Curated Commons // Edition 28
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the Twenty Eighth edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in.
How much do you love Excel?
Very good read on Excel, the tool that built a million companies, and made billions for many, and still manages trillions in the global economy!
If you want to see the future of B2B software, look at what Excel users are hacking together in spreadsheets today. Excel’s success has inspired the creation of software whose combined enterprise value dwarfs that of Excel alone.
Today in the law of unintended consequences
A story we are going to run in to from time-to-time. Government wants to censor content, gets technicalities wrong, messes up something else. A more common variant - blocking a whole domain, instead of just a page, for whatever reason. Here, the Russian Govt ended up accidentally blocking its own pages, as they tried to slow down Twitter!
An NFT sells for $69 Million
Whether you consider NFTs art or not, there’s no denying they are experiencing a moment. Digital artist Beeple sold an NFT of one of his works on Christie’s for $69 Mn. The buyer - a pseudonymous Tamil-speaking Singapore-based movie producer (he’s very likely identifiable down to a handful of people with these details!) resident ended up on Clubhouse giving an insight into how he thinks about the space and why he did what he did. Do listen in -
And on the topic, a more sceptical view, by the ever-sceptical FT.
Copyrights, exclusion and big company advantages
This piece can make you think in multiple directions at once. It is about how a woman of color was the first to launch an app with diverse skin tone emojis, copyrighted them, and before they could take off, how Apple subsumed skin tone emojis into iOS.
Words matter
47% of people who don’t listen to podcasts think it costs money to ‘subscribe’ to a podcast. Apple is now changing it from ‘subscribe’ to ‘follow’
Remote work, for the aid of beach towns
This from Kenya. A story I am sure is echoing across many coastal cities globally.
The new working patterns are changing many things. Aurelija Juchneviciute, who owns the Heavenly Garden, a rental villa in Diani Beach, says that before the pandemic 90% of bookings were for short stays. Now 90% are long-term. The clientele has changed, too. Previously Kenyans made up only a fifth of guests. Now they are about half. When the first covid-19 lockdown was lifted, “a lot of people just escaped from Nairobi…to breathe,” she says. “Then they realise there’s good internet.”
Drone videos are terrific
That’s it!
Lenses from India, for the world
Good read on how youngsters in interior India are making AR lenses for social apps.
When you out-rich the rich
Fascinating read on a golf club for the rich that went into the hands of a Chinese billionaire who now wants to make it a club for the stinking rich only!
A fifth of all employees at Facebook are now in AR/VR
AR/VR might not matter for much currently. But Facebook sure is betting big on it.
And Amazon has apparently 800 people working on their home-robot project.
Why good IT infrastructure matters!
This is a wild story. Man hires car from Hertz. Gets arrested in murder case. He is unable to prove he wasn’t at scene of crime since Hertz “loses” receipt. Gets convicted and spends 4 yrs in prison. Hertz finally finds receipt and the man is freed! Hertz says their data search capabilities finally improved!
Monetizing eating online
Mukbang videos, the kinds that originated in Korea where people eat…extravagantly, are now in India. And they are also apparently offering a path to financial independence for some women. Fascinating to see the number of different ‘creator’ jobs that tech has enabled.
Don’t you read Matt Levine already?
This one’s another of those gems!
More good reads:
Is Netflix hitting growth limits? It’s trialing limiting password sharing - https://thestreamable.com/news/netflix-begins-test-to-crack-down-on-password-sharing-outside-your-household
The rich are getting richer - https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/12/musk-bezos-zuckerberg-gates-pandemic-profits/
ESG concerns are moving from powerpoint panels to real-world implications. Axa is dumping German energy giant RWE as a client - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-12/france-s-biggest-insurer-dumps-german-power-giant-over-coal
Google is blasting Microsoft… in a blog on supporting journalism - https://blog.google/products/news/google-commitment-supporting-journalism/
The lockdowns in the US were a boom for dog ownership. But many are now realizing they might have gotten a wolf! - https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dog-dna-tests
Robots, sensors, satellites…Some really good examples of how tech is now getting into farms - https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-farms-being-run-from-space/
I can never understand American cops and how much they value their safety over those whose safety they are supposed to protect - a 11-year old kid with autism being handcuffed after scratching another kid! (highly distressing read & video!) - https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/11/school-police-autism-colorado-lawsuit/
On a related note, one positive side-effect of remote work - it can be beneficial for autistic people - https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-remote-work-becomes-the-norm-vast-new-possibilities-open-for-people-with-autism-11615222804Good read on ARK and Cathie Wood (you should know about her in case you don’t already!) - https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/arks-cathie-wood-disrupted-investment-management-shes-not-done-yet-51614992508
Really good line from Peter Kafka on Clubhouse - “Clubhouse is a frothy mix of AM talk radio and a really good tech conference” (and if you are still waiting for an invite, dm me. I have a few)- https://www.vox.com/recode/22311703/clubhouse-influencer-andreessen
How Hermes conquered the luxury industry - https://www.fastcompany.com/90605195/hermes-most-innovative-companies-2021
And finally, if you’ve ever had a printer, you should see this brilliant video!
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.