Sander Zagzebski @sanderzag

A 24-year-old Polish tennis player arrived in Paris last week ranked 114th in the world, with no sponsors, no guaranteed income, and no certainty she could even pay for her hotel room. She had to win three qualifying matches just to enter the French Open main draw. Prize money is only paid at the end of the tournament, so a Polish sports drink brand quietly stepped in and covered her hotel bill. Her name is Maja Chwalinska. And today, she plays in the French Open final. Before this tournament, she had won exactly one Grand Slam main draw match in her entire career. She had battled depression so severe that in 2021 she couldn't get out of bed. She underwent knee surgery in 2022. She spent years grinding through small tournaments across Europe just to stay afloat. Then she arrived in Paris, won three qualifiers, and kept winning. Zheng Qinwen. Elise Mertens. Maria Sakkari. Diana Shnaider. Nine straight matches. One set dropped. She is now the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the final. The last time a qualifier reached a Grand Slam final, it was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Raducanu won. By simply making the final, Chwalinska has earned more prize money than her entire career combined. The runner-up cheque alone is $1.6 million. If she wins today, she takes home $3.25 million. One week ago she couldn't pay for her hotel room.

Every fat loss client who comes my way gets a MASSIVE cookbook with 81 fat-shredding recipes. I'm giving it away free for the next 24 hours... To grab it, like this tweet + comment "SHRED" below and I'll DM it to you. You gotta be following me to get it...

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@Norma5387953815 1,353. Move two matches from the 8 to form a 1.

@TivadarDanka roadmap

I’ve spent 10 years teaching math to machine learning engineers. 80% of university math is irrelevant to your actual job. Luckily, I've created a FREE roadmap to teach you the 20% you actually need. Like, retweet, and comment "roadmap" and I'll DM you the link.

@investing_law Sounds right

@elonmusk

@johnkonrad's take on the Cuauhtémoc tragedy is worth the read. I taught sailing years ago, but never on a boat longer than 50'. Still, the fundamentals are the same. Most boating accidents happen when you're in close proximity to land, other vessels or hazards (bridges, bouys etc). When you're coming into or leaving a berth or dock is when bad things often happen to equipment or crew. I've seen it on small boats, and the risk is amplified on big boats. Now it is easiest to berth or dock when your bow is facing the wind/current, because nature slows you down on the way in and helps push you on the way out. It is harder when the wind is at your stern, and it is most dangerous when you're in a cross current or cross wind. In this case, the Cuauhtémoc was facing a cross wind and cross current as it departed. Boats move slowly compared to other vehicles, so some may think that leaves ship captains/pilots with a lot of time to react. Often that is the case if everyone is alert and planned for the worst case, but here you had a ship crewed for its ceremonial departure with sailors on deck and on the yardarms and a ship pilot and tug pilot that thought they were going to do something fairly routine (gently power to stern, let the boat drift away from the dock with the tug there to slow the stern's drift down wind/current so the bow doesn't swing upwind too quickly followed by a shift to forward power to start the journey) and were left with very little time to react when things went wrong. Being stuck in reverse (or even just drifting) only a few boat lengths from a bridge is a nightmare scenario. A second tug with a tie to the bow probably could have saved two lives, but sadly it wasn't there or available for some reason. Also not sure dropping anchor would have done anything. An anchor isn't an emergency break. It only works if you have the right ratio of anchor line to water depth (7/1 to 10/1 for smaller craft, maybe even more for larger craft). Once they knew they were in real trouble, they probably just would have dragged the anchor if they even had time to drop it. I feel for everyone involved here, particularly the injured sailors and the families of the two that died. Very tragic.

John Ʌ Konrad V @johnkonrad

a year ago

Here’s my thread on what we know so far. For notes I have been a competitive sailor and I am licensed to captain ships of any size but I have not sailed tall ships. 🧵

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Best analysis I’ve seen so far of this. The ship was obviously under power AND moving in reverse when it collided with the bridge. The crew had very little time to react. Very tragic.

John Ʌ Konrad V @johnkonrad

a year ago

The real mystery with the Mexican Navy tall ship ARM Cuauhtémoc isn’t what went wrong, we know the engine was likely stuck in reverse. It’s why the tugboat wasn’t tied up. I spoke with a New York Harbor pilot and a tug captain near the scene. Here’s what we know 🧵👇

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@matthewdmarsden “For me they were all out of reach, but if you had a mongoose or diamondback you were a God.” Truth.

I love meeting capital allocators who lock in as hard as founders. Just talked to a VC who’s traveling constantly for 3+ weeks straight. And not just the usual SF, LA, NYC circuit. He’s going to Sun Valley, Aspen, and Jackson Hole hunting for alpha. This is how you win.

@zebulgar @P4lm_Trees You’re thinking of a Duffy. The boating equivalent of a golf cart at a senior living facility. Maybe some day @elon will have @Tesla make a yacht. Until then, don’t see a future for floating battery packs. Hat tip for the Southpark reference.

@elialbrecht Once had Seller's counsel get mad and say "so when are we going to see the schedules?" Uh, you're the seller and they're your reps and warranties. So maybe you should get to work on your schedules. Didn't create a lot of confidence tbh.

@henrythe9ths Ok, I’ll bite. AI guide!

There are a number of PE firms that employ accounting “SWAT teams” to come in after the closing to look for ways to reduce the purchase price via a working capital adjustment or a breach of the financial statements rep. One of many reasons a seller needs good M&A counsel negotiating the purchase agreement.

@ClintFiore @SMB_Attorney I’ve always found it interesting that sellers financing a portion of the acquisition price often doesn’t consider themselves as investors in the business after the closing. They focus on the M&A side of the deal only. There’s nothing inherently right or wrong about taking back a note. You just need to think about it as if you were a cash investor for the same $$.

Happy New Year! Looks like 2025 is going to be a busy year for capital markets and M&A professionals across a variety of sectors.

@skylarromines Happy New Year to you too!!