May 14, 2020

Jackie Ross
May 14, 2020
2 min read

Hey Gang,

Good news – I’ve found it! The silver lining! Today in his briefing, the CA governor mentioned there have been substantial advances at the DMV, and they now have a virtual office! It only took THIRTY YEARS. We just got WEEKS added back to our lives. Although, I’ve managed to find a downside, which I know seems absolutely, totally impossible. Perhaps a small causality, but a casualty nonetheless… DMV jokes will be entirely lost on Generation Z. Just like that, universally appreciated comedy – GONE. And what’s worse, we will sound like total geezers. “Wait… what?! You had to take an entire day off just to renew your license?!” “They took a photo AT the DMV!? You couldn’t just drop in a selfie!?” “What do you mean, you brought a bill you received in the mail? You received bills in the mail?!”

Before it’s entirely irrelevant, let’s enjoy a little DMV humor today (see Levity section below). Also one more thing: LAST CALL to complete our very brief survey. We will report results next week.

News & Resources

RRA Podcast: My colleague Dana Krueger interviewed Luc Hermans, who leads the External Coronavirus Response Team at Gilead. Luc talks about how leaders have responded and what steps Gilead has taken to respond to the pandemic.
Zoom Goes From Conferencing App to the Pandemic’s Social Network – story of Zoom (did you know the CEO used to work at Webex? He also complains about too many Zoom meetings!)
How the news changes the way we think and behave – no surprises here but an interesting piece nonetheless
Webinar: HR Leadership Through – and Beyond – the COVID Crisis – On May 22 at 8 am PT, our CEO will facilitate another panel discussion with heads of HR (Gilead, Google, Neiman Marcus, Coinbase). You can register here.

Food Fight – send me yours!

Now we’ve got a true food fight on our hands! After seeing his wife’s impressive submission yesterday, today’s winner answered the charge with his own. This looks decadent, Peter Noymer (Executive Chair of PyrAmes and EIR with UCSF Innovation Ventures)! (And reminds me of Shehnaaz Suliman’s entry a while back!)

Chef’s comments: “I first tried shakshukah and got hooked when working for SteadyMed, which had an R&D lab (and the company origins) in Israel. It's a very hearty and flavorful dish, and after flying 14 hours nonstop from SFO to Tel Aviv and landing in the evening, it was great to load up on this at a little place around the corner from the hotel.”