We’re either the last generation to ever die, or the first generation to live forever. I’m not talking figuratively here. You, reading this, might have an eternal life.
As new users flatline and consumer spending freezes, e-commerce companies descend into the unknown to find growth Read this edition online A paid 🔒 weekly emailer that explains fundamental shifts in business, technology and finance that happened over the last seven days in India.
What's the difference in the price of a barrel of oil delivered to your doorstep today vs. a contract that locks in a price and guarantees you a barrel of oil in 6 months? You'd need to think about what it costs to store a barrel of oil. First, you'll need a warehouse and safety gear to keep it (the fumes of a single barrel of oil can quickly kill you). Then there are insurance, financing, and other hidden costs to owning the physical commodity. When today's price ("the spot price") is lower t
The puzzling endurance of MRP in the age of heavy discounting
And whether there is a case for it Read this edition online Tuesday, 07 June 2022 A weekly newsletter about the biggest changes in commerce—focusing on shifts that matter to you.
WhatsApp Enables Migration Feature for Android-to-iPhone Switchers
Apple and WhatsApp announced on Tuesday that the popular chat service has been rolled into Apple’s Move to iOS system, which allows Android users to migrate their data to the iPhone. HereR…
Now things will never be the same in India Read this edition online A paid 🔒 weekly emailer that explains fundamental shifts in business, technology and finance that happened over the last seven days in India.
Cicero once told the story of a tyrant king of Syracuse named Dionysius II. He had been king for 38 years – with significant wealth and fame. Yet, he lived in constant fear of those around him – he wouldn't trust a barber, he addressed the people not from a pulpit but a high tower, everyone near him was searched for weapons extensively. Damocles, a member of Dionysius's entourage, once told the king how wonderful it seemed to be king – that no one seemed happier. Dionysius replied, > Do you wi
Why everyone wants a piece of India’s open e-commerce platform
ONDC has been created to change the status quo in e-commerce dramatically. So why are all the incumbents rushing to cooperate with it? Read this edition online A paid 🔒 weekly emailer that explains fundamental shifts in business, technology and finance that happened over the last seven days in India.
Critiquing Disruption Theory – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Much of the Internet has been abuzz about The Disruption Machine, an essay by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker that seeks to refute Clayton Christensen’s Theory of Disruptive Innovation. From th…
In 2015 I gave a presentation at the DLD Conference about brands and tech. The video of the talk went semi-viral on YouTube after a music industry analyst (@boblefsetz) featured it in his newsletter. Soon after, I had a book deal; I was writing this newsletter every week; CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg were calling […]
It’s not because I want to back the little guy over a US$2 billion company Read this edition online Tuesday, 29 March 2022 A weekly newsletter about the biggest changes in commerce—focusing on shifts that matter to you.
Language runtimes are fun again. Where can a language run? It's not a question of Linux vs. Windows anymore. Can it run in the browser (WebAssembly)? Can it run in the kernel (BPF)? Does it support x86 and ARM? Can you embed it in another language? Other important questions: How can it be packed into a container? What security boundaries does the runtime provide? First, what is a language runtime? You can think of the language runtime as the environment in which a program is executed. Everyth
In Linux, virtual memory is divided into user space and kernel space. The kernel is the core part of the operating system that serves as the interface between physical hardware devices and running processes. Kernel space protects that interface from faults (if the operating system itself fails, how does it recover?) and from malicious programs (trying to circumvent operating system security or modify another program). A diagram of Linux kernel space and user space from Wikipedia (source [https:
In the increasingly centralized world of web3, are there any benefits to using a blockchain? What would crypto look like without the blockchain? There are fundamental tradeoffs to using a blockchain architecture (see Blockchain tradeoffs). Blockchains choose transparency over privacy and decentralization over scalability. Decentralization is costly. For example, permissionless blockchains must deal with bad actors and spammers. A centralized service like Gmail can detect and eliminate spam by