Sam Blum

brutal

I feel like I need to protect her from the looksmaxxers, like she protected me as a child 😭

Not looking forward to breaking this down for my liberal boomer Mom when she inevitably asks what Mogging and Jestermaxxing is

On Thursday, a campaign account for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who is running for Senate, posted that the Democrat was seen “VOTEMAXXING” near North Carolina State University. One day prior, the Republican National Committee released a statement praising President Donald Trump for “jobsmaxxing” the economy. Betr, a sportsbetting company, wrote that NBA superstar LeBron James, seen horsing around before a game, was “jestermaxxing.”

Straight to jail.

Was there ever such a clear signal of societal decay when the Roman Empire collapsed?

TV antennas and Super Bowl rehearsals: How prediction market traders seek an edge As prediction markets boom, competition is heating up. So traders go the extra mile for a fraction-of-a-second advantage or to sleuth out information nobody else has. It can lead to a huge payday.

Prediction market traders are “seeking alpha” by buying TV antennas for a millisecond of speed, timing the Super Bowl national anthem rehearsal in person and uncovering not-yet-public press releases hiding in the HTML of websites. Anything for an edge!
www.npr.org/2026/02/17/n...

thanks man!

Because I have terminal reporter brain you can still find me on Signal and Proton.

Baby's first baby arrives this week so I am officially on parental leave. See you in two months—after Dad mode is fully engaged.

Get ready for an influx of MIT and Yale grads attempting to stunt in Bugattis

With Prediction Markets Attracting Billions, a New 'Stock Market for Trends' Could Mint Millionaires Fast Noise users can bet on the popularity of everything from the Labubu craze to ChatGPT. It could be the first prediction market for the attention economy.

Re-upping the last story I published before parental leave!

A new prediction market seeks to make millionaires by letting users bet on online trends like stocks. The monetization of everything is underway—and VCs are lapping it up.

www.inc.com/sam-blum/pre...

just getting there is a victory in itself a lot of the time

My barber keeps telling me I need to take a trip to Turkey. I feel like Rodney Dangerfield.

Clavicular Mogs The New York Times Magazine is a real email I received this afternoon

Prediction Markets Like Kalshi Are Attracting Billions. A New 'Stock Market for Trends' Could Mint Millionaires Fast Noise users can bet on the popularity of everything from the Labubu craze to ChatGPT. It could be the first prediction market for the attention economy.

NEW: Your average prediction market user can soon bet on the popularity of trends, brands, concepts and ideas. Everything is becoming increasingly monetized and financialized. VCs are eating it up.

www.inc.com/sam-blum/pre...

This guy strikes me as the quintessential journeyman forward who's pretty good everywhere he goes but for some reason gets sold every 10 months

Prediction Markets Like Kalshi Are Attracting Billions. A New 'Stock Market for Trends' Could Mint Millionaires Fast Noise users can bet on the popularity of everything from the Labubu craze to ChatGPT. It could be the first prediction market for the attention economy.

NEW: Your average prediction market user can soon bet on the popularity of trends, brands, concepts and ideas. Everything is becoming increasingly monetized and financialized. VCs are eating it up.

www.inc.com/sam-blum/pre...

This job sounds fascinating but also hard and potentially crazy making

hard to look at him and not see a lizard person (if you believe in lizard people)

Trump’s nutrition website directs users to Elon Musk’s Grok The inclusion of Elon Musk’s chatbot in the government website follows backlash over the chatbot creating millions of sexualized images of women and children.

A federal government MAHA website, advertised during the superbowl, is directing users to Grok to "get real answers about real food"? (Via @almsnatalie.bsky.social)
www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

lol yes! always glad to not publish a disaster.

You ever email someone with the exact same name as a high-ranking White House official thinking you have a scoop and then it turns out they're a different person? It sucks I wouldn't recommend it.

Me, lying on a sun bed, sipping a margarita next to a gorgeous swimming pool: "Help I have been cancelled now I have nothing!!"

Martin you're writing an op-ed in a major newspaper how in the hell are you cancelled, mate?

Tomorrow we will no doubt see a viral LinkedIn post about how smart that was

Coinbase’s commercial was just the karaoke screen to a Backstreet Boys song i don’t even know what we’re doing here anymore

also say what you will about curling it's probably justified but this hip flexor action is wild.

A lot of people say peak masculinity is Andrew Tate but it’s actually this guy doing exactly this

Someone tell Pat that everything is fake and everyone is an actor so he never comes back

The Bloodbath at Washington Post Is All Jeff Bezos’s Fault Billionaires like Bezos have no real use for the free press, particularly when it runs the risk of alienating Donald Trump.

Jeff Bezos is more responsible than anyone—even Will Lewis—for the job cuts at the Washington Post.

The billionaire’s decisions led the paper to its current predicament (one he could pay for in perpetuity for a fraction of his wealth).