Happy New Year & welcome to the inaugural “What’s Piqued Pinckney.”
Consider this a monthly collection of clever ideas for curious people. Coming to your inbox the first week of every month, hopefully on a Sunday. I’ll be sharing trends and cultural moments I can’t stop thinking about, along with my opinions on tech, marketing, culture, food, fashion, and sports.
If something here makes you nod furiously, disagree loudly, or send it to a friend, then this newsletter is doing its job.
Venezuela What’s most remarkable about Venezuela right now, is that it’s not more remarkable to most Americans. This is about oil, energy, money, and an economy trending downward.
It’s also about the power of big business; if you’re not clear that Citizens United is the single most damaging Supreme Court decision of our lifetime, you’re not paying attention. History didn’t stop repeating itself; it just swapped nobility and feudalism for billionaire owners and capitalism. It’s always about the haves and the have-nots, the in and the out crowd.
If you want an independent Venezuela news source, I recommend The Caracas Chronicles. Buckle up, folks - we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Year of Quantum Speaking of energy needs: if 2025 was the year of AI, 2026 is poised to be the year of quantum computing. One way to look at it is: Quantum Computing is to problems what LLMs are to language.
Think of it like solving a maze. Traditional computing tries every possible path until it finds the exit. Quantum computing floods the maze with water, and the correct path reveals itself immediately.
"So what?" Fair question.
The real implications are just beginning to take shape, but early progress is already pointing to promising advancements.
This isn’t about faster computers. It’s about solving once unsolvable problems. What will be interesting to see is what problems are solved first. I have a suggestion: how do we generate enough clean energy so quantum computing won’t harm the environment any more than tech already has?
Stranger Things Finale They always nailed the fashion, the gadgets, and the language, but this season the music was on another level. Prince. The Pixies. Diana Ross. Bowie’s Heroes at the end. Chef’s kiss.
There has been a lot of talk about the extended “coming out” monologue. So let me ask this. How many coming-out stories did you hear in your high school in the late 80s or early 90s? As a queer woman who grew up in Queens, NY, my answer is none. So, let’s have a little grace.
Was it long? Yes. Did the Duffer Brothers use the group explanation a little too much? Sure. But overall, it was a good finale—and at least it wasn't Game of Thrones.
The audience insight? Stranger Things leveraged the style and sounds of the 80s to create nostalgia for Gen X and novelty for Gen Z. That combination always wins.
College Football Playoff (CFP) Neil Simon once said, “Sports is the only entertainment where, no matter how many times you go back, you never know the ending.” It’s also as drama-filled and image-toxic as the women’s beauty industry, which is a story for another day.
As a strategist, I see the CFP and bowl season as an unmitigated nightmare for fans, despite being designed to crown a champion. Teams & players refused to play in bowl games, coaches left playoff-bound teams for new jobs before the postseason even begins, and the selection committee's logic in the final stretch was inconsistent at best.
Much of this tension traces back to the financial and media structure surrounding the sport. ESPN’s unholy alliance with the SEC began in 2008, when ESPN secured the rights to all non-CBS SEC content. It also coincided with the SEC being the most dominant conference, winning 11 of the 17 national championships.
Now that money has flooded into the game, the economic power of the alumni bases of the Big Ten and Big 12 has significantly levelled the playing field. Note: the last two national championships came from the Big Ten, and they have a 50% chance this year. ESPN was not expecting this. Now, ESPN has a SIGNIFICANT conflict of interest: it is the official broadcast partner of both the SEC conference and the playoffs. It has made no effort to be more transparent about the selection process, which is clearly biased toward the SEC.
The vitriol ESPN regularly receives online will be worth watching this year and beyond. When companies mess with something their customers are passionate about, it rarely ends well for the brand. Who knows, someone could launch a player-first, 24/7 sports network focused on sports, not sports-adjacent personalities. One can only hope, and I can help!
Feedback, both public and private, is always welcome. Feel free to join the conversation on LinkedIn here. See you next month where I will be giving my perspective on Davos WEF 2026!
Listen to the Spotify playlist inspired by this blog post!