534: Suspended crate stacks, all the biz models, and why medieval fantasy makes sense
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I went to UnSCruz, Santa Cruz’s Burning Man regional, this weekend and had a good time there with friends despite some rain. The vibe was noticeably more family friendly, with many parents and kids doing all the same silly camp games that Burners do on playa. Young adults were the exception.
My favorite had to be the suspended milk crate stacking game, though the dry ski slope was also impressive.
Technology
Forward is a techie healthcare subscription that aims to be more proactive than preventative. I like their self check in biometric device.
The Neat bar is a $2k conference room camera that tracks every face in the room so you’re looking at people rather than the room as a whole. I took a meeting with it this week and it’s eerily effective.
The Business Model Navigator maps out every possible business model into 55 categories, with descriptions and examples for each. Helpful for founders figuring out monetization! Did you notice AWS is the example for like a dozen of these? No wonder they do so well.
Ideologies
If you’ve ever wondered what a rich person with infinite resources and will to build the ‘greenest house in America’ would do in 2006, this Portola Valley estate has you covered. Recycled materials, natural lighting, and a giant water cistern all sound like things even the rest of us could use in our homes.
Via reader Nick Gray’s own excellent newsletter, this article breaking down all the testimony that came out of the book publisher antimonopoly case from a few years back is fascinating, and shows that nobody buys books.
Instead the industry follows a power law where a few wins pay for all the rest, not unlike VCs, and most books don’t sell back their advances. Celebrity authors with their own audiences are the biggest winners for book publishers, and they’re deathly afraid of Amazon’s ability to know what people are searching for - hence why none of them have signed on to the subscription all you can eat service.
Memes
Ever wonder Why Anime is obsessed with Europe? Me too! Turns out it’s because it let them explore themes that wouldn’t fly in conservative Japan, and contributes to the prized sense of escapism that lends itself towards the Paris Syndrome, where Asian people fail to reckon with the fact that Paris is a real normal place, dirt and all.
Or how about Why Fantasy is stuck in medieval times? This video explains some compelling arguments, (namely that authors want to be able to bake deep history into the world, sure), but also that technological innovation is hindered by the fact that magic can do things for people, or that mages suppress tech to keep themselves on top, or that ancient elves and the like have boomer tendencies that mistrust new tech!
Atrioc’s latest marketing monday roundup was full of new learnings for me, like the fact that the FTC made the first big move in decades by banning non compete agreements, the Fed has a new tax tool going directly up against Turbotax, and Wall Street is about to start trading 24/7.