Business

The business of football: the big data arms race. Big clubs are constrained by the Fair Financial Rules while smaller ones naturally don’t have a lot of resources to play with. Everyone needs to be more efficient and have a higher strike rate with their talents. What’s the better tool to combine with human intelligence and experience than data?

How E-Commerce Is Making China’s Deflation Worse. Too much inflation is obviously detrimental to consumer’s buying power. Deflation benefits consumers AT FIRST, but it also usually goes with an economic decline which does not benefit anyone. China is seeing it and ironically, one of the biggest companies is contributing to the country’s deflation.

Many C-suite execs have lost confidence in IT, including CIOs. I find it surprising that CEOs have lost confidence in IT when it’s absolutely critical to use IT to improve efficiency and drive competitive advantages.

Will The U.S. Break Up Google? I agree with one of the analysts in the clip that it’s bewieldering that we are using antitrust laws created a few decades ago to adjudicate complex business cases like the one in which Google is the defendant. This case is complex. I believe some actions taken by Google are anti-competitive. However, being successful doesn’t equate to being guilty. Google is the one company that offers so many great free services to consumers. These services serve a critical role in the Google ecosystem. Take them out, what is left of that ecosystem?

The Family That Went Against the Grain—and Built a Billion-Dollar Company. A beautiful success story.

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

Why Mangosteen, The Viral TikTok Fruit, Is So Expensive. I did not know mangosteen was available and so expensive in the US. Nor did I know how excruciating it was to grow, harvest and transport the fruit.

Why Owning (and Buying) a Florida Condo Has ‘Turned Into a Nightmare’. Two things came out of this article for me. The first is that Florida is a horrible state to buy a permanent home and settle down. Yeah I get it. Weather is nice and all, but when a disaster hits and you have to live through the consequences, nice weather doesn’t mean much, does it? The state of Florida needs to do something to attract people. The second takeway is that climate change is undeniable. How else can you explain the frequency with which we have natural catastrophes?

Changing Jobs Can Put a $300,000 Dent in Retirement Savings. The bottom line is that you should remember to maximize the contribution from your new employer when changing jobs and maintain your own contribution.

Arizona Voters at Breaking Point Over Cost of Electricity. More and more examples of lives being severely impacted by climate change.

They’re Desperate for Work—and Being Brutally Open About It. Hang on to your job and get as much additional work as you can.

Stats

32% of all consumer transactions in the US in 2023 were on credit cards

“About 3.3 percent of high school students identify as transgender and another 2.2 percent are questioning their gender identity”