The Take Down
A graduate, a quieter week, and a Sunday I'll keep
Hi, it’s Caroline.
She graduated.
My baby. The one who, by every metric available to me, was born approximately eight minutes ago, walked across a stage on Monday in a beautiful dress (one of the ninja-shopped backups, in case you remember the saga), her hair done by the master stylist, her newly buttery-blonde waves catching the light just so, and she officially closed out Grade 8.
I am not crying. You’re crying.
Oh, and one more thing: our long-form Amazon video from inside Annapurna Labs dropped this morning at 8 AM.
Big drop: Inside Amazon’s secret AI chip lab, live this morning
Major news in this issue: our long-form Amazon video from inside Annapurna Labs dropped this morning at 8 AM. Inside the Secret AI Chip Lab. The video you’ve been hearing me build up to for weeks. The chips, the architecture, the people, the room.
This is the first of the long-form videos coming out of Austin, and we spent this week deep in the edit chair finishing it and the next one. Coming up this Thursday on Ticker Take: We Got Inside Amazon, Here’s What It Means for the Stock. Plus, an AI Under the Hood episode from the trip dropping tomorrow. Stay tuned, the Amazon content is just getting started.
Monday: a graduate
Monday morning began at the salon. Quinn had been using a bleaching spray she’d been quietly experimenting with, and reader, the result was gorgeous: buttery blonde waves that I genuinely could not stop staring at. The master stylist worked her magic, the look came together, and by the time we got home, balloons were being delivered to the front door, and the whole house was officially in graduation mode.
We squeezed in a guest shoot at the home studio in the middle of all of it, because the content machine does not pause for milestones, but somehow the day stayed sacred anyway. By afternoon, we were at the ceremony.
I watched her walk across that stage and felt that very specific thing that all moms eventually feel: the squeeze in your chest that contains all the versions of her you’ve ever known. The toddler. The first day of kindergarten. The Hollister sale on the kitchen bar. And now, the girl about to start Grade 9.
She did it. She really did it. And she did it looking radiant.
To Quinn: I am so unbelievably proud of you. You are kind, you are funny, you are smart, you are gorgeous, you are a trendsetter, and the world is so lucky it gets to keep meeting you.
The video this week: 5 Golden Growth Stocks to Buy on the Stumble, with Chris Stuchberry
This week’s Ticker Take dropped Thursday at 4 PM: a sit-down with Chris Stuchberry, breaking down 5 Golden Growth Stocks to Buy on the Stumble. The kind of episode that helps you sharpen your watchlist when the market gives you an opening.
As always, this is not financial advice. Just a smart conversation worth your time.
AI Under the Hood: memory and the AMD acquisition of MEXT
This week’s AI Under the Hood is about the corner of the AI race nobody is paying enough attention to: memory.
Specifically, the story of AMD acquiring MEXT, and why the move matters more than the headline suggests. Memory is one of the most overlooked constraints in the AI build-out, and AMD positioning itself in that part of the stack tells you a lot about where the chip race is actually going.
Subscribe to my Instagram, TikTok, or the Ticker Take YouTube channel so you don’t miss it.
The rest of the week
Tuesday: I genuinely cannot tell you what I did. I know I worked. The kind of day that goes by entirely in production blur. The machine does not stop, even when your brain has politely asked it to.
Wednesday: under the weather. A wave of fatigue, a stuffed-up head, and some pain returning to my eye where I had shingles two years ago. I took steroid drops for a year back then, and I’m not interested in tempting fate, so I listened to my body and skipped kickboxing for the first time in a while. Worked through it, rested when I could, did not push.
Wednesday night: Cali’s softball semifinal. I missed her games the previous week (Austin, then the SpaceX launch), so I was so excited to drive Cali and her friends out and stand on the sidelines. I then stood in the rain for two hours. They almost won. They lost 10-9, after a final at-bat from a kid who genuinely did not want to swing. His mom and I were standing nearby, and she said with a great laugh, “he won’t do it.” I said something hopeful about big turn-around moments. She knew her son. He did not swing. I respect them both.
Thursday: work, calls, and the video drop.
Friday: kickboxing cancelled, dentist scheduled. My kickboxing coach had his sister’s graduation (a whole graduation theme to this week, apparently), so I took the rare daytime opening and booked Cali and Quinn in for the dentist. Our schedules had pushed it so far that the next available opening was October, so when a Friday slot appeared, we took it. Calls, meetings, and a quiet Friday night playing Heads Up on the porch with Cali and Jon. Quinn was at a sleepover. The porch, the laughs, and one of my daughters all to myself.
Saturday: a long walk with Cali and Lola. We took the long route. Talked about everything and nothing. Then I sat down to write Jon a Father’s Day card and pick out his gift. The card is the part that always takes the longes, but the sentiments are worth it.
Sunday: the back porch, and three hours that disappeared
Sunday started early, because I drove Cali to her camp counselor training, which, as a sentence I am writing, also makes me emotional. She is going to be incredible at it.
Then I brought breakfast over to my parents' house for Father's Day. We sat on the back porch of the house I grew up in from age 11, my mom and dad and me, and stayed there for what I thought was an hour.
It was three.
Three hours that disappeared the way only certain mornings can. The kind where the conversation flows, the sun moves across the porch, and you don’t notice time at all. Just calm. Just family. Just the back porch of the house I grew up in. Time flies when you’re having fun is a phrase I have said a thousand times in my life, but I felt it on Sunday in a way I won’t forget for a while.
I came home and made Jon a Father’s Day dinner with the girls: strip loin, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, salad and a Barolo. The kind of dinner that says everything I’d want a card to say, and then some.
Happy Father’s Day to one of the best dads I know, and a Happy Father’s Day to my dad and father-in-law, too.
Jon’s AM vs. Caroline’s PM
Jon this week: filming, writing, his columns, the Stuchberry interview, the back-end of the SpaceX cycle, prepping more content from Austin, and being the dad-of-the-house on Father’s Day. The man does not stop.
Me this week: Quinn’s graduation, the guest shoot squeezed in around it, the AI Under the Hood on AMD/MEXT, the under-the-weather rest day, the rain-soaked semifinal, the Heads Up porch night, the long walk, the Sunday on the porch with my parents, and a strip loin dinner that came together with three sets of female hands.
The Wins This Week
Quinn graduated Grade 8. Buttery blonde waves, beautiful dress, radiant kid.
Amazon video #1, live this morning. Inside the Secret AI Chip Lab. The Austin trip officially has receipts.
Coming Thursday: We Got Inside Amazon, Here’s What It Means for the Stock. The investor side of the trip is next.
New video live: 5 Golden Growth Stocks to Buy on the Stumble with Chris Stuchberry. Search Ticker Take with Jon Erlichman on YouTube.
New AI Under the Hood: the AMD/MEXT memory story. Watch it.
Cali, camp counselor in training. I am so proud I can barely talk about it.
A Heads Up night on the porch with Cali. A quiet treasure.
Three hours on my parents’ back porch. Time disappeared.
A strip loin and Barolo Father’s Day dinner. Made with the girls. Worth every minute.
Listening to my body, instead of overriding it. Underrated win.
A rare daytime dentist slot, claimed. October was the alternative. I will take it.
The Losses This Week
The shingles eye, briefly back. Listening. Resting. Not pushing.
Cali’s softball semifinal, in the rain, 10-9. The good fight, fought.
Sleep: Slow, steady, and not always cooperating.
Tuesday: A black hole.
The takeaway
Some weeks the headlines are loud. This week, the loudest thing in my life was a 13-year-old in a graduation dress, walking across a stage that closed out one chapter of her life and started another.
Quinn graduating reminded me, again, that the work matters less than the moments. The content cycle will be here tomorrow. The video drops will keep coming. The AI Under the Hoods will keep filming. But Monday afternoon, with her hair done, the balloons at the door, and her smile bigger than I’d ever seen, was a moment I will carry forever.
Add to that: a Wednesday I rested. A Friday night Heads Up game. A long walk with the dog. Three hours that disappeared on a porch I have known since I was 11. A Sunday dinner cooked with my daughters for the dad who has shown up for all of it.
This was a quieter week, in the very best way.
Onwards.
Thanks for being here. See you next week.
Caroline
P.S. Subscribe to Jon’s Substack if you haven’t, you’ll get both sides of our brain.
🙌