The past is more opaque than the future. Even when we know the “rough” history of what transpired, it is sometimes hard to imagine, how things were before the natural evolution into the current “normalcy” occurred. I imagine that, very soon, it would be astounding to consumers that Amazon did not own any stores, and Apple did not make any phones. How was life before that? In this respect, Barbara Garson’s The Electronic Sweatshop is revelatory, because it discusses a mind-and-place that is hard to imagine because many automated things came to be. For examples, she writes (Pg. 177), When typewriters were first introduced, their operators were also called “typewriters”. Later they became typists. So far in the electronic office,…
Leave a CommentMonth: March 2018
In the world beset with mundane proclivities, we are mesmerized by lives that challenge our imagination. Stephen Hawking lived such a life. Prof. Hawking was a living proof that the infinite can exist in our finite bodies. His frailty underlined the finite in all of us — our physical littleness, and the small treacheries of misfortune in our meager lives — all the while as his capacious thoughts strode all of space and time. “A Brief History of Time” is often said to be the best selling book that no one had read. A statement that is “all clever and no wise”. In the 90s as a teenager in Madras, Hawking’s book and his life were distinctly inspirational to me,…
Leave a CommentAt Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowan posted his ten favorite science fiction novels. A very interesting list that includes some of my favorites. I have read 9 out of those top ten. (I have not read the highly rated The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, of which I have only heard rave reviews. I hope to read it soon). I doubt that I will ever be able to read all Science Fiction that I would like to read. But, the list made me think of what my favorites would be. For the list, I am considering books I have loved reading when I read them (some in early-teens), and books that I have continued to come back to and enjoy, with no…
Leave a Comment
Lego’s revenues for 2017 are now out. In September 2017, Financial Times reported on problems at Lego, which was then planning to cut about 8% of its workforce. Indeed, Lego has been suffering from increasingly bigger global operations problems, with poor sales in Europe and North America. There have been reports of inventories piling up at distribution centers. One of the reasons attributed for Lego’s troubles is that Lego has been distracted from its core competencies, by investing in movie franchising and so on. While that is partly true, as I will explain below, Lego’s core business itself has some fundamental issues, that need to be resolved. Let’s look at some Data and I point out two issues with Lego’s Operations Planning.…
Leave a CommentSnap’s adventurous foray into the hardware market continues. Cheddar and then Verge reported that Snap is busy working on Version 2 of Spectacles. Here is Alex Heath from Cheddar: But Snap won’t stop with version two of Spectacles. The company has also begun work on a more ambitious, third generation of Spectacles with a new design and two cameras, the people said. Snap has prototyped an aluminum design with more circular lens frames and two cameras that would allow for 3D-like depth effects in videos. Snap has additionally considered including a built-in GPS and a leather case, as well as a potential price tag of around $300, which would be more than double the current $130 cost for Spectacles. Snap…
Leave a CommentIn 2013, a guy who was trying to pitch a company, called DoorBot, that sold security doorbells, went nowhere on Shark Tank, as the sharks rejected his offer. The founder Jamie Siminoff positioned the idea at $7M. Here is the video. Last year, the company was valued at $460M. Last week, the company, now called Ring, was acquired by Amazon for $1B. This is not a post to castigate the poor assessments of Ring’s original business idea: As ideas evolve they get better, and some cosmic confluence of interests can be helpful for a firm. — Ring, at one Billion USD, is a tremendously expensive acquisition for Amazon. In fact, Ring is Amazon’s second-biggest acquisition, after Whole Foods. Similar large…
Leave a Comment