Some interesting things to read (and attend!) this October

I write a periodic newsletter on interesting things to read. You can sign up here. And read the archives here. Here's the most recent edition.

Dear friends, 

It's been a few months since I sent one of these. But I just had a rather long and thorough conversation with two of the smartest people in Silicon Valley—Yuval Noah Harari and Tristan Harris—about the future, the ways our minds can be hacked, and what we can do about it. It's absolutely worth digging into the transcript or grabbing some hard alcohol and watching the video. I also loved having the chance to interview Europe's anti-trust cop, Margrethe Vestager, for CBS and Wired. 

You probably don't want to spend so much darn time with me, so I also recommend this bonkers recent Vanity Fair story on a man pretending to be a Saudi Prince. And I loved Sheelah Kolhatkar's story about the brutal, but highly successful, tactics of Paul Singer. Also don't miss Andrew Rice's dive into the questionable recent work of super-lawyer David Boies.

From Wired, if you haven't yet, you have to read Andy Greenberg's deep-inside account of the most damaging hack in history. If you only have two minutes, open the story and search for the word "Ghana." It is one of my favorite anecdotes ever. And, ideally, please also do this IN OUR NEW GETWIRED APP. We just built a great new way to read our stories swiftly and efficiently on iPhones and on Android. If you've gotten this far in the email, please click over and download it now. Also, you should read this wonderful review in the NYT of the piece Danielle performed in last weekend, in which she is described as "some kind of insect in head-to-toe pink" who is "ravenous and reckless." Which is awesome.

Last, speaking of awesome, this weekend is Wired's 25th Anniversary Festival. If you're in San Francisco, please come! We've got a lineup that includes Jony Ive, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Susan Wojcicki, Jack Dorsey, Kevin Systrom, Questlove, and about twenty-five other luminaries along with crazy robots. Plus my boss, Anna Wintour. Here's the full lineup. Lot's of stuff has sold out, but there are still tickets to some pretty great things available. See you on the Embarcadero!

best * N