Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.
Brigadoon Daily = September 30, 2020
Amazon unveils payment by hand-waving: Amazon unveiled a new biometric payment system using palm recognition, to be made available to rival retailers, and also promoted as a replacement for badge entry at stadiums or workplaces. The system called Amazon One was touted as "a fast, convenient, contactless way for people to use their palm to make everyday activities like paying at a store, presenting a loyalty card, entering a location like a stadium, or badging into work more effortless."
Inside the airline industry's meltdown: Coronavirus has hit few sectors harder than air travel, wiping out tens of thousands of jobs and uncountable billions in revenue. While most fleets were grounded, the industry was forced to reimagine its future.
Guardian
Will app-based employment make workers easier to manipulate? Minute control of employees’ workplace activities has been a goal of some managers and management scholars for more than 100 years. But actually exercising such control is a difficult proposition: unmotivated employees do poor work, money alone has limited motivational power, and non-pecuniary motivational efforts are generally clumsy and transparent. But with more and more people working “gig economy” jobs mediated through an app, Chicago Booth’s John Paul Rollert considers whether contemporary companies can combine behavioral insights with enormous amounts of data to more effectively guide the actions of their labor forces. Watch the video - click here.
Bloomberg: Palantir direct listing reference price set at $7.25 by NYSE
Rise of the ghost kitchens: How virtual restaurants are reshaping LA's dining economy
LAT
Delivery apps are ruining grocery stores: There was a time, not so long ago, when grocery shopping could be a pleasure. It could also be a joyless time suck, of course — a chore, a scourge — but in the right mood, and under the right circumstances, it was a delight. You could examine ten thousand different types of cereals. You could inspect the plums!
Rachel Sugar
The future of Airbnb: Home-sharing’s challenges aren’t only about social distancing and hygiene. Overtourism, racial bias, fee transparency, and controlling the party crowd are also in the mix.
NYT
Brigadoon Daily = September 29, 2020
Is this the end of the 40-hour workweek?
Terri Williams
+ 74% of workers believe a mixture of remote and office-based work is the perfect mix
+ 77% of C-level/executive management believe companies can benefit from providing this type of work environment
Global small satellite market to grow to $7.1bn by 2025: The global small satellite market size is projected to grow from $2.8bn in 2020 to $7.1bn by 2025, at a CAGR of 20.5% from 2020 to 2025, according to a report by ResearchAndMarkets. The small satellite market includes major players Sierra Nevada Corporation (US), L3 Harris Technologies (US), Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Northrop Grumman Corporation (US), and Airbus Defense and Space (Netherlands). These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America.
LEO = Low Earth Orbit
The disruption con: Why big tech’s favorite buzzword is nonsense: How one magic word became a way of justifying Silicon Valley’s unconstrained power.
Adrian Daub
Please, not another bias! The problem with behavioral economics: An evolutionary take on behavioral economics.
Jason Collins
Reliable signals in a post-truth world: The humorist HL Mencken once proposed that there should be a special type-style called “ironics” (like italics, but sloping in the opposite direction) to prevent people misunderstanding irony in print. In-text, shorn of the pace, tone, and timbre of spoken communication, there can be a yawning gap between what you intend to say, and the emotional reaction it creates. We all know this.
Rory Sutherland
Patagonia’s new CEO talks about the future of the beloved brand: Ryan Gellert, the company’s new top exec, wants to make Patagonia more global and translate its planet-saving mission into specific causes to champion.
FastCompany
Pasta, wine, and inflatable pools: How Amazon conquered Italy in the pandemic: The e-commerce giant had struggled to gain a foothold in a society that prefers to shop in person, with cash, but now Italians are hooked on online shopping.
NYT
Tech companies wager billions on race to win over these consumers: India's explosive growth in internet users is driving the intense competition. The number of internet users hit 743.16 million in March 2020, more than doubling over four years, according to official data. Bain & Company estimates that number will reach 1 billion by 2030, on the back of cheap and ubiquitous mobile data.
IBD
Netflix’s Francisco Ramos: ‘Language is no longer a barrier, only ambition and quality are barriers’
Variety
Sir George Buckley interview: innovation is the tool that will drag us out of this quagmire: Given away as a baby, the Stanley Black & Decker boss defied the odds to scale American industry. At 73, he’s still on top.
The Times
Brigadoon Daily = September 28, 2020
What exactly is a ‘lockdown’? The lack of clarity risks making a bad situation worse.
Tim Harford
The future of luxury is in wellness, watches, and possibly weed: There’s reason to be optimistic that the luxury goods industry will rebound from COVID-19, but expect an M&A frenzy when it does.
Andrea Felsted
From lab-grown meat to molecular coffee: How tech is disrupting the food industry: "Once you get to the point where it’s better, it’s over for the cow," says research analyst.
CBC
The enduring tyranny of the beauty myth: The Asia Pacific rapidly becoming the epicenter of a global beauty industrial complex.
Natalie Kyriacou
How smartphones are taking control of our minds: Our primitive brains are no match for the godlike technology that dominates and manipulates our lives. No wonder we’re losing our grip on the truth.
The Times
Joe Veix rode an e-scooter as far from civilization as its batteries could take him
Gizmodo