Ten from the weekend 02/15: A few interesting reads that I came across
Focus areas: Blockchain| ML-AI| Data science/Analytics applications |eSports| CRISPR| Design thinking
1. More than a decade ago, Wired editor Kevin Kelly wrote an essay called “1,000 True Fans,” predicting that the internet would allow large swaths of people to make a living off their creations, whether an artist, musician, author, or entrepreneur. Rather than pursuing widespread celebrity, he argued, creators only needed to engage a modest base of “true fans” — those who will “buy anything you produce” — to the tune of $100 per fan, per year (for a total annual income of $100,000). By embracing online networks, he believed creators could bypass traditional gatekeepers and middlemen, get paid directly by a smaller base of fans, and live comfortably off the spoils. true fans are enough https://a16z.com/2020/02/06/100-true-fans/
2. Inside The Rise of HBO covers the origins of HBO. The parallels between the modern day media goliath and a small, fledgling startup are hard to miss- https://dcgross.com/hbo-a-netflix-with-atoms/
3. The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html
4. Reid Hoffman on Systems, Levers, and Quixotic Quests (Ep. 85): https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/reid-hoffman-on-systems-levers-and-quixotic-quests-ep-85-d96ec416740c
5. https://hbr.org/2020/01/advertising-makes-us-unhappy
6. https://deepmind.com/blog/article/AlphaFold-Using-AI-for-scientific-discovery
7. https://vtdigger.org/2019/11/25/how-vermonts-dmv-makes-millions-selling-personal-information/
9. Uber Cut 120 M of its $150M programmatic display budget and it had no impact on performance due to the fraudulent attribution https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-here-its-called-online-advertising/13228924500-22d5fd24|| https://www.alistdaily.com/lifestyle/kevin-frisch-uber-ad-fraud/
10.https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-loyalty-economy#how-to-value-a-company-by-analyzing-its-customers
