• It’s not your imagination: Shopping on Amazon has gotten worse: Amazon’s first page of results averages about nine sponsored ads, according to a study of 70 search terms conducted in 2020 and 2021 by data firm Profitero. That was twice as many ads as Walmart was showing and four times as many as Target. (Washington Post) See also How Amazon Became Ordinary: Amazon was never going to sustain a 50% market share of online retail growth indefinitely. Corporate decision-making around advertising, third-party sales, pricing, and general user experience is accelerating the loss of this market share growth. You can no longer assume that Amazon has the best selection and the lowest price, you must also look elsewhere. This is a major shift in consumer behavior. (The big picture)
•There’s a labor market conundrum at the heart of the coming recession: Tech giants and banks are already cutting workers, but many employers seem desperate to keep hiring. (Bloomberg)
• FTX and the Rise of Investment Scams: How to Protect Yourself: Collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX sparked investigations. Aspects of the scandal serve as a reminder that investment scam complaints are skyrocketing. The good news? You can protect yourself by taking five precautionary measures. (Investor’s Business Daily) see also She was a little-known crypto trader. Then FTX collapsed. Caroline Ellison, who ran cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, found herself at the center of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire. (New York Times)
• Robot owners buy houses: Well-resourced companies outsource management to apps and algorithms, making homeownership even more out of reach. (Vice)
• DCGs, Multicellular Organisms, and Fed Accounts: Silicon Valley has aged, Big Tech has become people who want to *balance* their professional lives and spend time with their families, and I think most people would agree that’s a good thing. But I would also say that VCs and investors have completely skewed the incentives on what to work on, creating some of the complacency that we see. (Kyla’s Newsletter) see also The myth of the god of technology is collapsing: Believing that startup founders possess extraordinary powers harms large sections of society, especially ordinary workers and investors (Wall Street Journal)
• Get big tax breaks for 2022 by acting now: From timing charitable donations to offloading loss-making investments, there’s still a lot you can do to lower your taxes this year. Here are the key factors to consider before it’s too late. (The Wall Street Journal)
• How VCs can avoid being tricked by obvious frauds A guest post by Rohit Krishnan: The tech world is still reeling from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Unlike the cast of fraudulent biotech company Theranos, FTX has managed to attract many of the supposedly savviest investors in the industry. So when venture capitalist and former hedge fund manager Rohit Krishnan offered to write an article about how venture capitalists can avoid being cheated by companies like FTX, I I accepted. This is a good sequel to Benn Eifert’s post about bullshit in the investment world. (Noahpinion) see also “It’s our 2 Satoshis” – DCG, Genesis and Grayscale leave more questions than answers: The digital asset market is currently in shock. Many retail investors are seeing their money trapped or liquidated, while some institutional funds are unwinding. The reporters are bloodthirsty and the “I told you so” crowd is noisier than ever. The rumor mill is unbroken, and even unsubstantiated, you’d be foolish not to at least take every rumor seriously enough to investigate. And as is often the case when an extreme event occurs, many try to make heroes of the few who saw these events happen. (Arca)
• How do fireflies flash in sync? Studies suggest a new answer. Field research suggests a new explanation for the synchronized blinking of fireflies and confirms that a new form of “chimerical” synchrony occurs naturally. (Quanta Magazine)
• The CEO of Twitter is now the main character of Twitter: Elon Musk’s disaster month on Twitter is over. Let’s talk. (voice) see also I was responsible for trust and safety at Twitter. That’s what it could become. (New York Times)
• This is where most of the world’s footballs come from: Sialkot, a city in northeast Pakistan, produces around 70% of the world’s supply, including Adidas’ Al Rihla, the official match ball for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. (Business week)
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