Down 2 Dad

Hit that FOLLOW for hilarious parenting vid jokes 🙏. Stay safe y’all!

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

POV: Every transportation and hospitality CEO calling an emergency board meeting after Freddy posts something on X.

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

The Apple Maps turnaround is impressive.

▫️iPhone started with Google Maps
▫️broke up after Google withheld voice-guided navigation (competitive advantage for Android)
▫️in 2012, started using TomTom data but sucked so bad Tim Cook apologized
▫️now spent billions mapping >4 million miles of proprietary street level maps data with specialized vans and people wearing goofy Apple backpack cameras walking around town (see below)

The cherry on top is using its powerful custom silicon to give AirPods visual intelligence and tell users “turn right when you see the massive pile of dog doo doo” instead of “turn right in 100m.”

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Steve Jobs on storytelling lessons he learned at Pixar.

Says "no amount of tech will turn a bad story into a good story" and Pixar's early films (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc) had to prioritize a good story because animating so expensive:

◻️ "In a live action movie, the director goes out and shoots a lot of film — typically 10x to 100x more footage than will end up on the screen. Then they take it all into the editing room and that's why sometimes you see a movie and you go 'that stunk, didn't they know?' Well, the answer is 'yes' but they knew it too late in the editing room and...by the time they knew it, the actors were gone and the sets were down and they were out of money.”

"In animation, it is so expensive that you can't afford to animate more than a few % more than it's going to end up on screen. You could never afford to animate 10x more. Walt Disney solved the problem decades ago and the way he solved it was to edit films before making them: you get your story team together and you do storyboards."

"In Hollywood, one of the most popular sayings is 'story is King' but it turns out it really isn't. Because when push comes to shove...when a movie is in production and there's a lot of mouths to feed — and they're waiting for stuff to make and the story is not working — almost everybody says 'we will just have to make the movie'.

And one of the things that I'm proudest of about Pixar is we have a story crisis on every movie...and we stop [everything to] fix the story." ▫️

***

D3 Conference in 2005: https://t.co/OuokmensqP

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Still think about Jerry turning down $110m from NBC to do a 10th season of “Seinfeld”.

He told Howard Stern: “The love affair between people making the show and the audience was so intense…I had to respect that. I could’t go to that point where it starts to age and wither. For example, you go see a comedian and at an hour and 10 minutes, you love the guy. At an hour and 30 [minutes], it’s like…I thought he was never going to finish.

You walk out with a whole different feeling. It’s a small amount of too much — too much cake, too much anything — [can ruin it].”

Larry David had left at the end of Season 7.

Jerry said he might have stayed if Larry stayed. But starring, lead writing and executive producing for Season 8 and 9 was too much of a grind.

He also says, “I have to say I have a sense of timing. I just knew. I knew that was our moment.”

Jerry is a huge fan of The Beatles and a lesson he drew from them was that creative endeavours have a shelf life. Paul, Ringo, John and George were together…for just under 10 years.

***

Vid link: https://t.co/l0l59nVlMJ

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

The Social Network sequel also won’t have David Fincher. His directing style great combo with Sorkin’s dialogue-heavy script.

Social Network’s opening scene is perfect example: it’s ~5 minutes and Fincher famously did 99 takes.

It shows Zuck getting dumped in a Harvard bar (and with some creative licenses, how that leads to Facebook).

Sorkin — who will direct the sequel — talked about how the scene came together:

➡️ "An average screenplay is about 120 pages long. My screenplays have higher page counts because there’s more dialogue and less action. By the rules of screenplay format, dialogue takes up more room on the page and less time on the screen than action (which takes up less room on the page and more time on the screen).

"The Social Network" was 178 pages. And the studio said, “OK, the first thing you’ve got to do is figure out a way to cut 30 pages from this.”

And David said, “I don’t think so.” […]

He came over to my house with his iPhone set on stopwatch mode, and he said, “I want you to read the entire script out loud for me, at the pace you heard it in your head when you were writing it, and I’m going to write down the timing of each scene.”

So that opening scene...with Jesse Eisenberg (Zuck) and Rooney Mara. I read it and it was 7 minutes and 22 seconds.

In rehearsal, Jesse and Rooney would rehearse the scene, David would say great, and he would give them a couple of notes and always end with, “But this scene is 7 minutes and 22 seconds long, and you’re doing it at 7 minutes and 40 seconds. So I don’t care how, but you’re going to have to talk faster somewhere, because I promise you, this scene plays best at 7 minutes and 22 seconds.” ⬅️

The final cut was quite a bit shorter than 7 minutes and 22 seconds. But one thing stayed consistent throughout the shoot: Fincher told dozens of extras in the bar scene to keep the volume of their chatter high, as they would on any night out.

This forced Eisenberg and Mara not only to speak faster. But also louder, increasing the scene’s intensity.

IT WORKED REAL WELL!!

***

Full interview with Sorkin here: https://t.co/rmiB5zKtyD

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Antoni Gaudi died 100 years ago today.

He was 73 and spent over 40 years working on La Sagrada Familia (completing 1/4th of entire basilica).

Gaudi’s method for designing it was genius: he hung movable weights on strings and let gravity do the work of showing the proper angles and force vectors for his nature-inspired look.

He then flipped the model upside down to see how to build the columns and arches.

Also inspired by forests and sea life, the legendary architect once said, “there are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature.”

In the final years of his life, Gaudi’s was solely focussed on the project. His diet was lettuce leafs dipped in milk. Lived inside the Basilica and barely slept on a simple cot.

He died after getting hit by a tram while walking aroudn Barcelona. His clothes was so ratty — underwear held together with safety pins — that passerbys thought he was homeless.

The city held a massive funeral for him with 30,000 people packing the streets.

While 3/4 of La Sagrada Familia was undone, Gaudi left enough plans (models, drawings) for future generations.

La Sagrada Familia was largely dormant for a few decades 1930s-1960s (Spanish Civil War, World War II, early Cold War).

Some of Gaudi’s designs were so ahead his time that it would require the development of aeronautical design software to complete his vision.

Gaudi once remarked that “my client” — referring to God — “is not in a hurry”.

There is still work to be done but a major milestone was completed in February: workers installed a cross on top of La Sagrada Familia, making it the tallest church in the world (172.5 meters or 566 feet).

It’s also the tallest structure in Barcelona. But Gaudi intentionally capped the height because “human creation should not pass God’s work.”

The Montjuïc Hill in the southwestern part of Barcelona is ~570 feet.

***

Video link: https://t.co/LmmquC3dlT

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Christopher Nolan explaining technical hurdles to make The Odyssey entirely 100% with IMAX film (first time ever been done) is gold:

▫️had to reload the camera every 2.5 minutes because film so large and that’s most it could hold

▫️made 2 million feet of IMAX film in 3 months

▫️IMAX cameras so loud that Nolan asked IMAX to invent a sound-proof “300lb coffin” to enclose the camera so dialogue can be heard in close scenes

▫️every cut in the film (there are 1000s) was separated by hand with a splicing machine

▫️while color correction typically done digitally, The Odyssey team did manual photochemical process in a chemical bath (“analog” approach matches how our eyes see)

▫️each frame has resolution 3x higher than digital

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Some numbers on FIFA World Cup 2026 ticket fiasco:

▫️first year FIFA fully controlled ticket sales

▫️ticket prices are 2x Qatar 2022 and 4x USA 1994 (adj. for inflation)

▫️cheapest group stage is $200 and cheapest final is $2,030

▫️FIFA official ticketing site does dynamic pricing (95 of 104 matches saw price hikes; average hike of 35%) and also takes a 15% cut on resales (from the buyer and the seller)

▫️plans to make $3B from tickets in 2026 vs. $1B in Qatar 2022

▫️$3B on tickets equal to Qatar 2022’s revenue from broadcast rights (these rights are the tournament’s cash cow; $4B expected in 2026)

▫️ from 2022 to 2026, projected ticket revenue is up 3x while broadcast rights only up 1.3x

▫️total revenue for World Cup 2026 projected at $11B vs. $8B for Qatar 2022

▫️ticket-revenue maxxxing plan also benefits from FIFA expanding to 48 teams and 104 matches (Qatar had 32 teams and 64 matches)

In the past, FIFA was fine to underprice ticketing because it only contributed 10-15% of total revenue (rest was broadcast, marketing and licensing).

In 2026, clearly wanted to milk the juicy North American live events market (see: Knicks vs. Spurs Game 3) and ticketing is projected to make up 27% of total revenue (with 75% of 104 games in US).

FIFA says its approach is to fight bots and scalpers. The website is opaque, glitchy AF and sucks, though.

Great strategy to annoy fans. Meanwhile, NY/NJ hit FIFA with subpoena to reveal mechanics behind its ticketing process.

Ton of group stage games with unsold inventory. Unless FIFA wants empty swathes of seats in stadium, forced to dump tix on SeatGeek or StubHub (both deny having a direct relationship with FIFA).

Resale market prices tanking, which is pissing off fans that paid full upfront (a lot already decided not to go due to initial sticker shock and FIFA creating artificial scarcity months ago).

Most expensive team to follow is Brazil: estimated $3,800 to see all 3 group stage games (followed by Portugal, Scotland, USA and Argentina).

***

Charts via The Economist: https://t.co/QdUAmLWiWi

Timeline of FIFA ticketing: https://t.co/RU6QTsQKS8

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

The 2026 World Cup had a major challenge with grass: FIFA retrofit 16 stadiums in Canada, Mexico and US to keep fields consistent for 48 teams and 104 matches.

It asked grass scientists at U of Tennessee and to design solution:

▫️they made a modular hybrid turf (95% grass / 5% synthetic fiber) that is easily rollable, transportable and installable

▫️each field has 20 million synenthic fibers sewn into dirt (grassroots intertwine with fibers to prevent field from tearing)

▫️all 11 stadiums in US host NFL teams…7 of those had to do special conversion of astroturf fields (Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, LA, NY, Seattle)

▫️5 stadiums have a dome (eg. BC Place in Vancouver) and scientists developed special UV grow light machines to help maintain grass in those structures

▫️grass in Southern US and two Mexico locations (Monterrey, Guadalajara) need grass species for warm and humid temperatures (“Bermuda grass”)

▫️Northern US/Canada and Mexico City need grass for cooler climates (“Kentucky bluegrass”)

▫️scientists built special machines to test player foot impact and ball bouncing effect (reduce injuries and make sure ball movement consistent)

▫️grass sods we’re grown on plastic so they spread horizontally, making it easier to roll and transport

***

Interview with U Tennessee grass science expert Dr. John Sorochan (via PBS): https://t.co/FohkCQK39m

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Ferrari expects 80% of Luce sales to be first time buyers.

Its Chairman called out younger tech crowd as target market (40% of new buyers under-40). China still only 10% Ferrari sales (vs. 20-25% for Hermes or LVMH).

I wrote more on why Luce sell well:https://t.co/pa6S8qHI5a

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Respect to Andrew Stanton. He’s a Pixar OG and was at the most productive Hollywood lunch meeting ever.

The meal led to 6 films and $4B+ at box office and Stanton memorialized it in the trailer for 2008’s “Wall-E”:

➡️“In the summer of 1994 there was a lunch. Me, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, the late Joe Ranft all sat down [at the Hidden City Cafe in Point Richmond, California near Pixar’s head office]. Toy Story was almost complete and we thought ‘well jeez, if we’re going to make another movie, we better get started now’. So at that lunch, we knocked around a bunch of ideas that eventually became A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo. The last one we talked about that day was the story of a robot name Wall-E.”⬅️

Released in November 1995, Toy Story was a smash hit, bringing in a worldwide box office of $245m (Hollywood's biggest haul that year, besting Apollo 13 and Batman Forever).

Steve Jobs used Toy Story’s success as a launchpad for Pixar’s IPO less than a week after its release.

In the following years, Pixar checked off films they ideated at the lunch:

◻️1998: A Bug’s Life ($363m, directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton)
◻️2001: Monsters Inc. ($529m, Pete Docter)
◻️ 2003: Finding Nemo ($871m, Andrew Stanton)
◻️ 2006: Disney acquires Pixar for $7.4B. Jobs owned ~50% of Pixar and became Disney’s largest single shareholder, with a 7% stake. The massive pay-off was two decades in the making: in 1986, Jobs paid $5m to George Lucas for the graphics animation company that would become Pixar (and invested another $50m into the company).
◻️2008: Wall-E ($521m, Andrew Stanton)

The Pixar team picked Toy Story — and then A Bug’s Life and Monsters Inc. — because it was cheaper to animate toys and animals than humans.

In the decade after Wall-E, Pixar released two related films:

◻️ 2013: Monsters University ($744m, Dan Scanlon)
◻️ 2016: Finding Dory ($1B, Andrew Stanton)

In total, the 6 films have grossed over $4B (or >$6B on inflation-adjusted basis).

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

worst part of BBQ season is Big Green Egg Guy

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

IMAX shares popped 15% to a $2B market cap on news it is exploring a sale.

A tiny (but interesting) part of the business is IMAX Enhanced, which builds custom IMAX theatres for homes or yachts starting at $500k.

Accounted for as “All Other” in financials, sales hit $7.7 million in 2025 or 2% of total revenue (if buyers only did the minimum, 15 people have the most baller home theatre set).

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

The Boston Dynamics Atlas demos are always impressive but its current most useful robot isn’t humanoid.

It’s prob their truck-unloading robot called “Stretch”, already operational with DHL (the logistics company has a deal for 1,000 of these to unload trailers).

For DHL employees, moving 50lb boxes for hours on end in 100-degree trailers is a huge injury risk. 

DHL has already trained 100 remote operators and working with more to learn how to operate Stretch, which is made up of three main pieces: 

▫️Base: Size of a pallet with wheels. 
▫️Arm: For manipulation with a vacuum gripper with suction cups that can carry up to 50lbs. 
▫️Perception mast: A visual system that recognizes different box sizes and shapes, which informs the AI algos what objects to grab and move. 

Stretch is ~$120k a pop.

Can’t deadlift a fridge, bring it to a desk and deliver a single drink but still pretty useful.

***

WSJ: https://t.co/vvVDc5NdvV

YouTube: https://t.co/BNTjCZSxJe

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

The NYT interview with Taylor Swift on her songwriting process is so good.

Here she explains her approach to choruses and bridges:

“The importance for me of a bridge is it just feels like we’re painting a picture. We’re setting a scene. We have this opportunity as a songwriter to tell an entire story. Or an entire movie. Or a very detailed description of one scene in a movie. Or a very nuanced dynamic between people or a complicated emotion.

And we have only so long to do this. I’ve written some really long songs in my life. But, for the most part, they’re between 3.5 to 4 minutes.

You can start painting the picture in the verse. You can get to the heart of it at the chorus. But then the bridge can be where you zoom back, you walk 20 feet back, and you see what this entire painting was supposed to be.

You’ve seen brushstrokes. You’ve seen the color tones.

But the bridge can be when you step back and you feel everything that that piece of art was supposed to make you feel. That’s just how I feel about bridges.

I came up as a songwriter in Nashville, where structure is a huge part of how you effectively tell a story, right?
You go verse - chorus - second verse - chorus - bridge - chorus.

Maybe you repeat that first verse if you want to. If you want to pull at some heartstrings. If it makes sense. Now, that’s something that I absolutely subscribe to…that structure is important. But I think that when you write enough songs — at least in my case — the intuitive part of your songwriting brain can kind of create a new structure that’s not as classically what you’ve been taught.

Jack Antonoff is a collaborator of mine and one of my best friends. We established this thing that we love to do and we call it the rant bridge.

I could point to examples like, ‘Out of the Woods’, ‘Is It Over Now?’ or ‘Cruel Summer’.

And oftentimes we love these rant bridges, where it’s basically like stream of consciousness. Endless pouring-out of emotion. Intrusive thoughts, blended with metaphor with discussion with shouting.
You want this rant bridge to feel the most intense of what that feeling is…that you’re trying to, establish over the course of the song and you want it to kind of be a crescendo.”

***

Full interview here: https://t.co/atYltC1JXC

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Greg Abel had Warren Buffett speak at start of the 2026 Berkshire Hathaway AGM.

Buffett spent most of it praising Tim Cook, seated a few rows behind next to John Ternus. Since 2016, Berkshire’s $35B initial investment officially grew to $185B.

“About 10 years ago, we made a commitment to move 10% of Berkshire Hathaway resources and turn it over to a person who was not well known at the time. We did that by roughly spending $35B to buy stock in Apple.

We turned that money over to Apple to essentially make Berkshire look good without any work by us…which is our preferred way of operating.

Ten years later, the $35B — counting dividends, realized appreciation and unrealized appreciation — has turned into $185B pretax. And I didn’t have to do a damn thing.

Our largest holding is still Apple [$60B+].

When Tim Cook went into the top position at Apple [in 2011], he succeeded a legend. Steve Jobs. Everyone in America knew his name. Not many knew Tim’s name.

Steve did these marvelous things, developing products and he had an untimely death. Everyone asked who would run the company. […]

How would you like to step in the shoes of Steve and come through with [Cook’s record]? It’s one of the miracles of American business management. Anyway, thank you Tim.”

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

I wrote about the super running shoe arms race over past decade.

And new wild Adidas innovations on the foam and carbon plate (topping Nike) made the first legal marathon shoe under 100g, powering Sebastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha to run sub 2 hour times. https://t.co/hixeXk5oDN

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

The CEO of Spirit Airlines should get a chance to arm wrestle its creditors and secure $500m to avoid shutting down.

There is industry precedence: in 1992, Southwest Airlines had the motto “Just Plane Smart”. Another aviation firm had the motto “Plane Smart”.

The trademark dispute was resolved with an arm-wrestling match between the CEOs.

It was dubbed “Malice In Dallas” and held at a 4,500-seat wrestling venue.

Despite smoking a cigarette, legendary Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher somehow lost to Steven Aviations’ Kurt Herwald.

In the end, Southwest kept its slogan in exchange for a $5k charity donation.

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

This is Mark Court.

Of the 2,000+ people that work at Rolls Royce, he is the only person allowed to paint pinstripes on the luxury vehicles.

He uses a squirrel-fir brush and it takes 3 hours for one car.

It’s a high pressure job because Court — who makes six-figures — is the final step of the manufacturing process.

A mistake requires a new paint job and delays delivery of the car (which start at $300k but easily tops $1m with upgrades).

Formerly a sign painter, Court rarely takes time off because he says he doesn’t want to “lose focus”.

He also doesn’t want to know the car’s owner.

“If you start worrying about who owns them or where it is going, it’ll play with your mind,”he once told AutoJosh. “Then you’ll never do it. You just got to be able to learn to shut off and do what you need to do.”

This is a long way of saying that not a single person who was going to buy a $500k Rolls Royce is subbing in a $100k Huawei-backed Maextro S800 instead.

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

The innovation in super running shoes is next level. Between rebound effect on carbon plates (and comically large foam soles), the energy return a runner gets has gone from 50% (pre-super shoe) to over 80%.