The Great Reset
The New Normal in Entrepreneurship: Think Smaller
About Those Cell Phones: Is It Really Your Call?
We reported a month or two back that Apple and Google were building a coronavirus contact tracking system into iOS and Android. “The new system, which is laid out in a series of documents and white papers, would use short-range Bluetooth communications to establish a voluntary contact-tracing network, keeping extensive data on phones that have been in close proximity with each other,” The Verge reported.
Not that these two esteemed members of the tech cartel are known for serving the public good uber alles, and note to self: “At least eight global companies identified as benefitting from China’s enslavement of Muslim minorities published statements celebrating Juneteenth, an American holiday marking the end of slavery in the country.” Of course the list includes Apple and Google – as well as Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon, FILA, General Motors, Nike, and Ralph Lauren.
Subject Matter Experts and Entrepreneurship
This week, we thought we’d look at subject matter experts, taken from the lens of carbon emissions with lessons for both entrepreneurs, and investors.
The good news about the lockdown: carbon emissions, which we’ve been told are a danger and will wipe us all out in X amount of years, are decreasing, given that fewer factories are fully operational, and there are fewer commuters on the roads. On the other side of the coin, although COVID-19 Cuts Car Crashes — But What About Crash Rates? According to StreetsBlog (and underreported in mainstream news), “both car crashes and crash fatalities have more than doubled in the North Star State (Minnesota) since the virus began to accelerate in the state.” In New York City, more motorists died in the period between March 2 and April 8 — even though there are so few cars on the road, as Streetsblog NYC reported.”
Post-Covid Tech: The Tipping Points and the Breaking Point
Om Malik did an excellent piece recently entitled The Inevitable has happened. And in a hurry, on fairly recent past crises and the opportunity zones that they created for technology. Head’s up, people: take note of this current crisis, especially since we’re still in medias res and observing first-hand where the shortfalls are. Case in point: The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020.
It’s not tech,but it’s there.
Notes from the New Normal: Is There a Silver Lining?
If you look closely enough, you’ll almost always find a silver lining somewhere, and so it goes with the Wuhan Flu. That said, as happens whenever it comes to silver, there are invariably some spots that are tarnished. Still, if you’ve tired of all of the Daily Corona Death Count stories, here are some points you might have missed, including a few silver linings:
People are certainly cooking more at home. You can’t exactly go out to restaurants these days, but many do deliver, and head’s up: Maryland restaurant owner: ‘Delete all the delivery apps’. They do take “25-30% commission rates” and restaurants are having a tough enough time as is trying to survive. As we’ve mentioned before, meal kit Blue Apron’s stock price is up. No info on the uptick in traffic on recipe/cooking sites or sales of Soylent,
although Amazon is hiring big time – 75,000 more workers as demand rises due to coronavirus, according to CNBC. Meanwhile, Amazon-owned Whole Foods Secretly Upgrades Tech to Target and Squash Unionizing Efforts
Lessons from History and the So-Called ‘New Normal’
At times like these, we have found that in order to see where the world might possibly be going, there is often no better teacher than history. Being in the midst of a “global pandemic,” good to look at what came before.
Often called the “greatest medical holocaust in history,” according to History, “The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918…infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide—about one-third of the planet’s population—and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans.”
An Opportunity for New Leaders and Heroes to Emerge
Spoiler Alert: It’s Not Bill Gates
Not the usual editorial today due to the holidays and hope that you managed to enjoy! We’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on the meaning of each.
Passover is the celebration of a people’s escape from bondage, led by Moses. Do we really need to draw parallels to the overarching intrusions and controls presently in our lives that both governments and tech are now enacting, globally?
Showing their FAANGs
Post 9/11, Americans feared for their collective safety. Two hijacked planes brought down the World Trade Center. Another hit the Pentagon. The fourth was diverted by a handful of passengers who downed it in a field in Pennsylvania rather than risking it hitting its intended target. The result: the Patriot Act (which was quietly renewed while we were being distracted by the ‘impeachment’), an acronym for “Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” Under the guise of making Americans ‘safer,’ it also infringed on the rights of citizens by giving law enforcement officials permission to collect intelligence on citizens, reducing public accountability; reducing the ability of the public to go to court to challenge a government search; allowing government officials to target citizens not under criminal investigation, and allowing unlawful imprisonment by denying due process.
Now there’s Covid-19 and even more of our freedoms have been eroded in just a few short months. Without a shot being fired, 40% of the world is basically under house arrest/lockdown under the guise of sheltering in place. Tomatoes, tomahtoes.