now. Anyone can build a movement.

Elitists running institutions that tell people what to do are dead. They pretended to do good but did evil.

[liminal @Liminal1988]

I think about decisions in three ways: hats, haircuts, and tattoos.

[adam ludwin @adamludwin]

Approx half of the top 20 apps in Education category are now AI cameras that do your homework for you

[Deonandan @deonandan]

"When one door closes, another one opens." -Boeing

[Bill Gurley @bgurley]

This is wild.

[Ad Professor @The_AdProfessor]

6. Aldi

Principle: Lyric Hijacking

Aldi setting up Bon Jovi's "Living on a prayer" but replacing it with a "Lemon on a pear".

[Kathleen Quinn @KateQuinn03]

This is brilliant.

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

The website for the band "Portugal, The Man" is a Google Sheets document

[Kathleen Quinn @KateQuinn03]

Question of the day: "Are patents astrology for entrepreneurs ?" - @gregisenberg

[Prady @therealprady]

I built the simplest way to convert your video to other languages.

all you need is a youtube link. no install required.

curious? check out @lexfridman + zuck talking about @elonmusk in hindi.

[WFP Innovation @WFPInnovation]

📣 Call for applications! 📣

Does your #startup or #innovation offer relief, build #supplychain resilience and can #disrupthunger?

Yes? Apply to receive:
💳up to USD 100K in equity-free #funding
🌱hands-on support
🚀access to @WFP's network

APPLY ➡️ https://t.co/LEgC1GpRAy

[Kathleen Quinn @KateQuinn03]

@AIPromptsHQ AI

[Ontario Economy @ONeconomy]

Ontario is celebrating Canada’s first electric vehicle production line. GM Canada’s investment in #Ingersoll secures #Ontario’s place as a North American automotive hub.

Learn more: https://t.co/eRwk7ed7s2

#DrivingProsperity @GMcanada @brightdrop @APMACanada @CME_Ont

[Port Saint John @PortSaintJohn]

A birds-eye view of the upgrades to the #intermodal yard at the @DP_World Container Terminal. #trains #railway #supplychain #stakeholders

[Turner Novak 🍌🧢 @TurnerNovak]

the pitch deck vs the product