Rabbit Holes 🕳 #5
Rabbit Holes 🕳 #5
From the end of scale to rent-to-earn, the positive news movement and information fatigue.
This week, I have another Rabbit Holes 🕳 edition for you, a recurring format in which I’ll share abstracts from 5 perspective-shifting content pieces that I’ve spotted lately.
Here we go!
Rabbit Holes 🕳
📉 The Beginning of the End of Economies of Scale?
“…Mercedes recently announced their new global strategy, “The Economics of Desire.”
Get past the hype, and the basic gist is pretty straightforward; profits over volume. They intend to do this by doubling down on higher profit luxury vehicles and eliminating models that sell in greater volume but lie at the cheaper and lower profitability end of the scale.
[…] And it makes sense. One of the most dramatic economic trends we continue to see is economic inequality, as the hollowing out of the middle classes leads to wealth gathering at the top and people gathering at the bottom. Mercedes narrowing their portfolio toward higher-priced vehicles is simply a response to increasing inequality, albeit not the kind we might immediately think of. Equally, we’re also entering a profit over volume stage of the industry cycle. Led by VW Audi Group, there’s now a recognition that volume as a goal has driven stagnating company valuations because they aren’t accompanied by decent profitability.”
→ read the entire piece
🏘️ Rent-to-Earn
“Digital nomads are pioneers of a new, ‘informational’ society. As it develops, a major paradigm shift in consumption habits becomes obvious.
[…] For instance, a digital nomad might be interested in spending their youth in New York with its working opportunities, adulthood in Copenhagen with its developed public services ecosystem, and then he/she would be able to retire in peaceful Zurich. Also, during his/her lifetime, he/she might be interested in traveling to a seacoast near Porto or to the marvelous city of Tokyo. This lifestyle radically changes the way we perceive the concept of ownership: now it becomes a burden, not an opportunity while a housing rental becomes a sensible choice.
[…] Real estate tokenization system allows users to rent objects from a decentralized autonomous organization or DAO instead of buying it. With every rental payment, the tenant receives governance tokens. It works not unlike a loyalty program with cashback bonuses. Token holders can have a say in crucial referendums. The more tokens a user holds, the larger his/her voting power is. This power allows him/her to adjust rental rates, a most sensitive input for tenants.”
→ learn more
🤗 The Positive News Movement
“By existing outside of the realms of mainstream news, these optimistic websites and profiles provide a much-needed balance to the unrelenting negativity we are constantly exposed to and provide the opportunity to create a slightly different news agenda.
[…] Whilst positive news platforms can provide ‘a dopamine rush’ and are an important part of a ‘balanced news diet’, Gatti is quick to stress the impact of these platforms doesn’t have to end there. By creating a source of “anxiety free news” he hopes people will be more willing and able to calmly discuss these issues and inspire others to ‘be hopeful and be part of the movement that creates this good news.’
[…] ’You can feel powerless reading the papers and seeing the news online, but these positive news outlets show that you do have power and as an individual, you can make a difference’…”
→ explore the positive news world
🔍 Information Fatigue & Curation
“For most queries, Google search is pretty underwhelming these days. […]
I find myself suppressing the garbage Internet by searching on Google for ‘Substack + future of learning’ to find the best takes on education. We hack Twitter with the ‘what is the best’ posts over and over again. When I’m researching a new product, I type ‘X item reddit’ into Google. I find enormous value in small, niche, often forgotten sites like Spaghetti Directory.
[…] The problem, now so drastically different from a decade ago, is not what to read/buy/eat/watch/etc., but figuring out the best thing to read/buy/eat/watch/etc. with my limited time and attention.”
“There’s an emergence of tools like Notion, Airtable, and Readwise where people are aggregating content and resources, reviving the curated web. But at the moment these are mostly solo affairs — hidden in private or semi-private corners of the Internet, fragmented, poorly indexed, and unavailable for public use.”
→ read the entire article
🏢 Why Offices Suck
That’s it for this week!
Thomas
The point on Information Fatigue & Curation is so relevant - we see it for business people too. We've been in trend research for some years, but now we notice that the issue is rapidly being reframed from how to get more data to how to get less data (but still not to miss the crucial bits! - we are even developing a solution with a focus on filtering and prioritizing, to deal with too many signals of change).
Information curation is really a growing niche, with the "curator" becoming a key factor in the perspective that we get, with all the advantages and issues arising from such a concentration of power over information interpretation at a single point.