3 minutes estimated reading time
New York’s Problems Are America’s Problems Now – “Most cities are the same animal at a different scale,” Esteban Moro, a physicist who studies cities and measured New Yorkers’ interactions during the shutdown, told me. Bigger city, smaller city—it doesn’t make much of a difference, Moro says. You’ll meet about 5,000 people a year. – It makes sense if one thinks about major cities as ‘early adopters’ then their problems will spread over time.
Apple wants your iPhone to replace your passport and driver’s license | Appleinsider – I know WeChat had similar aspirations for Chinese ID cards and drivers licence
Opinion | How China Scammed Hong Kong – The New York Times – ignore the click bait title, it’s a nice summary of the national security law and points out how the basic law allowed this gap. More on Hong Kong here.
American firms’ move into China over past 20 years threatens US ability to lead and compete: report | South China Morning Post – US MNEs’ reliance on China as a source of sales and a pivotal hub for global manufacturing poses a risk of solidifying dependencies for selected industries that bear on US national security. Furthermore, such reliance threatens to heighten the cost of supply chain diversification
Pressured by China, E.U. Softens Report on Covid-19 Disinformation – The New York Times – Beijing’s efforts to curtail mentions of the virus’s origins in China, in part by blaming the United States for spreading the disease internationally. It noted that Beijing had criticized France as slow to respond to the pandemic and had pushed false accusations that French politicians used racist slurs against the head of the World Health Organization
The Hustle on Coupang – a Korean analogue to Amazon that’s expanding their business
LinkedIn | Baiba Matisone – 60 behavioral biases to better understand the consumers.
US Attorney General William Barr says American businesses ‘part of problem’ in tech war with China | South China Morning Post – Barr portrayed parts of the US business community as ingrates because “they’re willing – ultimately, many of them – to sacrifice the long-term viability of their companies for short-term profit, so they can get their stock options and move into the golf resort”. – I found this a much more profound statement on so many levels
Typography – Goldman Sachs Design – Goldman Sachs put out its own font under a fairly permissive licence
How This Electronics Juggernaut Got Its Start in a Bombed-Out Department Store • Gear Patrol – nice intro to the history of Sony
How a Billion Dollar Eyewear Company Started in the Back of a Honda Civic • Gear Patrol – ‘define problems, find solutions, wrap them in art’
Facebook executive admits to ‘trust deficit’ on call with advertisers | Financial Times – stating the obvious, with Trump-related decisions is just latest in long line of trust related issues for Facebook from brand safety issues with content to analytics
Dove Soap’s Owner Is Criticized Over Skin-Lightening Cream – WSJ – unfortunately a set of consumers want the product and if Unilever didn’t sell it other people would
I love you. You love me. | Ad Ageds – well worth while reading as it brings commitment into focus
Step Chickens and the Rise of TikTok ‘Cults’ – The New York Times – Cults on TikTok aren’t the ideological ones most people are familiar with. Instead, they are open fandoms revolving around a single creator. Much like the “stans” of pop figures and franchises, members of TikTok cults stream songs, buy merch, create news update accounts and fervently defend their leaders in the comment sections of posts. The biggest difference is that TikTok’s cult leaders are not independently famous. They’re upstart creators building a fan base on social media. Ms. Ong represents a relatively new kind of influencer, one who has seized a time of great isolation and idleness to capture the interest of a rapt user base. “I made this video where I was speaking into my phone camera like, ‘Hey guys I think we should start a religion,’” she said in a phone interview on Friday. “Then, I was like, ‘Let’s start a cult.’”