The rise and demise of the AAirpass, American Airlines’ $250k lifetime ticket
This is on my short list for the coolest thing I had no idea existed I've ever submitted to this ol' 'sletter. Back in the day AA was in a sales slump and sold off a couple dozen "all inclusive" first class passes. Since the day after that AA immediately started trying to get them back, cancelled, limited, or somehow out of the market. Two of the owners were finally cornered a few years ago and physically robbed of their passes by airline agents. The other 26 (including the one owned by Mark Cuban) are still out there... -Brian
Amazon needs to get a handle on its counterfeit problem
I think this is a huge risk for Amazon as it is more or less what drove the masses away from the potential of Ebay. I've read threads where manufacturer authorized re-sellers who sell on Amazon complain that counterfeiters can list fake goods with the same item number and since both legitimate and fake goods are fulfilled by Amazon they are stored in the same bins in the warehouse and who knows whether you are getting the real deal or no when they pull your order from the bin? What's worse is if the authorized re-seller has the listing you bought from but you got a fake item then the bad review you write shows up under the authorized re-seller's listing! -Brian
Engineer who lived modestly donates $37 million to Pittsburgh Foundation
I'm an engineer. Apparently I need to be "living modestly"??? -Brian
We gripe a lot about privacy and social media here, but let us not forget the original coiner of the phrase "Don't be evil" and how far from those righteous paths our indispensable searchy friend has wandered. -Brian
The Fall of Travis Kalanick Was a Lot Weirder and Darker Than You Thought
For me, Uber opened up a whole new mode of transportation because I live in a city where there's not much in the way of public transport. And it also made our European adventures much easier because we didn't have to figure out how to hail a cab in another country; we just took out our phones.
In light of all the hubbub around Zuckerberg over the past month, we thought it would be relevant to revisit this article from Bloomberg about the former CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick. There will certainly be a movie about this at some point, but for now you can read this article if you're curious about how personal paranoia and bad leadership style can almost derail a company worth billions. –Calvin
Bitcoin Is Ridiculous. Blockchain Is Dangerous.
I know, I know, we covered Bitcoin ad nauseum (like literally we were nauseated) a few eps back. But technology doesn't sit still these days, and if you've been following this technological space it has been a wild ride with almost daily crashes and recoveries. If you still are trying to understand cryptocurrency (aka "Space Jewels") or just want to read the most entertaining article (author: Paul Ford) I've read in about 2 months check this one out. *-Brian
How we Bootstrapped our SaaS Startup to Ramen Profitability
A fun new term for you to use in your next meeting with the big cheese: "ramen profitable". And just in case you've been skipping my fascinating links about startups, most of them could be boiled down to this: if you're starting something, talk to your customers (and potential customers) early and often. Don't build in secret then drop it like it's hot and expect people to flock to your genius new product.
I like this story because it's a very honest look at how long it took for a small startup to become barely profitable enough to sustain its creators. – Calvin
All we want for Christmas is our old jobs back
Ten or twenty years ago a boom of moving manufacturing to low cost countries (basically labor arbitrage) accelerated with devastating consequences for low skilled manufacturing workers in high labor cost countries (like you know, the USA). Since then countries like China have seen their own labor costs rise to where in many cases the increased transportation costs are no longer offset by cheap labor. As a result we are now seeing the start of a boom in automation that will further threaten those same high cost workers. How do we balance the benefits of increased efficiency against the harm to real people?
The answer cannot be to turn our backs on automation (robots, AI, etc) as the global marketplace will continue to invest in this area and the USA (and other similar countries) will ultimately end up in a cold dark place. In my opinion we need to address the root cause here, which is that many workers are unable to generate enough value to justify their cost. Probably this looks like a systematic approach to re-training, worker development, access to education (technical and higher), as well as other mechanisms that allow workers to more easily transition from low-skill manual to higher-value work.
Furthermore I personally reject the mindset that automation will reduce the total amount of work needed; instead it just shifts where and what is needed. For instance, the average age of a skilled electrician in America today is 58(!) so in this area – and many other trades – there is a burgeoning need for skilled younger workers. In fact as buildings and power grids get smarter, the value stream of building them requires more and more higher skilled working hours to plan, build, commission and operate a new building. That work just isn't grunt work anymore; it requires a trained brain. Fortunately, mankind, when properly equipped, is really good at work requiring trained brains. Even though it is hard, it is the right thing to do to build up the brains that are conveniently attached to those hands that we no longer need.
A colleague at my company wrote an insightful analysis of this situation that I think is worth checking out. We definitely need open and productive conversations in this area. -Brian
Disney sues Redbox for reselling DVD download codes
Forget this net neutrality stuff and which side of the issue is actually pro-consumer.... here's what you should be worried about. Let's say you bought a copy of Tangled 2: Hair Straightened to Video at a store and charged your friends a couple bucks to borrow it (like you do). It is unlikely Disney would sue you for that. But if you also wanted to sell off the code for the digital download that came with the disc? Lawsuit incoming... Why? Because in some tiny text on the package or on a EULA somewhere they've unilaterally stated you don't have the right to sell this thing they sold to you. Even though you've never actually agreed to that condition somehow they have magically locked you into this anti-free-market contract. Scary stuff... what else are they going to pretend you agreed to? -Brian