February 10, 2025

— Grace Hopper

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Hey look, a chance to support the newsletter!

Sponsored by: Particle for Men​ The game-changing face cream for men over 40 If you're a man over 40 like me, the signs of aging on your face have definitely become unavoidable. That's why taking care of your skin gets more important as you age—but where do you even start? Introducing Particle for Men Face Cream: a revolutionary 6-in-1 anti-aging solution designed specifically for men over 40. This powerhouse cream combines cutting-edge technology with high-quality ingredients to target the issues that matter most—think eye bags, dark spots, and wrinkles. It’s everything you need in one product, saving you time while delivering noticeable results. Thousands of men worldwide trust Particle to help them look sharp and feel confident. Curious to learn more? Start upgrading your routine today with Particle for Men Face Cream. Get yours

​

Please let me know here if you can't see the ads. Thanks!

↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑

Rethinking that one

I've been thinking about a quote that I once thought of as awfully bold and even virtuous. Now I'm a bit more conflicted:

Today’s newsletter is about the woman who supposedly came up with it, Grace Hopper, and someone else who lived a century and a half before.

We’ll talk about the other person first: John C. Calhoun.

Born in 1782, he was the 7th vice president of the United States, from 1825 to 1832. In fact, he was the second of two people to have been vice president under two presidents: John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

He was also a senator and served as Secretary of State, and Secretary of War. Oh, and he was also a slave owner and a vehement white supremacist, known for his "positive good" defense of slavery as an institution:.

This is from a speech he gave in 1837:

Calhoun died a decade before the start of the Civil War, and he was much more fondly remembered in his native South Carolina than in the rest of the United States. Exception: Yale University, his alma mater, which in 1933 named one of its eight residential colleges for him.

This decision increased in controversy starting about 30 years later, during the civil rights era. It culminated in 2016, when there was a push at Yale to rename the college.

Yale considered and declined that idea at the time—but then the trustees did a complete 180, and stripped his name from it--eight years ago tomorrow, in fact.

The new name? Grace Hopper College. (Hopper had earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale in 1934.)

Hopper, you might know, was a computing pioneer who worked on the military's Mark I proto-computer project at Harvard during World War II. Then, she developed the first compiler.

Nicknamed “Amazing Grace,” she also went on to become one of the first women promoted to rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. Although worth noting: She originally had to retire as a captain, and was only promoted decades later by President Reagan.

Women weren't exactly embraced as academics, or as mathematicians, or as military officers during her time. Heck, most Americans had never seen a computer.

There’s also a Navy destroyer named after her, the USS Hopper now, and she once received what I like to joke is our society’s true highest civilian honor, a Google Doodle.

People were using her “forgiveness over permission” quote long before I knew anything about her. Here's what Mark Suster had to say, writing at Both Sides of the Table:

Anyway, the only links between Calhoun and Hopper that I’m aware of are that they earned degrees at the same institution about 170 years apart and that they each, sequentially, had the same residential college named in their honor.

Also, after their deaths, people reexamined their lives -- to put it lightly.

As I say, I like this quote, but it does seem a bit out of the "move fast and break things" early 2000s culture. It lands on my ears differently now than it did back then.

Maybe that's the moral of the story. We can reexamine things we once thought we understood.

No harm in that.

Oh, and don't forget that forgiveness is power. So is having the courage to ask for it, or to grant it, or to move on and live without it.

​If you aren't also subscribed to Understandably, you can follow me there!

Did you see ...

• The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40 to 22 to win the Super Bowl last night. (ESPN)
• China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US, hitting about $14bn worth of goods and dashing hopes that a trade war between the world’s two largest economies could be avoided. (Financial Times)
• President Trump attend the game in New Orleans. He said in a 7-minute taped interview with Fox News beforehand that he plans to direct Elon Musk turn "DOGE" on the military and the Department of Education "very soon." Also: He says he's serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state. Canada's Justin Trudeau apparently said as much in a private (but recorded) conversation. (USA Today, CBS News)
• Hamas released three more hostages on Saturday under a three-week-old cease-fire deal that has become a test of wills between the militant group and Israel. Israelis reacted with alarm at the hostages’ condition after months in captivity. Family members cried on camera, saying the men looked frail. Israeli Health Ministry official Hagar Mizrahi said the men suffered from malnutrition. (WSJ)
• How Amazon blew Alexa’s shot to dominate AI, according to more than a dozen employees who worked on it. (Fortune)
• North Koreans once hid foreign fast food. Now they empty the airport KFC in northeastern China before every flight to Pyongyang. (View From the Wing)
• Come early, leave early: a Gen X dance party trend -- one that ends at 10 p.m. -- is taking off across the U.S. Founded in Chicago by two friends in their 40s, Earlybirds Club gives people an opportunity to let loose without interfering with responsibilities. (The Guardian)