Business

Lidl leveraged GenAI to create a fun and viral marketing campaign. I don’t dismiss the technological advances we made nor the value that GenAI brings to some particular cases. The world and our society always move forward. That means some people who refuse to adapt and skill up will be left behind. The same thing is happening here. What I don’t like is the hype and the bandwagon.

BofA’s head of branches: ‘Proximity is still important to people’. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Even with all the technological developments, the human touch still matters.

PayPal Enhances Popular Online Credit Offering with New Physical Card for In-Store Use. PayPal used to push for QR Code in stores during the pandemic. They quickly realized that physical cards are still the dominant form. The product is interesting with the transaction level pricing, but I am less convinced about the branding. How many people will be confused between this product and the PayPal Mastercard Credit Card?

How Morgan Stanley Tackled One of Coding’s Toughest Problems. The bank touted some successes in integrating AI into its operations while acknowledging that it still needs humans to write codes that are efficient and meet the business needs. Sensible. Practical. No bs.

Shop Slow, Spend More: The Retailers Hoping That Customers Linger. When consumers have access to goods online, retailers must come up with a reason to lure them to the stores, be it unique experiences or store-exclusive products/services. And if shoppers are already at the stores, why not make them stay longer and spend more? It is fascinating to me that the more things change, the more things stay the same. Despite the ubiquitous popularity of the Internet, good old store presence still matters in the retail world.

Slate Auto: Inside the EV startup, stealth production facility backed by Jeff Bezos. The concept sounds interesting, but too niche. When the scale is not there, it’s hard to imagine success in such an industry like EV.

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

‘It’s terrifying’: The Everest climbs putting Sherpas in danger. It is sad to read that Sherpas sometimes have to risk their own lives for someone else’s achievements and foolishness. These guides take this highly dangerous job not because of the fame or glory. It’s because they have to put food on the table.

How your pets alter your immune system. I feel like this topic warrants a lot more research. Sure, it makes sense that our ancestors lived with animals and our immune system may recognize the microbes from our pets and develop better. However, I’d believe that we have a longer lifespan than our ancestors did. That could be attributed to scientific breakthroughs and better living standards. But who is to say it’s not because we have a better immune system? As a pet owner, I do agree that pets make our lives happier, though.

Medieval Africans Had a Unique Process for Purifying Gold With Glass. “In the case of medieval West Africans, “They were taking the ore and other raw materials from the river and mixing it with glass,” says Walton. Since gold is inert, it doesn’t fully dissolve into melted glass, while impurities and other materials do, making this “a really novel way of using recycled glass material.”

Cities around the world are sinking at ‘worrying speed’. Jakarta is sinking at an alarming rate. They should hire consultants from Japan to come up with a solution that works for them. The Japanese already figured out how to deal with this particular issue WHILE being tormented by earthquake regularly.

Why Minneapolis is one of the world’s happiest places.

Stats

At roughly 2% of body weight, the brain demands 20% of our body’s energy

Japan welcomed 37 million tourists in 2024