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Meta
Facebook’s reorganization into Meta is the ultimate bet on the power of founder control.
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Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?
Netflix put some serious design resources into its Annual Reports pre-2010. What changed?
243
The Left-NIMBY Canon
Standing athwart urban history, yelling Stop
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Where has all the productivity gone?
Why hasn't new technology made us more productive than it has?
246
Repeat Yourself, a Lot
Learn why successful venture capital leaders and startup CEOs repeat key messages 7+ times to drive brand recall and align teams around strategic priorities.
247
Why I have zero faith in crypto venture capitalists
Mostly the reason I have zero faith in crypto venture capitalists as an institution is that their primary value add is marketing, their due diligence is a joke, and they are functionally equivalent…
248
Fixing a Tiny Corner of the Supply Chain
No product gets built without at least one good supply chain war story – especially true in these strange times. Before we get into the details of the story, I feel it’s worth understanding a bit more about the part that caused me so much trouble: what it does, and why it’s so special.
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What happens in an IPO? – Part 1
Read time: 23 minutes
250
The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
Alex Danco's Newsletter, Season 3, Episode 2
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The Fraud Supply Chain
Fraud is largely conducted by professionals operating in specialized firms, which have their own ecosystem of evil.
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Insurance is like gambling, don't overdo it
Insurance companies, like betting companies, need high margins to keep operating. You are paying that margin.
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Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)
The world often hands us what are called
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Why Telegram had to follow Apple and Google when they suspended a voting app
telegra.ph/why-telegram-had-to-follow-apple-and-google-when-they-suspended-a-voting-app-09-252021229 points168 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details
Telegram gives its users more freedom of speech than any other popular mobile application. Unlike other apps, Telegram can't be pressured by shareholders, cloud providers or advertisers into unjustified censorship. Telegram doesn't exist in isolation, however. It depends on other companies to function, from banks and…
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My interview with Steven Levy re. leaking of my Facebook Goodbye post
Bottom Line Up Front: Frances, if you read this, do please tell the DCMS committee up front (and don’t let them distract or dissuade you) that people need the privacy which end-to-end encrypt…
256
How I got wealthy without working too hard
Specialize, Don't live in big cities, Go full-remote
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The California Exception
You know how I linked to that New York Times editorial pleading for regulation of dark patterns? Turns out I missed something in the Times’ convoluted cancellation policies. They give you the choice of speaking with someone over the telephone or speaking with someone using an instant messenger. Both have similar hours…
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Google I/O 2021 and Uncomfortable Questions
Android app development books
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Policies that make the poor less poor
We should have policies to make the poor less poor. Unfortunately, policies explicitly aimed at trying to make the poor less poor typica...
260
Facebook is other people
This is what "democratization" looks like
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Startup Ideas
Proposals for new technologies, businesses, startups, satirical or serious.
262
My experience releasing failed SaaS products
Build it and they will come! In the 1989 classic: Field of Dreams an Iowa farmer has a vision to bulldoze a portion of his corn crop in…
263
Tales from Prediction Markets
Prediction markets are fun, at least if you're making money.
264
Stock Market Returns Are Anything but Average
A reader asks: Ben, I believe you have written at least once about how surprisingly few times the stock market has grown near its long-term average in a given year. In other words, its typical annual returns are well above its long-term ~10% average, or well below. I’m searching for it on your blog site...
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The Future of Games is an Instant Flash to the past
The success of an open source browser game called Friday Night Funkin tells us where "instant games" might go. Hint: we've been here before.
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I paid for Spotify playlist placements so you don’t have to
As part of my ongoing mission to throw money into thin air I decided to promote some of Corserine’s songs on Spotify. Objectives: increase monthly streams on my Spotify artist page so I can g…
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The Bay Area has become a large declining tech company
The large declining tech company. We’ve all read articles in the tech press and blogs analyzing how once hot companies lost their way. Most ...
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Kinda a Big Announcement
The other day I was talking to a young developer working on a code base with tons of COM code, and I told him that even before he was born, everyone knew that COM was already so deeply obsolete tha…
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Microsoft Silently Dropping Emails – a Sad but True Story (2020)
From time to time Microsoft decides to block or even silently drop emails that are sent by my selfhosted email server. It’s always a pain and takes a lot of effort to deal with it. This time I decided to…Read more ›
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The chip shortage could lead to an era of hardware innovation
It’s bad out there for customers of electronic parts and components. The semiconductor shortage is so severe it’s being covered by mainstream media; meanwhile, various politicians have tasked their aides with looking at the global supply chain. Indeed, in the short term, the dearth of chips is already leading to…