TBOY Newsletter · Tuesday, August 11, 2026

There’s a Deflation Situation worthy of Celebration: Guacamole might get cheaper… because an avocado changed sexes.

Farmers have known for years that avocado flowers can switch genders. But nobody could predict when… until now. Scientists at UC Davis camped out in an orchard to discover when flowers emit pollen (male) and when they receive (female). That insight will help optimize pollination, grow more avo trees, which could drop avo prices. Guac — it’s still extra. Just maybe a little less extra. 

A viral new promo has you spend $10 at a participating retailer, get $10 back, up to 10 times per debit/credit card. That's $100 in free money, stacking across as many cards as you're willing to activate. Credit Card Gurus, Points-Maxxers, and Finfluencers are freaking out about it. “The Paze Craze”.

What is Paze? You know how Big Banks banded together to take on Venmo by creating Zelle? Well they created Paze to take on ApplePay & PayPal. They got their one-click checkout option in 2023, but nobody was using it. So they offered $10 statement credits if you spend $10. And people noticed.

• One user with 20 cards has banked $2K in credits. Others are opening checking accounts for the sole purpose of getting a new debit card into rotation for Paze deals.

• Dunkin', Sephora, GNC — They had to limit the deals to 1-per-day because it was working too well. $10 Gift Cards were the redemption of choice (because the $10 statement credit made them free).

• The offer ends 9/10, but Paze users have already doubled in the last month.

THE TAKEAWAY: Attack the CAC.

You can evaluate the return of a marketing campaign by comparing the cost of an acquired customer to their lifetime customer value.

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) = total marketing spend ÷ new customers

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) = Profits expected from each customer discounted to today

If the CAC was less than the CLV, the marketing campaign was worth it. You hope these new customers become Paze regulars and don’t quit Sept 10th. But given how the CAC was $2k for some people, we wonder if our buddies at Paze regret their generosity (and their campaign’s virality).

Did ya know singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams hears colors? He’s got “synesthesia.” That may be why he’s gone deep designing shoes for Adidas, including the latest glow-in-the-dark Adidas Jellyfish — winner of 2025's Shoe of the Year. It just launched in a new color… yet Adidas stock fell.

Sorry to break it to ya, but we’re “Post-Sneaker.” The last decade loosened up men’s shoelaces, from oxford lace ups to sneakers — Allbirds, Air Force 1s, and Adidas all found their way into the boardroom. But The Times of London called 2026 the year of the loafer.

• 20-somethings used sneakers to rebel at work… but now their bosses are wearing sneakers so they’re moving on to loafers.

• Allen Edmonds, Cole Haan, and Johnston & Murphy are finally getting looks again.

• And BofA downgraded sneaker stocks to “sell” earlier this year.

THE TAKEAWAY: Once a trend earns a name, the trend is already over.

Metaverse, normcore, quiet quitting, girl math — by the time a trend is recognized by the mainstream with a name, the early adopters have already moved on. The best way to know a trend is over is when your boss embraces it.

A for effort… Zuck published a 13-page manifesto Monday called “The Future Is For Everyone,” arguing that superintelligent AI should be handed to every person instead of concentrated at the top. It's the culmination of a full image relaunch: a WSJ op-ed, sit-downs with the NYT & Financial Times… and a live-streamed boxing match against a UFC fighter — on a barge, in Lake Tahoe.

Zuck’s 6,500 word encyclical used philosophy to justify Meta’s business model:

• Distillation is OK (because Meta does it): This is when a smaller model essentially copies a bigger model, whether consensually or not.

• Open weight is OK (because Meta does it): Even though it’s arguably un-regulatable.

• Closed models are not OK (because Meta doesn’t do it): That’s what Anthropic does.

THE TAKEAWAY: Mark Zuckerberg thinks he’s running for President of AI

Zuck also promised benefits to the American people like it was a stump speech: He announced a $1 Billion “The Future is for Everyone Fund”, giving free cash to people who live near data centers. And his “American Workforce Academy” offers free training and jobs at his data centers. Dario of Anthropic and Sam of OpenAI have taken turns warning about the dark potential of AI. But Zuck’s staying 100% positive… like he’s trying to get AI elected (because he kind of is).