Curated Commons // Edition 10
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the tenth edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in.
Is Amazon less efficient than Walmart?
Amazon has grown bigger, meaner and more scarier for retailers, but is it less efficient? This blog posits that hypothesis with some interesting data.
Amazon starts off by making $ 8.7 of sales for every $ of fixed assets and ends up at $ 2.5, almost 40% less than Wal-Mart which stays pretty stable just above $ 4 over the period.
And not only has the efficiency of Amazon got worse, it has generally gotten worse faster as the company has grown. There are major dis-economies of scale with the business model
https://www.glistatigenerali.com/borsa/amazon-is-a-less-efficient-company-than-wal-mart/
The future is here now. In parts.
You probably heard of Dolly, the cloned sheep, from decades ago. Scientists have now cloned an endangered species of horse that has not been seen in the wild since 1969 using DNA that was frozen 40 years ago.
New-age jobs, new-age challenges
Professional gaming is now a billion-dollar industry with audience sizes globally in hundreds of millions. Some academic systems are also encouraging esports programs. But, the industry is not without its challenges. The physical and mental stress is a very real challenge. And the industry’s close ties to social media also mean players are exposed much more to online toxicity than other professional sports. Good read on how all this impacts players.
In June, 23-year-old League of Legends champion Jian ‘Uzi’ Zihao – who is considered China’s most famous esports star, having racked up more kills during tournaments than anyone else in the world – shocked many in esports when he announced that he was retiring because his mental and physical health had deteriorated so much.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/esports-injuries-mental-health
We live in a…rich ecosystem
Might be just me, but the pandemic and the lockdowns have forced a far greater appreciation of life, and its complexity, and fragility of the human body. And a renewed respect for science! The FT has a highly informative, in parts scary, read on viruses in wildlife. Apparently, there are about 1.6 Mn viruses on the planet in mammals and birds. 700,000 have the potential to infect humans. Of these, we’ve only identified ~250 in humans! Do read this piece!
Alibaba & smart factories
A few years ago, I recall reading a fascinating story in Buzzfeed on Memefacturing - how companies in China scale memes into physical products rapidly. Alibaba now appears to be bringing this mainstream to the garments industry. Its latest business Xunxi (“fast rhino”) aims to merge consumer behavioral data with emerging tech to dramatically cut lead times.
The data and technology deployed at the Xunxi factory mean merchants, which typically need at least 90 days to get their goods ready for the storefront, can decide what items to make and the scale of the production over the course of two weeks, reducing the need to accumulate inventory.
Smile, your are being judged by every camera, microphone in sight!
We will soon need a reset of what is considered a private space. I won’t be surprised if we start seeing communal places that are completely tech-free.
Received this from a connection or clicked through on the web and want to subscribe?
The pandemic continues to accelerate the death of poorly managed parts of the economy
Two mall owners that together account for over 87 Mn square feet of real estate across the US have applied for bankruptcy protection - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-02/malls-dragged-into-bankruptcy-by-carnage-among-retail-tenants
Consumers are learning to live without movie theaters. And America has too many of them already - https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/movie-theaters-amc-won-t-recover-from-year-of-covid
As the Covid-19 pandemic wears on and drives permanent changes to entertainment culture, Hollywood giants such as Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures appear to be turning their backs somewhat on movie theaters. The largest among the cinema chains, AMC Entertainment Inc., is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy at the same time that it celebrates its 100th anniversary. Just a few short months ago, it seemed inconceivable that the business of filmmaking could carry on without the box office and surrender almost entirely to online streaming apps. But now it’s clear that Hollywood and audiences can get along without cinemas.
China will give you scale in everything…till
Three different stories, but all extremely concerning
Jack Ma said Chinese banks have a ‘pawnshop’ mentality. The IPO of Ant, for which investors placed bids worth nearly $3 Trillion, was crushed like an ant - https://www.reuters.com/article/ant-group-ipo-suspension-regulators/how-billionaire-jack-ma-fell-to-earth-and-took-ants-mega-ipo-with-him-idUSKBN27L2GX
A year ago, he was one of the Premier League’s highest-paid players. Now, after angering China and refusing a pay cut, he has simply vanished, writes the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/sports/soccer/mesut-ozil-arsenal-china.html
Snitch on thy neighbor! Hong Kong's new hotline to report breaches of the controversial national security law has received more than 1,000 calls within hours of going live. - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54835955
The digital divide is real, and the pandemic makes it terrible
The digital divide is a genuine challenge globally and the pandemic has made it worse with the transitioning of many services online. One of the worst impacted are children whose education is now tied to availability of a screen, a stable Internet connection, and a cheap data plan. This is a telling story on how some kids in Philippines are learning through SMS messages!
The digital transformation of the razor & blade model
Very good thread on how HP goes to ridiculous lengths to prevent customers from using third-party cartridges or ink.
Everything is connected
“A decline in air traffic during the coronavirus pandemic sharply reduced the amount of data routinely collected by commercial airliners”
Are you getting your cow to…belch & fart less?
2020 - when you have both lab-grown meat and scientists working on developing feed additives that will make cows belch & fart less so they release less methane!
Best of the Rest:
Can you trade up your way from a grain of rice to a mountain? This person is trying - https://stewfortier.com/rice-mountain/
Should “killing” nature, aka ecocide, be a crime? -https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201105-what-is-ecocide
GIFs are great. They are the gift that keeps giving. They can also hold enough code ammo to take down industrial plants - https://www.wired.com/story/how-30-lines-of-code-blew-up-27-ton-generator/
“Carrying out a payment with Visa requires about 0.002 kilowatt-hours; the same payment with bitcoin uses up 906 kilowatt-hours, more than half a million times as much…” https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-nothing/86714927310-8f431cae
Some people can have more influence than others, 4Chan edition. How one moderator apparently is likely responsible for 4Chan’s transition from shitposting site to the conspiracy den it is today - https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7aap8/the-man-who-helped-turn-4chan-into-the-internets-racist-engine
#TIL - Bullet Journaling. Apparently a cult tech-free productivity system. This video gives an intro.
We now have a new benchmark for why a story was retracted. In a world awash in fake news, the last thing traditional media need is high-profile retractions like these. - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/squash-lacrosse-niche-sports-ivy-league-admissions/616474/
I leave you with this video of a hero playing Eternal Flame as there’s chaos all around him. He’s all of us trying to work remotely and more importantly, he’s all of our kids who have been thrust in front of a screen and missing their valuable growing-up days.
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, please do share on your social networks. My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.