Tag: HBO Max

Weekly readings

Weekly reading – 20th August 2022

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Weekly reading – 20th August 2022

What I wrote last week

Did App Tracking Transparency Really Ruin Small Businesses?

Business

The HBO Max Rumor Mill Was Wrong — But There’s Still Pain to Come. The streaming business gets increasingly interesting yet complicated for me to wrap my head around. There are so many factors that go into the decision making and unfortunately, companies don’t divulge enough to investors. Anyway, it’s a good piece on HBO Max and the rumor that the new parent company will merge it and Discovery+.

Personalized coffees and prestige skincare: Consumers snap up premium products despite cost-of-living crisis. Who would have thought that consumers would prefer private label grocery brands to national names but be willing to spend on expensive coffee and pricey skincare products?

($) U.S. Approves Nearly All Tech Exports to China, Data Shows. Reading this article, I think the heart of this issue is communication failure. Other agencies don’t give effective input to the Commerce Department. Their objective is to facilitate trade between the US and other countries. China is rich enough that if the US restricts exports, other countries are willing to fill the void, especially when such exports are not 100% exclusive and rare. Also, there is no consensus on what should be the balance between not arming a worthy adversary and protecting the trade interests.

Dr Drew’s podcast episode with Morgan Housel. There are a lot of gems in this episode. One of them is the definition of rich vs wealthy. According to Morgan Housel, rich means that you are able to pay monthly bills on your own. Wealthy means that you set aside some capital for investments that you don’t have to use to pay for expenses. Once we are wealthy based on such a definition, what brings us misery is our greed and jealousy. I have to agree with him.

($) Should Disney Get Rid of ESPN? The Debate Returns. ESPN is an important asset of Disney as it holds broadcast rights to popular sports leagues such as NBA. ESPN+ is a crucial piece in the Disney+ puzzle and the bundle that Disney wants to sell to consumers. Therefore, I don’t see any reason why Disney should get rid of ESPN

Here’s why HBO Max is pulling dozens of films and TV series from the streaming platform. “While HBO Max already paid for the production of these shows, it’s still on the hook for residuals, including so-called back-end payments to cast, crew and writers, based on long-term viewership metrics. By removing these films and shows, especially the ones HBO Max created rather than licensed, executives can cut expenses immediately. Warner Bros. Discovery has promised at least $3 billion in synergies stemming from the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, announced in May. The content eliminations in total will save “tens of millions of dollars,” according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the finances are private.”

Other stuff I find interesting

Is dark chocolate really good for you? For those that are interested in the health benefits or potential risks of dark chocolate

The Day You Decided to Take the Leap. Building this blog was a leap to me several years ago. I was not a writer. I did not feel comfortable talking about myself or my thoughts. But I felt the urge. The urge of finding a medium through which I can improve myself while satisfying all the other requirements (school, work). I took that leap. Even though I haven’t had any financial returns (in fact it is an expense to maintain this blog), I find joy from this habit. It’s a sanctuary where I can be myself creatively and escape mentally at times. Those weren’t on the benefit list when I contemplated taking the leap.

We need to try harder to prevent the next pandemic. What do they always say? Failing to plan means planning to fail. As a country, it seems like we are planning to get hit again with another crushing pandemic. Our pandemic prevention budget went from an ambitious $65 billion to less than $3 billion, half of which will be dedicated to the modernization of CDC’s labs. You know how much we spend on military? $725 billion in 2020. It’s well documented that our generals didn’t think we need that much money on defense. Plus, an insider like the author of the book Kill Chain outlined all the monumental wasteful investments in defense. That we budget less than $3 billion on the prevention of pandemics, the latest of which took 1 million lives in America is baffling to me. Well, I mean pathetic.

Fresh Herbs & Spices in Vietnamese Food. Some of the herbs are not popular around here in the US or many countries. I am happy whenever I can introduce my country and culture to others

Ultimate list of Japanese Vegetable Cutting Techniques

Stats

In 2020, 16% of Blockbuster’s revenue ($ 800 million) came from fine fees

“38% of white adults say their parents or older relatives have given them or their family gifts or loans worth $10,000 or more over the course of their adult lives.”

Retail expenses make up 78% of a cup of coffee’s price

July 2022 was the world’s sixth-hottest July on record

One solar Watt in the US costs $2.77, about 4 times more expensive than in Australia

There were 43,000 traffic deaths in the US in 2021

5-10 hours of moderate physical activity or 2.5 to 5 hours of vigorous exercise will help lower the risk of premature mortality

Source: Supermarketnews
Weekly readings

Weekly reading – 21st August 2021

by MQDuongLeave a Comment on Weekly reading – 21st August 2021

What I wrote last week

I came across a couple of posts from Afghanistan veterans on their experience there

My notes from the 2021 Debit Issuer Study

My thoughts on recent developments from PayPal

Business

Inside HBO Max’s Scramble to Fix Its Glitchy App. In the streaming world, the user experience is critical in keeping customers engaged and the churn down. HBO Max fumbled the ball terribly with their confusing brands, products and messaging in the beginning. I don’t think I am a dumbass, but I didn’t even know the difference between HBO, HBO Max or HBO Now. Then, they out together an app that was littered with bugs as summarized in the article. The reason, as reported, is that they merged the two legacy apps that were built for different purposes. One was built to offer ad-free content while the other featured commercials. It is not a surprise that bugs happened. What is a surprise is that an institution like HBO or Warner Media let it happen in the first place.

Amazon Plans to Open Large Retail Locations Akin to Department Stores. This move may be Amazon’s attempt to copy what other retailers like Target do. They fulfill online orders from their network of stores. It takes a lot of stores to cover the country and logistics management to figure out the inventory and the actual shipping. We’ll see.

Walmart’s e-commerce business is set to hit $75B in sales this year

Paying With a Credit Card? That’s Going to Cost You. If this trend is legit and merchants continue with the surcharge (which is not an uncommon practice in Vietnam), it and the growing popularity of BNPL will have adverse effect on credit card spend. Remember: BNPL is mostly funded through debit cards

How the Apple lobbying machine took on Georgia, and won. Apple is my largest position. However, I found the whole lobbying issue troubling. It’s nothing different from companies writing bills and lawmakers enacting such bills.

What I found interesting

‘Likes’ and ‘shares’ teach people to express more outrage online

China Passes One of the World’s Strictest Data-Privacy Laws

Another excellent post by Morgan Housel. In light of what happened in Afghanistan today, I can’t help but think about what small events in the past could have prevented this war in the beginning and what would happen to the people of Afghanistan in the future after the U.S pulled out

One is to base your predictions on how people behave vs. specific events. Predicting what the world will look like in, say, 2050, is just impossible. But predicting that people will still respond to greed, fear, opportunity, exploitation, risk, uncertainty, tribal affiliations and social persuasion in the same way is a bet I’d take.

Another – made so starkly in the last year and a half – is that no matter what the world looks like today, and what seems obvious today, everything can change tomorrow because of some tiny accident no one’s thinking about. Events, like money, compound. And the central feature of compounding is that it’s never intuitive how big something can grow from a small beginning.

Source: Collaborative Fund

Stats that may interest you

50% of surveyed Americans have no problem with false information online

Target’s Circle Rewards Program reaches 100 million subscribers

Entertainment, life

Wonder Woman 1984 is a solid movie with an important message

by MQDuong1 Comment on Wonder Woman 1984 is a solid movie with an important message

I paid $16 today for HBO Max with the sole intention of watching Wonder Woman 1984. It was money well-spent as far as I am concerned. If you are still on the fences about the movie or if you’re looking for something to watch, I recommend that you give it a try.

The movie is a sequel of the previous Wonder Woman. It was in 1984 and Diana Prince was working at the Smithsonian in Washington DC as an expert. Steve Trevor was still dead and Diana still missed him dearly, wishing to have him back every day. One day, the Museum received a historical item that could grant a person with one wish, as long as the person touches the item upon making the wish and the so-called Dreamstone could take away one thing in return that the wisher might not know yet.. All hell broke loose from there. I am not giving away spoilers here, but the ending is beautifully bittersweet and the cast did a great job, especially the chemistry between Chris Pine and Gal Gadot. Plus, it’s not too often that we see a male playing a supporting role to a female hero. That is a refreshing change I can get behind. But I have two biggest take-aways from this movie.

Every one of us has something in our life that we are not pleased with, that we want changed. A bigger house, bigger eyes, more money, more time in our youth, a better paying job, a healthier body or a fancier car, you name it. The item, called the Dreamstone, in the movie grants a person the wish and takes something in return. We make trade-offs like that often in our life. Sometimes some of them are more obvious in the short term than others. Like, if you have a reasonable pay and a job that makes you happy and excited to go to work every day, would you trade it for another job with an additional $100k that yet would make you miserable every day? If an investment job paid you extremely well but took away 16 hours of your day and left you little to enjoy life, would you still be up for it?

The question would be even more profound if what you wish for was at the expense of many others. Said another way, if your refusal of one thing you ever wish for contributed to the collective well-being, would you still make that sacrifice? The movie, in the end, came down to that question. I find it very relevant with the current pandemic we have to deal with here. If many of us had made the sacrifice on the personal level and done the right thing, especially in America, we would have been in a far better situation today. If we had worn a mask and practiced social distancing…If we had put the collective well-being of the society above our personal freedom…If the politicians in charge had put their duty above their thirst for power…

The movie also reminded me of gratitude. I too have things in my life that I wish to change. Some of them remain short-term terms that keep me going every day and looking forward to in the future. But being obsessed with wishes can often carry me away from being appreciative of what I currently have. In the middle of a pandemic and a winter that is going to get harsher, I have my own apartment that keeps me warm and safe, a job that helps me put food on the table, people that I love and can reach out every day, and health that has shielded me from trouble and expensive bills. Can it be better? Sure, but a lot of people are in a worse situation.

Sometimes I find myself in a bad mood because I am consumed by jealousy of others and the wishes that may or may not happen in the future. 30 years of living taught me enough to get myself back to appreciating the present, most of the time. Books and movies like Wonder Woman 1984 do help as well. For that reason, I consider my subscription to HBO Max money well-spent, though I struggle to find anything else to watch, apart from the new Wonder Woman.

A friend asked me today how I was going to spend the rest of this eventful year. Being isolated in an apartment without much work, I answered: relaxing and self-reflecting. It has been a tough year so far, but it also came with some positivities for me in the last 300 days; which I may talk about in the next few days. The most important thing is that I am sitting here, able to blog about a new movie instead of being in a hospital or worse, dead or toiling away in a 2nd or 3rd or 4th job on a cold Friday night to make ends meet. That’s what I appreciate the most.