Derek Thompson’s writing is always enjoyable.1 In his Hit Makers, Thompson looks at two main questions: 1. What is the secret to making products that people like? 2. Why do some products fail in the marketplaces while similar ideas catch on and become massive hits? To address the first one, he shows that many of the viral hits have some strong shared features (timely exposure, MAYA rule2– most advanced yet acceptable designs, refrain and repetition for music, helpful economics, network effects, and the force of storytelling). But these features are, as Thompson himself argues, not exactly some “secret sauce”. I hope that the readers are not frustrated by the eventual answer to Why question: much of virality is due to…
Leave a CommentMonth: January 2018
As 2017 has concluded, time to take stock. Here is the list of most read posts on the OWL Blog. 2017 Book Recommendations Books read in 2017 Where have all the Retail jobs gone? Death by a Single Cut? Roaming Workforce: A Review of Nomadland Dynamic Pricing of Parking Spots This is just from raw data – I am omitting recency bias, about page, etc.
Leave a CommentIn late December 2017, continuing its string of legal setbacks, Uber lost a case in the European Court of Justice which ruled that Uber is a taxi company. Specifically, the courts rule that a company whose service is “to connect, by means of a smartphone application and for remuneration, non-professional drivers using their own vehicle with persons who wish to make urban journeys” must be considered “a service in the field of transport.” The news coverage of the case indicate that the ruling only impacts four markets (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania), where Uber is yet to be regulated under the local or national laws. In fact, Uber is already regulated like a taxi company in many European nations. Proponents of…
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