5SR - August 9, 2023

Hitha on nonsensical lawsuits, the gamification of reading, and promising diplomacy for Ukraine

Author

Hitha Palepu
August 09, 2023

Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

Fearless Fund - a VC that invests in and provides grants to Black women founders, a historically underinvested in group of entrepreneurs - is being sued for discrimination.

Let me say this again. A fund designed to offer opportunities and financing to a class of entrepreneurs that have been historically excluded from traditional financing and venture capital is being sued for DISCRIMINATION - something they founded to fight themselves.

It’s as absurd as it sounds. And for Edward Blum, the filer of the lawsuit, it’s only the beginning of his false crusade against discrimination that doesn’t exist.

I’m a huge fan of new RHONY, just 4 episodes in. And Jessel’s frank honesty in discussing infertility and sex is so important for everyone, but especially our community.

I especially felt seen in her words below (even though my youngest is 4, there are days I still feel like a new mom and my post-hysterectomy experience mirrors my postpartum experiences):

“I think it's important to say to moms who are new moms, that conversation of what postpartum looks like, it's not easy. You don't just snap back into it and be like, ‘Okay, let me just get on with my life.’ Your body changes. You're tired all the time. You are trying to figure out what's next for you career-wise or otherwise, and your relationship with your spouse changes because there's another element that's introduced to it. It affects how you are. You're not the same. I said bye to the girl that I was pre-kids. I had a funeral for her.”

Jessel Taank

If mourning the girls we were helps us step closer to the women we are and want to be is the move, then dress me up in black and get me some lilies.

August 7, 2023 (Letters from an American)

Could there be light at the end of the tunnel of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

The recent meeting in Jeddah may indicate so.

Over the weekend and at the request of President Zelenskyy, representatives from 40 countries (including India and China, which have maintained certain alliances with Russia during the invasion) met to explore various peace plans to end the invasion.

While the meeting was a fairly positive one, the participating countries are tangled in a web of complicated geopolitics, making any sort of solution a difficult one to imagine (and to get Russia’s agreement to, given that they continue to attack Ukraine’s grain supplies intended for export).

I do hope this is a sign that it’s the beginning of the end of this invasion and Ukrainian sovereignty - and democracy and freedom - win out at the end.

Goodreads just isn’t for me, both as a reader and as an author.

My Goodreads profile is largely populated by my Kindle prompting me to review the ebook I just finished. I avoid the reviews of my own books to protect my peace. And while tracking the number of books read and logging reviews may bring some readers joy, it does the opposite for me.

So I’ve largely escaped the gamification of reading, but I found this article on how others read - and track said reads - to be fascinating.

"Reading for pleasure teeters between private indulgence and social practice. It always has — Socratic circles in ancient Greece, serialized novels released in Victorian-era newspapers, and book clubs of all kinds suggest pleasure in the discourse. The concept of satisfaction feels newer, and better fits into what Jia Tolentino defined as the “optimized” life, where technology allows us to maximize our potential for capital. Influencers recommend listening to audiobooks at 1.5 times the speed, and multiple Goodreads users told me they deliberately pick up shorter books to achieve certain goals.”

There are some elements shared in this piece that I empathize with (the joy reading brings me, the way swapping scrolling for reading has helped me feel more calm and balanced). But the intensity of book reviewing and hitting a specific goal or competitiveness of reading saddens me a bit (despite being a Book It! champion in my youth).

This is such a smart read about reading. I hope you take the time to read it and reflect on your reading habits to prioritize your pleasure.

The intersectional solutions we need (and our tax dollars have certainly paid for) - FINALLY.

Commercial real estate demand is declining while housing is increasingly unaffordable and unaccessible in large metropolitan markets. Retrofitting the 11% of suitable commercial office buildings into apartments is a solution that the Inflation Reduction Act can help subsidize these conversions, coupled with the work in the NYU-Columbia paper to evaluate the zoning laws to help enable these conversions.

“Housing is too scarce and expensive. Converting "brown" commercial stock into "green" housing can cut emissions by making these buildings cleaner and avoiding new construction.

It also helps prevent urban "doom loops" — under-utilization lowers tax revenues and business activity; services and values decline; safety risks rise, more flight ensues and on and on.”

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