Weekend edition—Facebook’s not-mea-culpa, the rise of cranberries, working-class sitcoms

[Quartz - qz.com]( Good morning, Quartz readers! Mark Zuckerberg’s [testimony]( before the US Congress this week was as much a referendum on Facebook as the erosion of America’s digital privacy. It was also the ultimate non-apology. Pale and visibly uncomfortable in a dark suit instead of his regular hoodie, Facebook’s CEO stuck closely to company talking points. “Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company,” he told lawmakers. “For most of our existence, we focused on all the good that connecting people can do… It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm, as well.” You see, Facebook didn’t have bad intentions or deliberately ignore the warnings and critics. It was simply too idealistic and too optimistic to imagine the platform being used for anything other than good. The technology industry is fond of framing failure as success. The cult of the entrepreneur is built on rulebreakers and college dropouts. Founders trade war stories at global conference series FailCon. In Silicon Valley, failure is never really failure, but rather a stepping stone to success. Fail fast, fail often, [fail everywhere](. Uber and its pugnacious co-founder, Travis Kalanick, also loved the non-apology. Uber engaged in questionable labor practices, bulldozed politicians and regulators, skimped on consumer privacy, and fostered a culture of “brilliant jerks.” The company did this with a ruthless, unapologetic insistence that it alone could foresee and take necessary steps toward a better future. At Uber, it took a new CEO to begin taking failure seriously. Dara Khosrowshahi has spent months on an international apology tour designed to smooth over Kalanick’s missteps. At Facebook, the problem runs deeper. The company is older, the founder more idealistic and defensive, the platform more entrenched. If you can only view your failures as an unforeseen consequence of good intentions, how can you ever really hope to change? —Alison Griswold Five things on Quartz we especially liked The cranberry industrial complex. Gwynn Guilford [traces the fruit’s path]( from treat in Ulysses S. Grant’s 1864 Thanksgiving feast to the palms of health-conscious young people in China today in this wonderfully written tale of globalization and commercial ingenuity. (All of which could be undone by a trade war.) Going natural. South African women of color, long ignored by local retailers, are now drawing attention for their growing shift towards natural hair. They’re tapping into a global movement, writes Lynsey Chutel, that has [much psychological value for black women]( as commercial value for the stores finally catering to them. Ending the classless society of sitcoms. Two new comedies portray communities that have [until now been invisible in TV comedy]( writes Aamna Mohdin. These shows “offer a radical departure from this approach, demonstrating the warmth, resilience, and quirks that have long defined working-class communities.” The incredible rise of the humble bowl. Once upon a time, Americans associated eating out of a bowl with immigrants and poverty. Annalise Griffin explains how, over the last decade or so, bowls came to be embraced as a symbol of a [healthy, slightly bohemian aesthetic](. Building cars is harder than rocket science. SpaceX has launched rockets into space, but Elon Musk’s other company, Tesla, is struggling to mass-produce its new Model 3. Tim Fernholz examines how [getting into space is easier]( in many ways than securing a place as the world’s premier electric automaker in a cut-throat car market. Five things elsewhere that made us smarter Made in Italy (by the Chinese). In the 1990s, Chinese workers began pouring into the city of Prato, becoming manufacturers for designer brands like Gucci and Prada as well as fast-fashion retailers. “There was a note of jealousy to the Pratans’ complaints,” writes D.T. Max [in The New Yorker]( “as well as a reluctant respect for people who had beaten them at their own game.” Ageing in the social-media age. For [Roxane Gay’s anthology on Medium]( Chelsea G. Summers cops to her own nightly “baroque dance of cleansers, exfoliators, toners, essences, serums, oils, hydrators, moisturizers, sheet masks, sleeping masks, lip masks, and sunscreen.” In doing so, she offers a revealing window into female anxiety. When America was great. Recounting his days as a stringer covering Belarus’ election on the eve of 9/11, BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith examines his view of America’s place in the world—and his certainty that [capitalist democracy was bound to prevail]( radically changed in the intervening decades. How Facebook got to know you so well. By linking your likes, quiz answers and buying habits to ethnic affinities and psychological traits. For [the New York Times]( Keith Collins (a Quartz alum!) and Larry Buchanan trace the step-by-step evolution of the social network’s ad targeting. Volatility, the virus that infected Wall Street. Robin Wigglesworth has an ode [in the Financial Times]( (paywall) to the financial engineering that arguably sprung from the University of Chicago’s economics department 60 years ago. He describes the recent collapse of volatility derivative funds as “an eerily familiar tale of Wall Street innovation, greed, and hubris.” Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, sheet masks, and grain bowls to hi@qz.com. You can follow us [on Twitter here]( for updates throughout the day, or download [our apps for iPhone]( and [Android](. Today’s Weekend Brief was edited by Kira Bindrim and Kabir Chibber. 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