Essays

Disney’s plans for a huge cost-cutting initiative say at least two things about American businesses today: Corporate purpose is a sham, and digital marketing isn’t the science it’s cracked up to be.

In response to accusations of fraud by an investment firm, a huge Indian business conglomerate called the Adani Group issued a 413-page rebuttal. That’s about 113,000 words… …or 112,977 too many. The attack, from a firm called Hindenburg Research, alleges “brazen accounting fraud, stock manipulation, and money laundering” that add Read more…

CERN scientists collaborated with sci-fi writers on stories that explore the speculative implications of their work. It’s a brilliant idea.

Rolls-Royce’s new CEO told his employees that the company is a “burning platform” and that they should be prepared for an aggressive efficiency and optimization program (i.e. job cuts). Why? “Every investment we make, we destroy value,” he explained, according to news reports of his recent global broadcast to staff. Read more…

Millions of homes possess technology that can involve users as co-creators and participants in deeply nuanced immersive experiences, and all we get are games that let us shoot things or play sports. The gaming world is diverse. Games can be played on consoles, smartphones, and online. People can play them Read more…

There’s been much reported on the aggressive efforts Big Oil made at the recent COP27 to obfuscate the issue of climate change and delay any action on it. Today’s “Big Read” in the Financial Times builds on this PR strategy, and the story borders on journalistic malfeasance. Headlined “Saudi Arabia’s Read more…

The fact that technology is changing the jobs landscape is nothing new, and government and social norms have learned to moderate the sharpest edges of such changes in the past…as well as adapt to them. It’s different this time. The scope of the change is far more massive and, by design Read more…

I was struck by Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Bankman-Fried’s recent mea culpas for driving their respective companies into the ground, like it was sincere or that it mattered. Zuckerberg’s apology came as he took away salaries and benefits for 11,000 people, after having wasted $15 billion on a bad business Read more…