Many years ago, when I was younger and more foolish, I worked for an advertising startup. Things seemed to be going pretty well! The office was expanding, the sales team was screaming into phones, the budget for servers was rising. Growth had been healthy, but now looked to be plateauing. One day we were summoned into a large conference room. Our CEO was on the speakerphone (I told you this was a long time ago) with an important update on our financial situation. I think every arsehole in the …
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I don't understand capitalists. Taylor Swift - the popular beat combo - wanted to sell tickets for her concert. She priced the tickets too low. People purchased the tickets and resold them at a higher price - up to $28,000. Tay-Tay's fans purchased the higher priced tickets. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why didn't the organisers of the concert just sell the tickets at the higher price? Why leave all that profit to be eaten up by scalpers? There are loads of methods for…
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We moved house recently. It's always fun to see what choices the previous owners made - orange paint in the bedroom? Yeuch! While some choices are purely subjective - those light fittings? - other choices are simply illogical. Let's take water meters. Anyone in the UK can get a water meter fitted for free. The alternative is that the water company literally make up your bill! "Hmmmm, four bed house. Probably means kids. Lots of baths, I reckon. Bet their washing machine is ancient. Let's…
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What if they gave a war and nobody came? Why, then, the war would come to you! -- Bertolt Brecht The current Conservative Government (and their Labour predecessors) are obsessed with the idea of competition. Their theory is that competition lowers prices, improves services, and makes the world more efficient. The free market will arrive at an optimal solution for everything. In some cases, this is correct. In my own field - mobile phones - we see a tooth and nail fight between companies…
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