Hi All,
Hope you all are doing well and staying safe! I think you all have seen the below image shared somewhere on social media? Continue reading below the photo …
You know the story around landmines and all that? Fact is that is NOT true. And here is exactly how we propagate false messages. This one was in jest needless to say but if Snopes is correct (story below) then this is “fake”. Please do yourself (and everyone else) a favor when sharing “news” about COVID. You can help avoid confusion. I also highly recommend this read on Zero Trust Information from Ben Thompson
Anyway, the real story …
However much truth that parable may hold, it isn’t directly applicable to this picture, which has nothing to do with World War II, or landmines, or any danger the donkey might have posed had it been allowed to run free.
The picture actually dates from 1958, during the Algerian War (i.e., a war for independence waged against French forces in Colonial Algeria). And it depicts a starving donkey that was rescued by a member of the French Foreign Legion who carried it back to his base, where the animal was nursed back to health, given the name “Bambi,” and adopted as a unit mascot — as described by author Douglas Porch in his 1991 history of the Legion
COVID-19 articles
Using Uber Eats? : Want to support your local restaurants? Pick up instead while maintaining Social Distance instead of using Uber. While I understand this is a trade off between money for the driver v/s the restaurant and it’s not a nice one to make, please do not think that Uber has any benevolence : Delivery Apps Offer Restaurants a Lifeline—at a Cost
Are social media platforms responsible for informing or persuading their user base? I also look at this tangentially since the CDC was, until now (and WHO too) not recommending masks : From Inform to Persuade: How Can Tech Step Up for Humanity?
You think you have it bad? Please read this from Arundati Roy on COVID in India: Arundhati Roy: ‘The pandemic is a portal’ | Free to read
Alex Danco on Positional scarcity. TL/DR : Universities and air travel will go back to normal rather than the pandemic speeding their demise. I totally agree with this. Replacing an in-person experience and creating those bonds are impossible on a Zoom : Positional Scarcity and the Virus
Feeling isolated yet? Tips from a social distancer with 50 years of experience : Tips From Someone With Nearly 50 Years Of Social Distancing Experience
Chart of the week:
From Pew Research:
And impact to E-commerce March 2020 v/s March 2019.
And this week’s dozen:
For those of you who saw the recent announcement that you can pay for content using Amazon’s app (rather than app store payments). This point of view is interesting - the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I wonder though, it all, from an antitrust perspective, have any advantage? Won't they have to give a similar deal to the Spotifiy’s of the world? Or is this a signal to the regulators that “Hey we don’t do that! Here is an example - Amazon” : Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies
Types of research : Which UX Research methodology should you use? [Chart included]
On Midlife career exploration from Sachin Rekhi. Every word rung true : Midlife Career Exploration
Great read on expanding/growing PMF : Try More Things
A series of great reads from Matthew Ball on the impact of coronavirus on media/gaming/SVOD/theatrical releases
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Movie/Theater Industry
The Impact of COVID-19 on Pay-TV and OTT Video
The Impact of COVID-19 on Video Gaming and Our Virtual Lives
Being your selves: identity R&D on the pseudonymous internet
Culture critic Jia Tolentino captures the big mood: “Where we had once been free to be ourselves online, we were now chained to ourselves online, and this made us self-conscious … Online, your audience can hypothetically keep expanding forever, and the performance never has to end.
MSFT’s Gaming strategy : The Xbox Series X master plan. Key Points:
Straddle the fence
Experiment with cloud and console
Horizontal cloud play (play with any device)
Vertical device play (high performance play for the serious gamer)
Cloud gaming has a variety of “risky” games that form a buffet of options for a non discerning or casual gamer
Consoles become upgradable (bundled into a subscription)
Winners : MSFT, Google Stadia. Maybe’s : Apple (never underestimate the power of 1B+ devices) and prime marketing real estate, pre-seeded apps.
For MSFT and GOOG - data center expertise. Holds true for Apple too
Losers? : Sony (Playstation Plus) for sure. I cant see them winning the cloud battle. Consoles for them remain a niche battle
I am NOT A GAMER. I may have missed a lot of nuanced context here
Why we’ll go toward a Metaverse. The next stage in gaming. Brilliant read.
The Metaverse: What It Is, Where to Find it, Who Will Build It, and Fortnite
What matters most to you? What You Truly Value
“I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.”
Modern loneliness, in Alberti’s view, is the child of capitalism and secularism. “Many of the divisions and hierarchies that have developed since the eighteenth century—between self and world, individual and community, public and private—have been naturalized through the politics and philosophy of individualism,” she writes. “Is it any coincidence that a language of loneliness emerged at the same time?” It is not a coincidence. The rise of privacy, itself a product of market capitalism—privacy being something that you buy—is a driver of loneliness. So is individualism, which you also have to pay for.
Another brilliant read (Guess I am on a Matthew Ball roll.. no pun intended) I haven't in a long while come across such a high quality writer. While COVID-19 is definitely increasing SVOD and gaming hours for me its reading. This article compares Disney’s and Universal’s closely curated experiences with digital “games”, virtual “world” creators and game engines/platforms. Each of us is weird but with the internet we can find others who are kind of weird to play with/against in the weird fantasy that both (or many) share… Hollywood's Video Game Blind Spot
An odd article this week but I found it super fascinating. California’s Nut King (and no not crazy but in the nut business) A Kingdom from Dust
Marketer in need of a model but don’t want to pay? Look no further : Rosebud AI
As a last link, a cool thing (the below is an LCD computer concept) : Digital Collection Materials and Related Objects
Thank you for reading! Stay Safe. Be Well!