Hi, welcome to your Weekend.

Marissa Mayer has been a mainstay of tech journalism for almost two decades, ever since she was anointed the glamorous geek goddess of Google back in its “don’t be evil” days. She’s had quite a ride since then, becoming Yahoo CEO in 2012, bumping along in the role for five acquisition-heavy years, then selling the company for $4.5 billion to Verizon, where it remains in a weird state of purgatory to this day.

Mayer may not have left Yahoo stronger than she found it, but Yahoo certainly left her richer, with Mayer carting away an exit package totaling $260 million. Couple that sum with whatever she accrued as employee no. 20 at Google, and she could do pretty much whatever she wanted for the rest of her life.

So what do you do if you’re Marissa Mayer, at age 42 and at the peak of your entrepreneurial powers, but with no horse to saddle yourself to? As Arielle details in her fascinating profile of Mayer, you look for the most mundane thing you could possible tackle—like duplicate smartphone contacts—and you set out to fix it.

Mayer’s hero’s journey, as she describes it, is certainly an unusual one. And the company she’s built, Sunshine, is nobody’s idea of a tech rocketship. But her commitment to pulling up her sleeves, jumping back into the trenches and crafting elegant solutions to pernicious little problems reveals, perhaps, her truest self. She isn’t a messianic visionary trying to get us to Mars. She’s a detail-obsessed engineer who wants to make our lives incrementally better.  

the big read

Can Marissa Mayer Eclipse Herself?

After three years of media silence, the former Yahoo CEO and Silicon Valley legend tells Arielle all about her newest pursuit: cleaning up your phone contacts. Yes, it sounds small. And hard to monetize. But Mayer is convinced that untangling the address book can lead to massive improvements in productivity. Who wants to bet against her?    

show us everything

Think She’s Fast? You Should Borrow Her Ferrari: Welcome to Lucy Guo’s Miami

From waking up with a 20 mph sprint to planning a playdate with cheetahs, the investor–founder exists in a state of perpetual motion. Margaux links up with the CEO of creator-economy startup Passes for a wild day in the 305. 

market research

Running Shoe or Cheat Code? Tech Pros on Their Performance-Enhancing Athletic Gear

With the summer outdoors season approaching, Annie asked a batch of hard-charging tech pros for the new fitness gear that almost makes them feel like they’re cheating.

screentime

Screentime: The Author–Investor Searching for the Internet’s Next Hangout

Former Discord head of community Amber Atherton is in the midst of a book tour for her debut title, “The Rise of Virtual Communities.” But the investor was able to take a minute for Screentime, divulging some of her favorite lesser-known apps. 

Reading: Temu’s tacky takeover
Like many Americans, I first heard about Temu during the last Super Bowl, when the Chinese e-commerce company ran a spot with a vibrant jingle. Its tagline? “Shop like a billionaire.” That’s Temu poking fun at itself—it’s hard to imagine billionaires actually shopping on Temu. Rather, the app hawks shockingly cheap clothes, fashion accessories and a weird assortment of household items, from vacuums to doorbell cameras. As John Hermann writes for New York magazine, the company’s rise resembles the recent ascent of Shein, another Chinese e-commerce giant. And as with Shein, the Temu experience is chaotic and gaudy—the discount-festooned lottery wheel that greets users on its site feels a bit like a warning label. Indeed, Temu is very much the opposite of the sleek shopping apps we’re accustomed to. But perhaps it is a harbinger of a new trend in American consumption, with buyers prioritizing dirt-cheap products and AI-generated feeds of suggested goods over elegant browsing experiences. Like certain influencers and politicians, Temu seems comfortable signaling that “from the first moment you open it, [it’s] unapologetically hustling you.”—Annie

Noticing: Green shoots in the doom loop
In San Francisco, there’s a phrase being tossed around to describe the despair in the air: “the doom loop.” I was reminded of that epithet  reading Liz Weil’s depiction in Curbed of what it’s like right now to move through downtown San Francisco, where 30% of offices are vacant, retail stores like Nordstrom and Coco Republic are shuttering, and the unbridled optimism of 2019 has seemingly all dried up. I was reminded of it again when I read the news that 350 California Street— the former Union Bank building—just sold for 75% under its 2020 offer price. It seems like there’s a lot more doom on the horizon. Or could that be opportunity? I recently read about the idea—introduced by Initialized partner Kim-Mai Cutler—to turn vacant buildings into student housing, giving local universities a tax break and injecting new life into downtown. I’ve also read about the idea to transform vacant space into pop-up art galleries, bookstores, restaurants or dance clubs. It’s easy to look at San Francisco and see a city in ruins. But devastation can also be a precursor for reinvention, something this city knows better than most. —Arielle

Following: Zelda, unlocked
YouTuber Ed King spent much of yesterday far from his home in rural England. “I’ve just got off the Great Sky Island,” he told me excitedly, pausing for a few minutes from playing the blockbuster new videogame, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.” “I just made my first skydive into Hyrule—an absolutely amazing moment.” King, more regularly known by his nom de Nintendo, Zeltik, is one of the world’s foremost experts on the 37-year-old Zelda franchise, and his high-quality, in-depth videos make his YouTube channel (nearly 1 million subscribers) a perfect companion for anyone headed back to Hyrule. King’s favorite part of the game so far? A new feature for building vehicles, something he spotted in early trailers: “You could see a car that looked cobbled together out of wood and held together by this gooey substance.” He’s also enjoying the ability to “attach boulders to weapons to make hammers—or kill an enemy and put their eyeballs on arrows.” Just don’t try to settle a dispute like that IRL. —Abe

Makes You Think

Keep the kids occupied for hours this weekend. You're welcome.