Curated Commons // Edition 70
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 70th edition of Curated Commons.
If you are new, or if you received this newsletter as a forward, I send this once a week and each edition focuses on tech/business/science/algorithmic future/Internet weirdness/anything-else-that-catches-my-eye. Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
What do the rise of media paywalls mean for society?
We have a problem with paid media subscriptions. We have too many of them. But that’s a problem of those who can afford to pay for them. What does the rise of paywalls mean for people who can’t afford? What media do they consume? What quality is that media? And what does consuming too much of that media do to their thought process? - Read here
Reprogramming cells to fight aging
There’s some fascinating ongoing research on fighting agents - both through drugs and by reprogramming cells. This is a good read on where we are. - Read here ($)
Price inelasticity, thy name by Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is the loyalty program that is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma for every other consumer-facing business. - Read here ($)
On the other side of the coin, Amazon is not the competitor, or customer, you want to deal with. They’ve basically excelled at doing what traditional retailers have been doing with private labels for decades, and algorithmically boosted it massively. - Read here ($)
European big oil is becoming small oil
The pressure is showing. In 2022, European firms are set to return to investors a record $54 billion in dividends and share buybacks. And they are cutting oil output too! - Read here
SWIFTly booting Russia - a good idea?
It is no secret that the global financial services industry runs on technologies from decades ago (read this very good piece on how COBOL still controls your money). Nevertheless, another important piece of this infrastructure is SWIFT, the interbank communication system. And now given the heightened tensions between US and Russia, this is a good read on how kicking Russia off SWIFT (suggested by some), might not be a good idea - Read here ($)
Investing, Vanguard style
Some good stats in this piece on Vanguard. - Read here ($)
Just a quarter of the active fund managers that invest in large US-listed companies beat Wall Street’s S&P 500 share benchmark.
The average expense ratio for actively managed US equity funds was 0.71 per cent in 2020 compared with 0.06 per cent for index equity funds
Only a quarter of Vanguard’s clients trade in any given year
What is the future of food?
Will automation and tech development take away the experience of eating food. Or augment it. One perspective. - Read here
A dose of techno-optimism
Good discussion between Atlantic’s Derek Thompson and economist Eli Dourado things to look forward to in the 2020s. - Listen here
Edison, soup and job interviews
Apparently Edison took prospective job candidates for a meal and offered a soup. - Read here
Be happy your kid is sarcastic. Yea, right.
Kids can be really sarcastic. And that is a sign of intelligence, says new research. - Read here
The latest gig worker in town - bug bounty hunters
Good report on bug bounty programs and the people that participate in them. And yes, lovely cover! - Read here
Pokemon or robbers? Obviously pokemon
Two Los Angeles police officers were fired for chasing Pokémon rather than fleeing robbers. - Read here
There’s a mushrooming monopoly in magic mushrooms
No market is beyond the reach of wannabe monopolies. Very good deep-dive into the world of magic mushrooms and how a startup is scooping up patents in this emerging field. - Read here
More interesting reads:
Very colourful read on an American billionaire who bought a football club in Italy, and is super frustrated - Read here ($)
Really good interview with CEO of Qualcomm - Read here
A visual guide of the climate crisis - Read here
Science is amazing. Man gets genetically-modified pig heart in world-first transplant - Read here
An N95 mask can be 75 times more effective at preventing infection with COVID-19 than surgical masks - Read here
Pegasus all over Salvadorian journalists and activists. Company denies it, as usual - Read here
Auto immune diseases are on the rise in places where they weren’t common earlier. One likely reason - fast foods. - Read here
It is Second Life all over again with all these announcements of big brands buying land in the metaverse - Read here ($)
On future of war, read this thread. Then see this tweet.
Someone dug into why social media is full of cows with VR headsets! - Read here
Scary read on potential over-reliance on auto-pilot resulting in a Boeing 777 coming within 175 feet from ground - Read here
This week a short thread from me on an app went viral. It’s an app that solves a valid use case, but has a brilliantly evil model of scooping up data without individual consent.
And finally, here’s hoping 2022 also doesn’t look like 2020 & 2021 as this New Yorker cartoon so eloquently captured
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.