Even Further Behind The Velvet Curtain Than We Thought
Kate Wagner, mostly known around these parts for McMansion Hell, but who also does sports journalism, wrote an absolutely incredible piece for Road & Track on F1, which was published and then unpublished nearly instantly. Why yes, the Internet Archive does have a copy: Behind F1's Velvet Curtain. It’s the sort of thing where if you start quoting it, you end up reading the whole thing out loud, so I’ll just block quote the subhead:
If you wanted to turn someone into a socialist you could do it in about an hour by taking them for a spin around the paddock of a Formula 1 race. The kind of money I saw will haunt me forever.
It’s outstanding, and you should go read it.
But, so, how exactly does a piece like this get all the way to being published out on Al Gore’s Internet, and then spiked? The Last Good Website tries to get to the bottom of it: Road & Track EIC Tries To Explain Why He Deleted An Article About Formula 1 Power Dynamics.
Road & Track’s editor’s response to the Defector is one of the most brazen “there was no pressure because I never would have gotten this job if I waited until they called me to censor things they didn’t like” responses since, well, the Hugos, I guess?
Edited to add: Today in Tabs—The Road & Track Formula One Scandal Makes No Sense
Metrics, Accountability
The new year bringing no respite, Layoff season continues.
Lots of CEOs with sad faces, but who all still have jobs? There’s the usual “we take full responsibility”, “changing conditions”, “need to meet market challenges”, without ever, you know, saying what any of that means.
Meanwhile, let’s check in on sports!
Haas: Guenther Steiner leaves as team principal after 10 years - BBC Sport
Bill Belichick: Legendary New England Patriots coach's exit confirmed after 24 years - BBC Sport
(It amuses me to read news about American Football from the BBC.)
Pro sports has a ruthlessness that fascinates me. Doesn’t matter if you won more Super Bowls that any other coach—a couple of bad seasons later, and you get to spend more time with your family. In the tech world, huge successes a decade ago is enough to basically get you tenure, and as long as you don’t literally break the law on camera, you’re good to go.
What’s the difference? Clear Metrics.
We spend a lot of time talking about metrics—what to measure, how to measure, what it means, how to change it, trends, velocity. “You get what you measure!” Interpretations, footnotes, “well, that’s somewhat subjective.”
Meanwhile, over in sports-land there’s exactly one metric: how many games did you win this year. It’s completely objective, unambiguous, obvious to everyone. And the culture is clear: we have one number that matters. If that number goes down, the leader loses their job. And thats clear going in. Everyone, and I mean everyone knows how their job connects to that number, how what they do does or doesn’t support that number going up. One Number. “Work Harder, It’ll Be Worth It.”
As a thought experiment, I think that’s interesting. Pick a tech company: yours, someone else’s, a friends, Apple. What’s the One Number? What’s the point where the leader needs a new job? It’s temping to say stock price, but that’s too many dominos away from the “real work”. Sales? Revenue? Percent of market? Presumably there’s a point where revenue could collapse enough to lose Tim Apple his job, but there’s a real big subjective space on top of that. If you’re Apple, or Twitch, or Discord, what’s the equivalent to “haven’t won the Super Bowl since 2018”?
The frame challenge here, of course, is not to think up the number, but to then spend the time thinking about how your job connects to it. Can you influence that number? Why or why not?
No Longer Driving Or Surviving
Haas: Guenther Steiner leaves as team principal after 10 years - BBC Sport
After pretty much every episode of Drive to Survive, I would ask, “how does he still have a job, again?” And I guess Gene Haas though the same thing.
I’m picturing the producers of the Netflix show weeping, trying to figure out if they can still have him show up for absolutely bonkers interviews even if he’s not “technically” on a team anymore. Their biggest challenge since Ricciardo lost his seat.
Still Driving, Still Surviving
Drive to Survive is back! Which is great, but I find myself wishing the season started with a longer “previously on” recap. Something on the scale of what they used to do on SOAP.