Articles

Affichage des articles du janvier, 2016

Plethora of choices is outdated. How internet will change our life again.

The world is re-concentrating. Before the internet: - if you wanted to travel you just called your local agency or went there. - if you wanted to eat, you went to your local supermarkets. - if you wanted a took, you went to the places around you selling tools. - if you wanted a computer, you went to the local computer vendors or malls. - if you wanted someone to repair something, you asked your friend and checked the yellow pages. - if you wanted to know if the new restaurant in the 11th street was right, you had to test it, ask friends or check restaurant reviews in the newspaper. Business was very concentrated. We had few choices. Were we less happy? No. We did less stuff, for sure and stuff were more expensive. Again, did it make us less happy? No. Then the internet arrived. Boom. It came with a plethora of choices. As much everything as we want, even more. After 20-30 years liking it, hunting discounts, flash sales, private sales, price comparators, etc. what'

Why we don't take our Uber driver's phone number to skip Uber fee?

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We could take the phone number of Uber drivers and skip Uber fee. We could skip Amazon marketplace fee and deal directly with the marketplace vendor. We could skip AirBnB and skip AirBnB fee. We don't. Why? Because we like to be reassured by an intermediate guaranteeing a good trade. Indeed, they do this trade at scale and in a very packaged way.  We feel good using them. We like smooth experiences and avoiding risks. Trading is a risk. I'm not sure humans like risks, and thus, I'm not sure they like trading. We did that before the internet. We had no choice. Now we have.

Tech companies are packaging and scaling unpacked and unscaled verticals

After a first post about the rise of anonymous jobs , I'm quite inspired. This one is about scaling and packaging the world. Uber: you don't know who the driver is, and you don't care. Indeed, Uber guarantee you he's good. Amazon marketplace: you don't care who the vendor is, and you don't care. Indeed, Uber guarantee you he's good. Spotify/Deezer playlists: you don't care which artists are in it and who built them. Spotify guarantees you they're right for you and popular. Food delivery (Uber Eat, Foodcheri): you don't know who cooked it. These services guarantee you it's good. If you prepare food for Uber Eats, if you're an artist distributed on Spotify, if you're a Uber driver, if you're an Amazon marketplace vendor, you're anonymous. You're easily replaceable. Business as usual, isn't it? Yes. Most of the people are anonymous in their job. Tech giants and startups are just packaging and scaling unscaled

GDP growth is over. Should we be afraid? No.

The World is finite. So consumption growth is finite. As a result, I see a GDP growth less world coming. But a growth less world can create a lot of opportunities and jobs. Indeed, the world is changing very fast. E-commerce is rising, sharing economy is booming, robots and drones markets are exploding, etc. Unemployment won't be bigger without GDP growth.  Market caps won't go down without GDP growth. I mean, for companies who position themselves carefully's like GAFAs, major e-commerce firms like Nike or Burberry. Why? Reshaping the world requires people, companies, innovation. World's big shifts like automation and robotisation are responsible for most of the job cuts.  See automated buses in the UK  and this article (in French) mentioning a survey saying 2M jobs might be cut due to automation.   The absence of growth is a poor contributor. And by the way, the existence of growth doesn't create jobs. It creates market caps, bubb

Mes lectures 2015 préférées

Voici les lectures qui m'ont marqué en 2015. Je ne mets pas les liens Amazon pour faire plaisir à mes friends & family editeurs et libraires :) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up : Marie Kondo, (jolie) gourou Japonaise du rangement, explique pourquoi on doit jeter tout ce qui ne nous rend pas heureux.  J'avais déjà cette tendance à l'ascetisme avant mais cette lecture m'a décomplexé. Gros déclic. Je ne possède plus grand chose, je n'achète plus grand chose, je dépense plutôt mon argent en expériences/services qui ne s'entassent pas et j'adore ça.  Pratique de la voie tibetaine  : Plein de sujets abordés par Chögyam Trungpa, sommité boudhiste. Je commence à avoir lu une paquet de livres sur le sujet, celui là était très sympa. Le format d'entretiens concrets sur des sujets de la vie sans prétentions le rend trés agréable. The Secret  : Best seller sur le développement personnel aux US. Un peu niais à première vue, comme beauc

Is travel the greatest wealthy people's drug?

People around me only talk about travel. Travel is always on listed as a hobby in resumes. A weekend seems to be cool, only if you travel. Same for holidays. Why?  Does staying home suck so much? Does the city where you live suck so much? Are you travelling to escape temporarily from your life, don't you think you should fix your life? What is the outcome of seeing monuments? What do you expect when you travel? Do you travel for yourself or others? Do you think putting travel on your resume hobbies makes any sense for the person reading it? Can't you spend the energy you spend planning trips more wisely? Don't you think marketing dictate you the place you crave for visiting?  Don't you think traveling without living with locals and being useful to them is like going to the zoo?  Michel Onfray, a philosopher, says that when we travel we seek ourselves.  I'd add, traveling is the simplest way to make our life interesting.  It's u

Décryptage : la popularité de nos leaders politiques

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Sondage super intéressant messieurs-dames. Je parle en Français car c'est de la pure politique Française et je me lance dans le décryptage car la désinformation des médias Français m'attriste. 2 sources : une et deux . En bref : Les Français veulent une réforme de notre bonne vieille Ve République. C'est franc et net.  Les leaders historiques de gauche, droite, parti ecologiste et extrême gauche sont peu crédibles. L'extrême droite échappe à la curée, sûrement parce qu'ils ont fait le ménage en écartant leur leader historique, Jean-Marie. La droite a son champion de popularité incontestable, rompu à l'exercice politique, mais en incohérence avec le désir de renouvellement des Français, Juppé. Elle a aussi beaucoup de leaders assez jeunes et moyennement populaires : Le Maire, Pecresse, NKM, etc. La gauche a 2 leaders jeunes, nouveaux, plutôt populaires ET actuellement au pouvoir, ce qui est une combinaison pas aisée : Macron et dans une moindr