Hi, Quartz members!
This weekend, we’re off to the Alps to rub shoulders with global financiers, world leaders, and Will.i.am, who at this point is giving even Bono a run for his money as the music industry’s most dependable regular at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
We’ll check back here with you next Sunday, but for Davos dispatches in between, sign up for Quartz’s Need to Know: Davos 2024 newsletter. It will be fueled by Swiss chocolates, Nespresso, and champagne cocktails, naturally, but also by a genuine interest in what’s on the minds of the world’s power elite.
And don’t forget, a new season of the Quartz Obsession podcast is here! Have a listen and let us know what you think. We always love hearing from you!
5 things we especially liked on Quartz
👝 Chanel’s showdown. Melvin Backman delves into the complicated world of second-hand luxury items, and the start of a trial pitting one of the world’s foremost luxury fashion brands against a popular reseller.
🧑🏽🤝🧑🏽 Executive allies. It shouldn’t be this hard for CEOs to lead on matters tied to climate change, but the incentives are stacked against them doing so. The Aspen Institute’s Judy Samuelson explains how boards, investors, industry peers, and even employees can support CEOs who are willing to take one for team Earth.
📶 Early adopters. Against all odds, Somaliland has become the first African country to roll out a 5G network. Faustine Ngila says it’s a bold move that sends a powerful message to the rest of the continent, and beyond.
💼 Performance evaluation. How good are you at holding check-ins with your direct reports? Gabriella Riccardi talks to UNC business school professor Steven Rogelberg, author of the new book Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings, and shares his quiz to help you gauge your 1:1 skills.
🤓 Typical. Almost as soon as OpenAI opened its GPT store this week, a bunch of girlfriend bots arrived on the scene. Michelle Cheng reports that a quick search of the store yielded GPTs with names like “Korean Girlfriend,” “Virtual Sweetheart,” “Your girlfriend Scarlett,” and “Your AI girlfriend, Tsu✨,” despite OpenAI’s rules supposedly barring GPTs “dedicated to fostering romantic companionship.”
5 great stories from elsewhere
🏔️ On the campaign trail. “I have to do this work because our air, our snow, our future, and women’s rights are at risk.” Climate activist Caroline Gleich, a professional ski mountaineer and now a Democratic candidate for US Senate, tells SKI Magazine why she’s running for Utah Republican Mitt Romney’s soon-to-be-vacated legislative seat.
👨🏫 The complexity of Milton Friedman. Recent years haven’t been kind to the shareholder-primacy ideals of the influential University of Chicago economist. But a new book separates Friedman’s most famous argument and his sketchier political alliances from the more nuanced views underlying his theories. Max Blaisdell reviews Jennifer Burns’s Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, in the Chicago Reader.
😳 We hadn’t heard of it either. Even the most internet-savvy parents might be unfamiliar with Zyn, a nicotine pouch being pushed by internet influencers who seem to have unimpeded access to the social media feeds of minors. In The New York Times, Meme Wars author Emily Dreyfuss explains how the Zyn brand found its way to Gen Z, and why its virality should raise red flags for parents and for society at large.
🛢️ Trust fall. In The Lever, Adam Lowenstein details how PR giant Edelman and its eponymous Trust Barometer have helped oil companies mobilize opposition to climate protections. The findings stem from a new briefing by Clean Creatives, an advocacy group calling out communications firms for their ties to the fossil-fuel industry.
🛋️ Down with throw pillows. Millennials are way, way into throw pillows. D Magazine profiles a Dallas interior designer on a mission to kill the trend, and not only for aesthetic reasons—the pillows are emblems of “mindless consumerism and unfettered capitalism,” and they’re also a sustainability nightmare, writer S. Holland Murphy notes.
🗓️ What to watch for this week
Here’s what our newsroom will be keeping an eye on:
- Saturday: The Africa Cup of Nations football competition kicks off in the Ivory Coast and runs until Feb. 11.
- Monday: The World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland. In the US, it’s a federal holiday—Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
- Tuesday: Expect earnings from PNC, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.
- Wednesday: Samsung hosts an AI event, with a new smartphone on the agenda.
- Thursday: The US releases its latest data on new home construction.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, Chanel sunglasses (second-hand or not, we’re happy either way), and 1:1 meeting pointers. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Heather Landy and Morgan Haefner.