When award-winning novelist MacKenzie Bezos and her husband Jeff Bezos, the chief executive and founder of Amazon, announced on Twitter Wednesday they were getting divorced, public discussion over the uncoupling quickly centered on the impact it might have on Jeff’s company, and on each sides’ net worth. Were he and his wife to split their estimated $136 billion fortune equally, news articles speculated that MacKenzie could become the “richest woman in the world,” far wealthier than even people like Elon Musk.
TMZ reports that the couple did not have a prenup. Washington, where they live, is a community property state, meaning that all property and debts acquired during the 25-year marriage could be equally split if the Bezoses can’t negotiate an agreement. Amazon, for the record, is 24 years old. But thinking about the divorce as an opportunity for MacKenzie to become the richest woman in the world is a strange way of describing her situation, as Bloomberg points out. She is already the richest woman in the world, because she’s half of the richest couple on Earth.
This week has been full of stories with headlines like “How much could MacKenzie Bezos get in a divorce?” speculating on what will happen to “his wealth.” (Punctuated by the occasional outcry that any human being could stand to receive more than $60 billion at all.) What was often missing, or glossed over, is the fact that MacKenzie helped her husband start his historic company, starting by agreeing to leave their life and move across the country from New York City to Seattle, where Amazon was founded. It’s also part of a wider pattern of how the stories of tech companies get told, which erases the many individuals who help to build them in favor of highlighting the “lone genius” at the helm. Many of the people who fade to the background have been women.
“Both historically and today, it takes a lot more ‘proof’ for a woman to claim competence, importance, and intelligence—something we see powerfully played out on the national political stage every day, from Hillary Clinton to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez,” says Marie Hicks, a technology historian and the author of Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge In Computing. “It seeps into how we talk about women associated with tech on an everyday basis, whether it's at work, at school, online, or in the media.”
Empires like Amazon and Apple are not created by a single man in a vacuum; they are the product of a mix of luck and contributions from an entire team—including from a founder’s spouse.
MacKenzie met Jeff after she graduated from Princeton in 1992 and took a job at the relatively new hedge fund D. E. Shaw, where Bezos already worked. In 1993 they married, and by 1994 they were driving to Washington, with MacKenzie reportedly at the wheel of the car. The couple was leaving behind a wealthy existence on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, according to Brad Stone, the author of the 2013 book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. “They gave up a really comfortable lifestyle and successful careers to move across the country and start something on the internet,” says Stone. “The only reason [Jeff] was able to do that is because he had an extremely supportive spouse. It was an incredible risk and one that they both took on jointly.”
In a 2010 commencement speech he gave at Princeton, Jeff himself acknowledged the gamble his wife had taken. “I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t, and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that,” he said. “MacKenzie … told me I should go for it.” (Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
In Bellevue, the Seattle suburb where Jeff rented a garage to be the site of Amazon’s first headquarters, MacKenzie helped get the company off the ground. While researching his book, Stone interviewed early employees who he says recalled how MacKenzie wrote checks and assisted in keeping track of the books. A WIRED profile of Jeff from 1999 noted that she helped negotiate the retail giant’s first freight contracts. As the company grew bigger and hired more staff, MacKenzie played less of a role in Amazon’s day-to-day operations, though she continued to support Jeff at company events. She wrote two novels, The Testing of Luther Albright, which won the American Book Award in 2006, and Traps, which was published in 2013.
Aside from a profile in Vogue published almost five years ago, MacKenzie, as well the four Bezos children, have maintained a low public profile. One noteworthy exception took place in 2013, after Stone’s book came out. MacKenzie personally left a one-star review on its Amazon page, disputing the book’s accuracy. She also emphasized her own role at the company: “I worked for Jeff at D. E. Shaw, I was there when he wrote the business plan, and I worked with him and many others represented in the converted garage, the basement warehouse closet, the barbecue-scented offices, the Christmas-rush distribution centers, and the door-desk filled conference rooms in the early years of Amazon’s history. Jeff and I have been married for 20 years.”
MacKenzie and other early Amazon employees, of course, aren’t the only contributors to the company’s—and Jeff’s—success. Amazon has benefited from other factors, like years of successfully avoiding collecting state sales taxes, undercutting competitors’ prices. The company also relied on external innovations like the internet, developed in part by government researchers. This of course is hardly unique to Amazon. Elon Musk and his company Tesla might not be much without the billions of dollars they have received in government grants. Steve Jobs’ iPhone was made possible by researchers who spent decades developing touchscreen technology, beginning in the 1940s.
Admittedly, MacKenzie’s role in the history of Amazon may not be as crucial as the existence of the World Wide Web. Then again, it’s hard to say for sure. Would e-commerce look any different today if she had refused to move out to Seattle and be part of an internet startup? Countless decisions contribute to the success or failure of a company, some big, some small—and almost never those of just one person. It’s not always obvious which choices tip the scale one way or the other. The lone genius myth has been largely debunked, but it can be all too easy to fall back into the familiar rhythms of Silicon Valley’s favorite narrative devices. Even, or maybe especially, when gossiping about the juicy details of a high-profile divorce. Plenty of people facilitate the creation of corporations like Amazon and the immense wealth that they generate, from inventors to employees to policymakers to taxpayers to spouses. Maybe it’s time to talk more about what all those contributions are actually worth.
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A Close Reading of Childish Gambino's 'Because The Internet'.
Because The Internet Lyrics
In which /u/fetfet50 close-reads “Because The Internet” days after it leaked. This is the definition of tryhard. It epitomizes reading too much into stuff. I just hope you like it.
First of all, the title. Because The Internet is an answer. It's an answer to a lot of questions, and some of them are even in the album. The album is a story, it's Gambino telling us what happened to him, and why that's a good thing and a bad thing. It also follows the monomyth, or the hero's journey, that was mapped out by Joseph Campbell. More importantly, he's following the story circle utilised by Dan Harmon, the creator of Community. It's good shit. Let's begin.
“The Library”
This is five seconds of sound. Why does it even exist? Well, the order matters. Everything on this album's here on purpose. It was put in the place where it was for a reason. So why is “The Library” here at all, and why is it at the beginning? Because Bino's about to tell us a story. He's actually about to tell us four stories, but the library is where the stories are contained. So the tracks in the library section of the album are the tracks that exemplify the rest of the album. Inkeeping with the story circle, these tracks are also the main themes of the album.
“I. The Crawl”
This song is about establishing who Gambino is, and how he got there. The first words of the first verse are “Who am I?” The song is establishing the character of Childish Gambino, so we can understand the changes he makes to himself and his music in the rest of the album. The song establishes Gambino's rap style too, full of references to other rappers, and full of itself. It's very catchy, corny rap, and this is the baseline for which we must evaluate Gambino. This is also the top half of Bino's story circle – self-reliance. It's called “The Crawl” for a reason – Gambino had to work to get to where he is, and to be so sure of him self. He starts out relying on himself. The second theme is “real life” - this is where Bino comes from.
“II. Worldstar”
This is what Bino wants – fame. And he doesn't want the momentary fame that comes from doing something stupid. He wants the fame that inspires people to do stupid shit on the internet. Like write a fucking gigantic essay talking about how deep his album is. He says as much in the outro. “And all I wanna be is a Worldstar!” Gambino alludes to other things of adoration and fame, like Scorsese and Hollywood and Vine. Is that where the app comes from? Even though this is technically step 2 in the story circle, it sets the stage for further steps, setting the theme as “relying on others”, and “the internet”
“Dial Up”
Another weird instrumental. These signal the transitions between the stories Bino is telling us. It's called “Dial Up” for a few reasons. First, it sounds a bit like how dial up modems would sound when they connected to the internet. So this song is Bino entering the internet, thus beginning his transition from real life to the internet. Secondly, Bino's “dialing up” his friends, his collaborators, and bringing them into his music. The Dial Up segment is Bino's musical life, from its inception to its completion.
“I. The Worst Guys (ft Chance The Rapper)”
This is Bino's first foray into the internet. He doesn't rely heavily on Chance, and he keeps the tone fairly light, still filled with references, still self-referential, but at the end, after all is said and done, he realizes he's sitting on the porch, listening to the neighbours. He's alone. He's still too self-reliant. Too much like himself. He needs to break it down somehow.
“II. Shadows”
Bino does this by slipping into his own darkness. He's trying to find the core of his own power, the thing that motivates him to succeed, but what he finds instead is this.. thing. There's a shell, stretched over his core, a shield, a shadow, that is preventing him from getting to the core of himself. As he's trying to find his own way into himself, he needs to find an outside motivation, and in Shadows that's a woman. He finds a woman to power through this shield that's preventing him from getting to himself. But he can't. So he gives up. And he gives up on the girl too, telling her that he's been using her. Now Bino's trying to find another way in, after that.
“III. Telegraph Ave (Oakland by Lloyd)”
Because Of The Internet
In this song, Bino tries to get inside himself by becoming a different person – Lloyd. Bino tries to take Lloyd's persona into himself. He wears it like a mask, and tries to bypass his own defenses. He needs to find another source of outside motivation, and he picks a girl again. This time, though, the girl's not having it. She sees the fakeness of Bino's impersonation of Lloyd, and she criticizes Bino – he gives up too easily, he needs to try something and really stick to it. When he does that, when he finds something that he can motivate himself with, then he'll be happy, and not alone. The girl offers to help - “Can we try?” Bino's hesitant, thinking that he can't do that while he's still unsure of himself, but he concedes.
“IV. Sweatpants”
This is Bino assuming another persona, but for a different reason. This persona's not meant to understand himself, but to catch attention. And holy shit, it does that. This Bino is confident, arrogant even, rich, just blowing up. And he's a jerk. He's an asshole, and he knows it, but he doesn't care. People love it. People are eating the stuff he's saying up. People just stop caring once you hit a certain level. What's more, they stop caring once they think you've hit a certain level. “Sweatpants” is Bino pretending to be successful, and then becoming successful. This Bino persona, the affluent asshole, carries over to the next song.
“V. 3005”
This song's the future. This is the song that Gambino's asshole persona would write, after breaking through into the shell into the core. But it's not the same core. It's a mask breaking a few layers deep. But that mask is just gonna hit the same shell that kept Gambino out the first time. So we get this song, on the surface about loving a woman so much that you'd never leave her. But this is a song about loving a woman so much that you want to be with her when you're alone. That's not a lot. Bino's alone a lot, though, so it's hard for him to tell the difference. He is beginning to realize that he can't sustain this persona forever – he can't be the rich asshole forever. Or can he? He has to be something. Incidentally, thinking you love a woman because you prefer her company to loneliness typifies an attitude of a lot of internet users.
“Playing Around Before The Party”
This is ostensibly Gambino playing piano before the start of the next track, “I. The Party” He's made it. This is where he wanted to be. Famous. Noteworthy. And what is he doing? Playing minor chords on a piano while people laugh in the other room. Because now we've passed parts 3, 4, and 5 of the story circle. Bino looked for fame, sought it out, and with 3005, now has it. These next tracks deal with part 6 of the story circle, where Bino pays a price. That price, we're about to find out.
“I. The Party”
This is the party. The intro, where Bino is singing, is his internal monologue – he's trying to convince himself that he enjoys partying. It's his party after all – he wouldn't have thrown a party if he didn't like doing it. The verse he spits is his slow realization that no, it's not his party. This is the party his asshole persona threw. He wakes up at the end of the verse, trying to get the people who came for his asshole persona to leave. These people think it's still part of the persona, though. And that's when Bino understands that this is not a party he can end.
“II. No Exit”
![Because Because](https://images.rapgenius.com/a3f0fe69f2ab3e50b466d339444a7d19.747x1000x1.jpg)
That's because the party's internal. Gambino doesn't feel alone because he's surrounded himself in people who don't know who he is, his loneliness comes from his core. There's something inside Gambino that is subjecting him to this loneliness, and it's getting too much to bear. He doesn't know how to deal with the pain, and there's no way to leave it. The title, “No Exit”, is also a play by Sartre, which contains the line “Hell is other people.”
“Death by Numbers”
These next tracks are the death of Gambino. That's plain and simple. The first three are roughly “before”, “during” and “after” death. The three tracks after that, I guess, are a kind of revival, a spiritual revival of Gambino, into something else. This covers 6, 7, and 8 on the story circle.
“I. Flight of The Navigator”
This is Gambino's approach to death. He drifts out his body, and as he drifts outside of his body, he is given the key to unlocking himself. In the vision he sees as he dies (perhaps by being bitten by the brown recluse from “No Exit”) he sees a woman, and that woman will give Gambino the guidance he needs to look within himself. And she'll do this not for herself, and not for him, but for both of them. That is what love is. Love is working together. But at this point, Gambino has nothing and no one to work with, so he's moving on, to his death, and his judgement.
“II. Zealots of Stockholm (Free Information)”
The Zealots of Stockholm, and Free Information, are white people on the internet, who are serious about Gambino. So, essentially, probably you, and definitely me, and everyone who ever had white skin and liked Gambino. He wants to be liked, he wants to earn respect, but he can't. He's painted this shell around him, and people liked, and now that's crashing down. People are angry at him, and they want to know if it was real or not. He finally reveals that he's using his remaining life to condemn himself. For what? Why? Because the internet. These people, the faceless, voiceless, shouting mouth, is screaming, it's screaming in your ears, and it's screaming into your soul. It's telling you that there's nothing left for you here, that it wasn't worth it. Fifa 18 squad update download. That you should give up. And Bino doesn't want them to be wrong – he relies on that voice, on the voices of others so much that he will destroy his own life just so they'll be right one last time. This is the Death of Childish Gambino. RIP in peace brev.
“III. Urn”
Gambino's died. Cremated. His body is in an urn. But his soul is above all that. He's managed to transcend the hate that kept him in pain for all these years. He is peaceful. He's not done yet. He has work to do now. He understands his place in the world, in the real world, and he's ready to come back, leave the internet, and deliver that message. Now Gambino comes back. No wonder it's his favourite song.
“I. Pink Toes (feat Jhene Aiko)'
How the fuck does he come back from the dead? Not alone. He needs help. Jhene Aiko is the one how is gonna help him. When Gambino died, his asshole self lived on. That asshole self is now a drug dealer, who's made Jhene's acquaintance, and they're dating. Why is Jhene, the woman who's gonna save Bino's soul, hanging out with a drug dealer? Because when Bino got the vision of them together, Jhene got the same vision. She knows that they're going to fall in love, and Jhene wants that too. So she sticks around for Gambino to come back to his body.
“II. Earth: The Oldest Computer”
Bino comes back, and he's gonna change things. He thinks. He doesn't know how much time he has. Maybe this is the last time he's got to make an impression. So now he's really got to try. He knows what happens if he doesn't, the judgement of the Zealots of Stockholm, the keyboard brigade. Bino needs to understand himself, and he's got all the tools to do it. He goes inside himself, where he sees the world. He sees the connections we make to each other, and he realizes that the difference between the internet and the real world are negligible. In the end, it's all meaningless, because even though you might live forever, it might be the last night. Why is he even doing this – right, the asshole persona, asking girls for nudes, and then sharing them on Tumblr. He might not be able to set the world right, but he can fix himself. Maybe. He thinks. He's about to try.
“III. Life: The Biggest Troll”
In this final song, Gambino gets hit with a big truth – Fight Club Style. He wasn't just Donald Glover, and he wasn't just Childish Gambino. He was, and is, both. At this point, they're so similar that Bino can't even tell them apart. He's lost in his own mind. Everything that he's thought about himself is a lie. Life has trolled him hard. There's no difference. Everything's a lie. You can't do it all yourself.
Then..
He meets the girl. They fall in love. And then he asks her to help him change. She.. refuses. She says he needs to fix himself first. The thing is, he's tried. He knows he can't. He can't enact meaningful change in the world, because he doesn't know who he is enough to have people listen to him any more. That's the joke. He comes back from the dead to learn about himself, from the one person who can teach him about that, and she refuses. That's the joke. But now, CG's here. Jhene's here. And we, the audience, are here. And CG asks us to help.
How can you help?
Because the Internet.
It's an answer to a different question. It's a question that doesn't have an answer. The joke's on us, because we're here, we stayed, and Gambino gave us the answer. It was the same answer he got, to any question he asked. And in the end, we all got tricked.
Does that matter though? Probably not. I think, if I had to say what about Life: The Biggest Troll is the final part of the story circle, the change, it's that Bino acknowledges that there's no change. Change is just something that happens to sand dunes. It's something that happens. All we do as people is cover up the parts we don't like. There's no bringing stuff up. And if that's the story Bino's telling, it makes sense.
So that was my close reading of Because the Internet. Please make fun of it. Or share it. Do whatever you want with it. I just wanted to let you know what I gathered from it.
Incidentally, I worked harder on this than I have my last 4 papers. It's longer than the last 2 of them combined. Jesus.
TL;DR – Read it. Please.
Frankie
clientI never really wanted to say my opinion on this new CBD oil that I have until I was really sure what I was going to say! ?
So here goes.. I use 4% oil which is in a 10ml bottle so that works out to be 400mg.. I now take this daily. Just a couple of drops..
Just from doing this alone -
?I have STOPPED having little annoying pains that I would have every day and try and ignore.
?I have slept better than ever! And woken up really easily . anyone who knows me well will know I am shocking to wake up. I am NOT a morning person ???
?My nails have grown. Don’t ask me how. Again if you know me you know I love long nails but I can’t stand fake ones and mine never grow !
?My brain is usually very extreme with its imagination .. in other words I worry about everything lol. Literally my brain goes crazyyyy , I could hear some teenagers outside on the street and it would go straight to them murdering us all (in my head) within seconds ! This has also STOPPED !!
Now I DO need a stronger dosage for when I get bad pains because unfortunately I think they are getting worse and these aren’t just normal pains, this is something I need to manage but I am so impressed in such a short since of time with what I have noticed already!!!
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