December 8, 2023 Week 49

📰 Weekly Highlights#

US Tax Incentives for EV Parts Sanction China#

The long-awaited guidance disqualifies EVs from the tax credit if any of the battery components are made or assembled by a foreign entity of concern such as China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. (China is the country to pay attention to since the nation has been the dominant and primary supplier of components and raw materials for batteries.) The guidance expands in 2025 to cover raw minerals that are extracted, processed, or recycled by any of these entities of concern.
If any battery components of electric vehicles are manufactured or assembled by foreign entities such as China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea, the long-awaited guidance will cancel the tax credit eligibility for electric vehicles. (China is a country worth noting as it has been the dominant and primary supplier of battery components and raw materials.) The guidance will expand in 2025 to cover raw minerals extracted, processed, or recycled by any of these entities.

According to the US Inflation Reduction Act, American consumers currently enjoy a tax credit of up to $7,500 when purchasing a Tesla Model 3 (Note: currently about 53,550 RMB). However, this benefit is about to be halved. Tesla has warned that starting January 1, 2024, the tax credit for the Model 3 rear-wheel drive and Model 3 long-range versions will drop to $3,750 (currently about 26,775 RMB).

UK Immigration Measures#

The UK announced new migration measures. A minimum salary threshold will be raised to £38,700 ($48,800) for migrant workers looking to get a work visa.
The UK announced new immigration measures. For migrant workers seeking a work visa, the minimum salary threshold will be raised to £38,700 ($48,800).

This seems to be of little use to the locals; those meeting immigration conditions should not be limited to this income.

Spotify Layoffs#

2,300: Number by which Spotify’s employee count has decreased since the start of the year
The Swedish music streamer has echoed several tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon—which over-hired during the pandemic and resorted to several rounds of job cuts this year—in blaming this downsizing decision on slow economic growth and rising capital costs. And like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek is chasing efficiency.
2,300: The number of employees Spotify has reduced since the beginning of the year
This Swedish music streaming company has echoed the actions of several tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, attributing this layoff decision to slow economic growth and rising capital costs, as these giants over-hired during the pandemic and implemented multiple rounds of layoffs this year. Like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Spotify's CEO Daniel Ek is also pursuing efficiency.

Django 5.0 Release#

The Python web framework Django has released v5.0.
Key new features include: default values for database calculations, GeneratedField for database-generated model fields, Field.choices and ChoiceField.choices for declaring field selection options, and more. With the release of Django 5.0, mainstream support for Django 4.2 ends, with the last version being v4.2.8, after which this version will continue to receive security and data loss fixes until April 2026. Developers are encouraged to upgrade to newer versions.

Perhaps still a good framework; it was the first one I used in my Python career.

GTA6#

The first trailer for "GTA 6" was released early this morning, and the game will be released in 2025, sparking heated discussions among players online.
According to Rockstar's official announcement, "GTA 6" will be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S platforms in 2025. The official did not mention the PC platform, so it may be a timed exclusive for consoles.

Not enough time to play, 😭

Honda Layoffs in Guangzhou#

Honda recently announced that it will lay off about 900 contract workers at its joint venture in China, GAC Honda, due to a rapid shift to the electric vehicle market.
A Honda spokesperson stated that this layoff represents about 7% of the joint venture's approximately 13,000 employees.
Honda pointed out that production is decreasing, leading to the termination of contract dispatches, but the company did not disclose which models' production has been cut. According to regulations, GAC Honda will compensate contract workers who leave early.
Honda stated that this layoff plan is the first time it has implemented layoffs since it began joint production with Guangzhou Automobile Group 25 years ago in 1998.
Thanks to strong demand in the US, Honda sold 3.2 million vehicles globally from January to October. However, sales in the Chinese market, which accounts for 30% of total sales, fell by nearly one-fifth year-on-year.

Mayday Lip-Sync Controversy#

The Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism's Law Enforcement Team has taken this alleged "lip-sync" public sentiment very seriously and has required the organizer to cooperate with the investigation according to the "Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Performances." After the relevant situation is verified according to the law, they will respond promptly to netizens' concerns.
Additionally, according to CCTV news, the original video and audio of the "Mayday" concert in Shanghai have been submitted to the local cultural market inspection department, which will conduct a scientific evaluation and analysis of the provided audio and video content and publish the investigation results.

On December 4, Believe Music released an official statement denying any lip-syncing behavior by Mayday during their tour.
Pasted image 20231205163024

Waiting for follow-up, after all, I bought two tickets for 855.

China's Outlook: Negative#

Credit rating agency Moody’s cut its outlook for Chinese sovereign bonds to negative on Tuesday, citing risks from a slowing economy and a crisis in its property sector.
Credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded the outlook for Chinese sovereign bonds to negative on Tuesday, citing risks from a slowing economy and a crisis in the real estate sector.

The real estate crisis indeed has a significant impact on people's financial situations.

Lower Levels of Micronutrients in Fruits and Vegetables#

Studies have suggested that fruits and vegetables contain lower levels of micronutrients — such as iron, vitamins, and zinc — than they used to. It can be hard to know whether the effect is real, however, because most studies use historical data and compare different crop varieties, levels of ripeness, soil types, and farming methods. But for some crops, such as wheat, the evidence is clear: the introduction of high-yielding varieties in the 1960s led to a nutritional decline. When plants produce more carbohydrates, this dilutes other grain components, including micronutrients. And the same mechanism seems to apply when plants respond to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Studies have shown that the levels of micronutrients such as iron, vitamins, and zinc in fruits and vegetables are lower than before. However, it is difficult to determine whether this effect is real, as most studies use historical data and compare different crop varieties, ripeness levels, soil types, and farming methods. But for some crops, such as wheat, the evidence is clear: the introduction of high-yielding varieties in the 1960s led to a decline in nutrition. When plants produce more carbohydrates, it dilutes other grain components, including micronutrients. The same mechanism seems to apply when plants respond to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Is modern food lower in nutrients?

Staple foods are increasingly leaning towards higher yields, which seems to lead to the suppression of other factors?

Notion AI Upgrade#

Notion AI Just Got an Incredible Upgrade
It's called Q&A...and here’s why this is a huge deal:
AI tools like ChatGPT have access to training data but not YOUR unique notes and insights (unless you tediously feed them into the tool.)
Notion’s Q&A assistant accesses your entire Notion workspace and therefore can provide much more accurate and relevant answers.
Imagine literally chatting with your Second Brain about an upcoming trip, notes on a class you took, or a topic that you want to write a blog post about.
Q&A can instantly surface the right information and link to the relevant pages in your workspace. This makes Notion so much more valuable as a Second Brain.

Notion AI just got an incredible upgrade
It's called Q&A...and here's why this is a big deal:
AI tools like ChatGPT can access training data but not YOUR unique notes and insights (unless you painstakingly input them into the tool.)
Notion's Q&A assistant can access your entire Notion workspace, providing much more accurate and relevant answers.
Imagine literally chatting with your Second Brain about an upcoming trip, notes from a class you took, or a topic you want to write a blog post about.
Q&A can instantly surface the right information and link to relevant pages in your workspace. This makes Notion much more valuable as a Second Brain.

It seems to have limited personal utility; in most cases, we save articles, and we can query through this, but we can also directly ask other AIs, and the effect is the same.
Of course, if it's a company collaboration wiki, this would be very useful.
Our factory also has similar tools, and much earlier...

US Unemployment Rate#

US job openings hit a two-year low. In another sign of a cooling labor market, available positions in the US dropped to 8.7 million in October, the lowest since 2021 and well below estimates for the month. That was music to the ears of the Fed, which wants to see the labor market soften alongside easing inflation before it considers cutting interest rates. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate remained near historic lows, though it climbed to 3.9% last month—its highest level since January 2022.
US job openings have reached a two-year low. Another sign of a cooling labor market is that available positions in the US fell to 8.7 million in October, the lowest since 2021 and significantly below estimates for the month. This is music to the Fed's ears, which wants to see the labor market soften alongside easing inflation before considering cutting interest rates. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate remained near historic lows, though it rose to 3.9% last month—its highest level since January 2022.

Messi Named TIME's 2023 Athlete of the Year#

athlete-of-the-year-2023-lionel-messi

Google Releases Gemini 1.0#

Google's most powerful model Gemini, does it really "crush" GPT-4?
Includes three versions:
Medium: Gemini Nano — the most efficient device task model
Large: Gemini Pro — the best model for a wide range of task extensions
Extra Large: Gemini Ultra — the largest and most capable model for highly complex tasks

Nano seems very interesting for the early education industry, tutoring machines, toy robots.

Belt and Road: Italy, the Only G7 Participating Country, Officially Withdraws#

The Italian government has confirmed that Italy will withdraw from China's flagship Belt and Road Initiative.

Baldur's Gate 3 Wins TGA Game of the Year#

This year is indeed a big year for games, but aside from the Resident Evil 4 remake, I haven't played any of the other nominees.
However, my vote for Game of the Year goes to "Lords of the Fallen."
Looking forward to "Black Myth: Wukong" next year.

📚 Articles#

Code is run more than read#

Code is run more than read
The core point of this article is that in software development, running code is more important than reading code. The author emphasizes the following aspects:
Code maintainability: Code should be simple and easy to read, with tests and documentation written for future reading and modification.
User experience: The purpose of code is to serve users, so user needs and feedback should be prioritized.
Running in production: Code running in production involves long-term costs and requires attention to deployment, upgrades, monitoring, and fixes to ensure that the code continues to work in case of failure.
Business considerations: In addition to user needs, business factors such as budget, marketing, deadlines, and stakeholders also need to be considered.
In summary, this article emphasizes the need to balance code maintainability, user experience, and business considerations in software development and calls on developers to maintain a global perspective, considering all factors to achieve good software development practices.

Death of a Flywheel#

Death of a Flywheel
This article mainly discusses the crises faced by Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway, which are struggling to achieve meaningful growth due to their overwhelming success. The article also introduces the different capital allocation strategies these two companies have adopted to cope with this crisis.