The Saturday Morning Newsletter #73
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, The Gamification of Life, and Hidden Solar Issues
This Week I’m Tracking: 13 developments across the sectors shaping our future
Reading Time: 6 minutes of curated insights
Your weekly pulse check: The most important events in venture capital, energy, space, economics, intellectual property, philosophy, and more. I distill the most important developments across sectors I track, saving you hours of research while keeping you ahead of the curve.
New to these updates? They pair with our bi-weekly Brainwave analyses for comprehensive sector coverage. Wednesday’s deep dive explored a special interview with Kelleigh Stewart - catch up here.
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Let’s dive in.
#1: Nanoramic
Description: Nanoramic is developing new battery technology.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Nanoramic recently raised $54M in venture capital funding. Nanoramic is advancing the next phase of battery solutions by bypassing traditional materials and leveraging untapped sources of alternative energy. They estimate their solution is 27% cheaper than traditional offerings and uses more sustainable materials.
#2: Ursa Major
Description: Ursa Major develops solid rocket motors and hypersonic propulsion systems.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Ursa Major recently raised $100M in venture capital funding. Ursa Major is developing the next generation of propulsion engines, capable of powering satellites, rockets, missiles, and more. This additional funding will enable them to further develop their hypersonic capabilities, driving adoption of space mobility and expanding government use cases.
#3: Exowatt
Description: Exowatt is a solar storage startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Exowatt recently raised $50M in venture capital funding. Exowatt is developing battery technology to support the exponential growth of AI data centers. The battery captures heat energy generated by these data centers and stores it for later use.
#4: Gridware
Description: Gridware is developing grid-monitoring technology for utilities.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Gridware recently raised $55M in venture capital funding. Gridware is a proactive monitoring system for utilities to enable minimal downtime and maximum capacity. Their platform provides visibility into issues and potential issues before they become problems, preventing costly downtime. With this solution, utilities can pinpoint hazards and quickly mobilize grid response.
#5: Earthmover
Description: Earthmover helps companies manage and analyze large-scale weather and geospatial datasets.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Earthmover recently raised $7.2M in venture capital funding. Earthmover is a data manager that aggregates and sorts multidimensional climate data to create a single stream of truth. Their goal is to become the industry leader in climate-focused data, providing backend data for the world’s largest weather models.
The Hill: $2.7B to Support Nuclear Power Development
The Trump administration is awarding $2.7B to three nuclear companies to expedite the development of nuclear energy. These companies are American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, and Orano Federal Services. The goal of this initiative is to pursue domestic and near-shore uranium sources to power the next generation of national power.
Tech Xplore: Addressing Hidden Solar Panel Issues
Scientists have recently found that some solar panels are degrading much more rapidly than expected. Around 20% of the solar panels studied fail much faster than expected (some last only half their expected lifetimes). This may have a snowball effect, impacting manufacturers’ bottom lines and expected warranty periods, with more claims expected as the technology ages quickly.
The New York Times: Trump Wants to Halt Almost All Coal Plant Shutdowns
The Trump administration plans to keep as many coal plants open as possible and prevent any further retirements. This continues the administration’s mission to revive America’s coal industry, which has been declining for years as consumers switch to renewable and alternative energy sources.
The New York Times: EPA to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Air Pollution Rules
The EPA has traditionally calculated the health benefits of reducing air pollution using estimates of the costs of avoided asthma attacks and premature deaths to justify clean-air rules. This policy is changing, which many say is contrary to its core mission of protecting human health and the environment. This change will make it easier to repeal limits on fossil fuel plants and other regulations targeted at health-conscious environmental actions.
The New York Times: 2026 May Be The Year of the Mega IPO
Three of the most valuable private technology companies are planning to list their shares on public markets, potentially marking a watershed moment for Silicon Valley and the broader investment community. Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX represent trillions of dollars in combined value, providing liquidity for the many investors in these companies while new investors get in on the winnings.
The Guardian: The Gamification of Everyday Life
In a new book, philosopher C Thi Nguyen argues that the gamification of everyday life has us chasing the metrics of progress, not progress itself. We are prioritizing things that yield the most leaderboard metrics with the least effort, rather than those that actually help us the most as people. Our pursuit of value capture is currently ruining our lives.
The New York Times: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness
According to the Social Progress Index, the United States ranks #32 out of 171 countries. More concerning, the U.S. has steadily declined since the ranking system began in 2010. In 2010, the United States ranked #18. Granted, this is just one report, but when you broaden the scope to other sources, the trend remains. Unfortunately, the principles the United States once stood for are slipping from its grasp.
Substack: Why Intelligence Doesn’t Improve Rationality
I think this article provides some great insights into how and when we reason and why intelligence doesn’t really help us.
For instance, one of the main messages is “Most people aren’t bad at reasoning. They’re bad at knowing when to reason.” Why? It’s easier to simply rely on trust, shortcuts, the status quo, and general impressions than think about things further, so reasoning isn’t often explicitly used.
What’s more is that research has found that characteristics like open-mindedness, willingness to consider alternatives, and willingness to delay closure are only weakly correlated with IQ. A main reason for this is that IQ tests fail to assess aspects such as “macro-level strategizing” and “epistemic regulation,” which are essential to one’s rationality.
Why should you care?
Often in life, it’s easy to make the assumption that smarter people are better at things than others. In many circumstances, this could be the case, but probably not as much as you or I would assume.
Give yourself some grace wherever you fit on the intelligence curve, because, as we’ve learned today, it doesn’t always mean you’re more rational.
That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup.
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Drew Jackson
Founder & Writer
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