Curated Commons // Edition 2
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Let’s jump right in.
Remote Work:
Truth bombs from Reed Hastings!
WSJ: Have you seen benefits from people working at home?
Mr. Hastings: No. I don’t see any positives. Not being able to get together in person, particularly internationally, is a pure negative. I’ve been super impressed at people’s sacrifices.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflixs-reed-hastings-deems-remote-work-a-pure-negative-11599487219
Trashy news for the planet:
Big oil doing what they do best, lobbying hard to push their agenda, this time with Plastic waste in Kenya.
Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/climate/oil-kenya-africa-plastics-trade.html
The Digital Transformation of…dumbness
Apparently there’s a network of weed suppliers and customers who carry out their business on…Whatsapp and email. Put the transactions on the blockchain already!
From China…with love:
Disney went the whole hog with Mulan when it comes to pleasing China. The Chinese state repays it back by…blacking out coverage in local media.
Everybody’s a trader:
The US stock markets are seeing an unprecedented level of involvement from retail investors, thanks to Robinhood. With not-so-great consequences.
During the first six months of this year, individual investors accounted for 19.5% of the shares traded in the U.S stock market, up from 14.9% last year and nearly double the level from 2010
https://www.wsj.com/articles/individual-investor-boom-reshapes-u-s-stock-market-11598866200
India’s not too far behind. 2.8 Mn new retail trading accounts opened in India.
You guess is as good as mine where this leads in these highly volatile markets.
Get your AI off my face:
The push & pull between businesses and law enforcement authorities on one side and consumers on the other side of the facial recognition debate is just getting started. Portland places strong restrictions on commercial usage of face recognition.
The law will ban businesses from using the artificial-intelligence-based tools in retail stores and other public spaces, going beyond restrictions elsewhere on government use. Portland, Ore. officials also voted Wednesday to prohibit city agencies from using facial recognition.
Pandemic Capitalism is a thing:
…And who better to lead it than one of the supposed front-runners of a vaccine! Brilliant story from NPR tracking some extremely shady share sales by Moderna insiders ahead of key announcements by the company.
Diversity pays, literally:
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Vaccine X’ism rears its head:
Vaccine nationalism/regionalism/cityism/communityism….What are the chances your ability to get the vaccine, when it comes, in the first wave is going to be tied to your Jugaad skills? Non-zero, I'd reckon.
Westward, ahoy?
What does the decline of international student enrollments to the US mean for students from India and China? Europe, ahoy? Or is it just a pandemic thing?
From the Department of Business is Good:
The Times group’s commitment to be something to everybody is truly impressive. This ‘annual report’ gives a good view of their Internet businesses - https://timesinternet.in/blog/times-internet-2020/
Where good intent meets unintended consequences:
California’s AB-5 legislation remains a shining example of how ill-thought regulation is literally worse than no regulation. The regulation tried to create a safety net for gig workers (Uber/Lyft/Doordash/Instacart primarily), but ended up upending lives of several other professions. And the best part - Ubet/Lyft have completely ignored and are flouting the regulation, while collectively they've spent $180 Mn to fight it through a ballot. Labor groups opposing them have spent $6 Mn.
Jobs and robots and expectations:
Robo-advisers were all the rage past couple of years. Tons of startups and lots of investments later, turns out more than half of investors who use robo-advisers appear to be nudged into them by companies whose funds they already use!
https://on.ft.com/2Zi5mvS (free read)
Robots, Masks and Shopping!
If watching robots is your thing, this is a neat little watch!
So, what kind of a mask wearer will you be? Face Mask? Face Mask Pro? Face Mask S? All of the above, but for protecting your chin?
And finally…The Newyorker has the chart of the pandemic!
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.