Optimism and Deception
Entrepreneurs frequently have grand ambitions of impacting the world. Some are lucky, others are deluded, and the rest are con artists.
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| Oct 7, 2020 | » | Fables in Service of Capitalism
4 min; updated Sep 5, 2022
Environmentalism Over the last 70 years, less than 10% of plastic waste has been recycled - it’s uneconomical. Recycling shifts attention from the environmental impact of plastics and their overproduction to the consumer’s willingness to recycle. Reducing and reusing is a much better environmental strategy. Betting (and Gambling) I’m seeing more prominent gambling sites and ads compared to when I was growing up. Based on my peers, SportPesa made lots of headway in Kenya (few companies can claim to sponsor English Premier League teams).... |
| Apr 1, 2005 | » | The Submarine [Paul Graham]
1 min; updated Sep 5, 2022
The Submarine. Paul Graham. www.paulgraham.com . Apr 1, 2005. Many people rely on social proof to form opinions; therein lies the power of PR. PR firms are not dishonest for they need good reputation with news outlets. But PR firms serve overworked reporters with selective truths. The firms feed the same story to different publications at once. Readers see similar stories in multiple places and assume a new trend has come.... |
| Feb 17, 2019 | » | The Shady Economics of Buy-One-Get-One Free Deals [The Hustle]
1 min; updated Sep 5, 2022
The Shady Economics of Buy-One-Get-One Free Deals. Zachary Crockett. thehustle.co . Feb 17, 2019. BOGO goods are usually low-demand, non-efficient, lacking in quality and/or close to the expiration date. The BOGO deal is usually a 50% discount off of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). And oftentimes, this price is artificially marked up to begin with. MyPillow offered BOGO deal on their pillows, but really just doubled the price of the first pillow.... |
| Oct 1, 2018 | » | The Wolf that Tried to Play Nice [SoECS]
1 min; updated Feb 5, 2022
AT&T restricted FaceTime from running on some data plans. Justifications? FaceTime is preloaded, therefore 100% of users have it FaceTime wasn’t efficient in network usage. The capacity was asymmetrical, but video chat is symmetrical Interestingly enough, AT&T required Apple to greenlight it, which they did. AT&T worked with top developers to teach network etiquette. |
| Nov 5, 2019 | » | AT&T to pay $60m in settlement for slowing cellphone data on unlimited plans
1 min; updated Feb 5, 2022
AT&T to pay $60m in settlement for slowing cellphone data on unlimited plans. www.reuters.com . Nov 5, 2019. Complaint filed in 2014 by the FTC: AT&T charged smartphone users for ‘unlimited’ data plans, but throttled them after ~2GB within a month. AT&T: None of these allegations were ever proved in court. We were fully prepared to defend ourselves, but decided settling was in the best interests of consumers.... |