Researchers Train AI To Identify People From Their Footsteps

The larger issue that more research is giving machine learning and AI an increasingly diverse array of findings with which to identify humans.

An interesting question will be which combinations of data may provide the most accurate findings. JL


Kyle Wiggers reports in Venture Beat:

To train machine learning models capable of distinguishing between steps (and by extension, people), the researchers collected both the time and frequency of footfalls in addition to their length and cadence (the gap between two consecutive footsteps). Over the period of a month, they used a geophone to collect roughly 46,000 footfall events from eight barefooted test participants. They posit that in the real world, data collection would be best accomplished by dividing a “monitoring area” — e.g., a college or factory — into “zones.

The Myth of the 20 Year Old Entrepreneur

It may be that as the market for financing and starting new companies has matured, the demand for more experienced managers has grown, given the larger amounts of capital and other resources needed to achieve meaningful scale. JL

Meredith Somers reports in MIT Technology Review:

The average age of entrepreneurs who’ve started companies and gone on to hire at least one employee is 42 years old. Between 2007-14, less than 1 percent of high-performance startup firms were founded by 20-year-olds.Why does age matter in entrepreneurship? It could be the result of human, social, or financial capital, a combination of those.

Billboard Ad Spending Sets Record In Digital World

It reinforces the digital message in ways that can actually be measured with some certainty. JL

Rani Molla reports in Re/code:

Ads on billboards, buses and at venues like baseball stadiums are expected to see record spending this year. Worldwide ad spend on “out-of-home” advertising is up 3% since last year and 35% since 2010. This old-school ad format is booming precisely because digital ads are so commonplace. Amid all the digital noise, it’s a guaranteed way to reach a broad swath of people.“It’s getting so hard to reach a mass audience today because it’s unclear who’s watching other more classic media channels like TV or who’s clicking on internet ads — or even then if it’s a real human being clicking,

Changed Your Hair Style? Grown a Beard? Your Phone Might Not Unlock

Who are you? Your phone now has the power to decide. JL

Tripp Mickle reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The rise of facial-recognition technology such as Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Hello and Apple Inc.’s Face ID means computers now seem to be passing judgment on users’ appearances. When a face doesn’t measure up, people are left to ponder whether they look their best, whether they use too much makeup, why they changed their hairstyle—and perhaps whether they even look like themselves. Users report their devices won’t unlock unless they wear the same makeup as when they set it up. Others complain it can’t identify them in the morning when they first tilt phone to face on the pillow.

What Happens When Life Insurance Companies Track Fitness Data

Does society really want corporate entities to have that much power over personal lives?JL

Angela Chen reports in The Verge:

John Hancock announced it would only sell policies that allow customers to share fitness data. "You give this power to someone who is giving you life insurance — and life insurance is a crucial means of protecting you and your family against unforeseen accidents — then they get to decide what your healthy life looks like, even if we decide that’s not how a healthy life should look. They impose and flatten the variety of ways in which it’s acceptable to be healthy. I can only imagine that yoga might not work well with an activity tracker.”

Research: Customers Care How Companies Treat Employees

And companies need to pay attention because customer perceptions can shape brand value. JL

Denise Yohn reports in Harvard Business Review:

Companies are under increased scrutiny from media, customers and investors for organizational practices that used to be hidden from the public. Social media gives consumers a voice to speak out against (policies) they believe unfair and they expect companies to respond. Employment practices can shape brand perceptions. Consumers' top five topics include how they treat their employees and their involvement in wrongdoings. No action by a company is more interconnected with its ability to build trust with the public than “treating employees well.”

DeepMind Studying How Humans' Memory Linkage Could Power AI

Humans' ability to remember and - more importantly - to link memories in order to make sense of the present could hold the key to creating more powerful and useful artificial intelligence. JL

Shelly Fan reports in Singularity Hub:

Our ability to integrate multiple memories is the first cognitive step that lets us gain new insight into experiences, and generalize patterns across those encounters.It’s a cognitive superpower. And DeepMind wants it to power AI. Humans still have an advantage when tasks depend on the flexible use of episodic memory,” the kind of memory that lets you remember where you parked your car.“If we can understand the mechanisms that allow people to do this, the hope is that we can replicate them within our AI systems, providing them with a much greater capacity for rapidly solving novel problems.”

Hotel Workers Fear Robots At the Front Desk

Voice and facial recognition may make waiting in line to check in a distant memory. JL

Eduardo Porter reports in the New York Times:

“You are not going to stop technology. The question is whether workers will be partners in its deployment or bystanders that get run over by it.” Unlike manufacturing workers, whose jobs have been lost to automation since as far back as the 1950s, workers in the service sector had remained until now largely shielded from job-killing technologies. Many earned too little to justify large capital costs to replace them.And many of the tasks they perform seemed too challenging to automate. Technology is changing this calculus.

The Tangible Tech Spending That Drives Intangible Value

Behind every successful meme lies a lot of heavy machinery. JL

Shira Ovide reports in Bloomberg:

Alphabet, Apple, Amazon​, Microsoft, and Facebook spent a combined $80 billion in the last year on big-ticket physical assets, including manufacturing equipment and specialized tools for assembling iPhones and the powerful computers and undersea internet cables Facebook needs to fire up Instagram videos. Thanks to this surge in spending—up from $40 billion in 2015—they’ve joined the ranks of automakers, telephone companies, and oil drillers as the country’s biggest spenders on capital goods, including factories, heavy equipment, and real estate considered long-term investments.

The Slackification of Work

Culture and productivity are becoming increasingly intertwined. JL

Michael Litt reports in Fast Company:

Constant communication is evidence of a new work paradigm, one in which the professional and personal are mingling. The culture of belonging and collaboration that starts online has measurable impacts offline when it comes to sharing knowledge and offering support for problems and projects that come up at work. A study by Microsoft found that productivity at work actually increases with access to social media chat tools. Those personal conversations often overlap with company mission and vision.

China's Forcible Intellectual Property Transfers Lie At Heart Of Trade Dispute

The Chinese believe that this is what US companies did to the British in the 19th century to spark its own industrial revolution. The Chinese resent the complaints and say it now their turn.

But in a more connected global economy where intangible value has exceeded tangible values in many industries, the results can be economically devastating - and the US is pushing back. JL


Lingling Wei and Bob Davis report in the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. companies have long complained that Beijing pressures them to hand over intellectual property. Their concerns have escalated as China turns into an advanced rival in industries ranging from chemicals to computer chips to electric vehicles. China’s tactics include pressuring U.S. partners in joint ventures to relinquish technology, using local courts to invalidate American firms’ patents and licensing arrangements, dispatching antitrust and other investigators, and filling regulatory panels with experts who may pass trade secrets to Chinese competitors.

How Financial Risk Mapping Software Could Identify the Next Downturn

Data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence are making it possible to interpret new information which might previously have been too obscure - or immense - to apply to systemic financial analyses.

With further refinement, these systems may be applicable not just to central banks, but to business leaders. JL


Knowledge@Wharton interviews Kimmo Soramaki:

The questions that central banks have been looking at with are systemic risks, how financial institutions are interconnected with one another through different types of trades that they make in different markets, whether they are systemically important players, and then to see how those failures in the system might manifest. "You cannot prevent the failure, but you can prevent the vicious cycle and the cascading failure where things start to fail because of this initial condition."

How Data Science At Netflix Turned Hollywood On Its Head

Approaching movie-making like a complex logistical and creative puzzle which can be optimized by data and technology. JL


S.C. Stuart reports in PC magazine:

"Using data science, analytics, machine learning, and optimization, we can support content creators' decisions from pre-production through principal photography and editing, VFX, sound mixing, as well as quality control.Then we use data to help [choose] good options, rather than defining solutions from scratch. We found [the logistics] to be similar to a very complex supply chain."

UPS Experimenting With Blockchain, Embedded Chips, Drones To Stay Ahead

Technology demands that companies stay ahead - or fall behind. There is no sustainable middle ground. JL

Sara Castellanos reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Blockchain has the potential to increase the transparency and efficiency of data-sharing among carriers, brokers, consumers, vendors and other supply chain stakeholders. Embedding advanced chips in package labels could provide better visibility into where packages are at a certain time. “One of the tricky things for CIOs today is to identify the emerging technologies that will in fact have significant business impact."

How Stripe and Other Fintechs Threaten Bankers By Offering Cash Advances

Online financial services firms are expanding horizontally into small business lending. They can do it faster and cheaper than banks, credit card companies - or venture capitalists, making them a more direct threat to traditional lenders than ever before. JL

Ingrid Lunden reports in Tech Crunch:

New cash advance services provide financing to business customers 1-2 days after applying for them. Business loans compete against the rest of the payments and financial services pack, including other tech-first companies like Square and PayPal, established payment and credit firms like American Express, and traditional banks. “VC capital is by far the most expensive way to access capital as a company, more expensive than credit card debt.”

The European Union Versus the Internet

Is the European Union's primary concern user privacy?

Or are it's parliament and regulators so obsessed with their relative loss of global influence due to technological changes based on intangible forces that they are willing to take down the internet as it currently functions in order to return to a previous, largely tangible age, in which their culture dominated? JL

Ben Thompson reports in Stratechery:

The entire copyright system was predicated on physical goods (which)are easier to track, ban, and price. Any regulation or business model that starts with the assumptions that guided copyright in the pre-Internet era is not going to make sense today. It makes more sense to build new business models predicated on the Internet. If regulators want to constrain Facebook and Google or the other ad networks  that are more of a threat to user privacy then the ultimate force is user demand, and the lever is transparency.

Ex-Content Moderator Sues Facebook, Claiming Viewing Violent Images Caused PTSD

The line between life online and off continues to narrow. The social and legal question here gets to the larger question of what responsibility internet platforms have to manage the information on their sites - and to protect both their own workforce and society at large.

Social and legal norms are playing catchup, but there appears to be a growing consensus that 'something must be done.' The issue is whether that inchoate 'something' can be defined, agreed upon and legislated in ways that meet the approval of the various commercial and individual constituencies involved - and whether society is willing to accept trade-offs that may limit the speed, convenience and universality that the internet has provided in this first generation of its existence. JL


Sandra Garcia reports in the New York Times:

A former content moderator who worked on contract for Facebook has filed a lawsuit saying that being bombarded with thousands of violent images on her computer led her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. The former moderator argues Facebook failed to protect her and other contractors as they viewed distressing videos and photos of rapes, suicides, beheadings. “You’d go into work every morning, turn on your computer and watch someone have their head cut off. Every day, every minute, that’s what you see. Heads being cut off.”

AI and Neuroscience-Powered Job Recruitment and Assessment Is Growing

The issue is not whether it should be stopped, because usage is growing. 

The more important questions are how to make sure that it doesn't reinforce existing biases - and how technological, social and/or legal remedies can be deployed to address the inequities that will inevitably arise. JL


Khari Johnson reports in Venture Beat:

Using neuroscience and artificial intelligence to recruit job candidates, 60 companies use (them) in hiring, including Unilever, Hyatt, and Accenture. Top performers in a position a company is hiring for play games to track their performance and responses in different scenarios and gauge the traits associated with that job. Candidates are compared to these results. Since people already hired may come from a homogenous group, a bias detection tool prevents results that reinforce existing bias. In some instances, companies have seen a 20% increase in diversity and a 65% increase in retention rates.

Is the Podcast Bubble Bursting?

Podcasts became the 'it' media sensation. A predictable glut ensued, which is now shaking out. The question is whether it lends itself to the sort of scale that can be monetized sufficiently to earn ongoing support. JL

Mathew Ingram reports in Columbia Journalism Review:

If one of the benefits of podcasting was that they made good money, why are companies like BuzzFeed shutting or downsizing their operations? One answer is a glut of supply—in 2015, a list of the “must listen” podcasts was 200 items long. At some point, even aficionados wonder who has time to to listen to all those podcasts. As happens whenever the crowd move into a new format, quality suffered. Podcasting can also be difficult to monetize: Audio is difficult to summarize or browse through, which makes it out of sync with the short attention span culture of social media

When Will NYC Do Something About All Its Vacant Storefronts?

Ecommerce and global capital migration have caused one of the world's premier retail destinations to begin looking like an empty mall.

The city council may finally feel compelled to take action. JL


Oscar Abello reports in Next City:

Some 20% of storefronts are vacant in New York City, up from 7% in 2016. “There’s a tremendous amount of global capital looking  to get returns in urban real estate. This speculative run-up in prices has little to do with the actual economics of a building.” A bill would entitle any commercial tenant who has complied with the terms of their lease to a 10-year renewal and the right to force the negotiations into binding arbitration if the new terms are contested — perhaps because of an exorbitant rent increase.

How A New California Law Will Require Stronger Passwords For Internet of Things Devices

As more devices become connected, the network as a whole becomes more vulnerable. JL

Jennifer Kang reports in Slate:

California is considering legislation that would institute stricter password security for the network of smart physical devices that collect and share data that they acquire from users and their surroundings. IoT is taking over every inch of our homes.With it comes the increased risk of hackers abusing that collected data. It requires manufacturers of a connected device to equip it with a “reasonable security features." If manufacturers are mandated to create unique passcodes for each device,this will decrease the impact of large-scale, automated attacks.

The Future of Branding: Synthetic Voices

Which raises the question; who's to say what's real and what's synthetic? JL

Katharine Schwab reports in Fast Company:

AI-synthesized voices sound human enough to convey carefully designed emotions that can act as an extension of a company’s brand. As more of our interactions with companies shift away from the visual and toward the verbal–whether thanks to Echo and Google Home or automated customer service systems–the tone, quality, and cadence of a company’s voice is becoming the new face of the brand.

With Instagram Founders Out, Facebook's Authoritarianism Becomes Evident

Forget all that public relations blather about 1 Hacker Way and what a wild, revolutionary organization Facebook is. This is a dictatorship devoted to the promulgation of corporate domination, whatever the socio-economic cost.

As the leaders of WhatsApp, Oculus - American and European democracy - and now Instagram have learned the hard way. JL


Alexis Madrigal reports in The Atlantic:

Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus, though all owned by Facebook, had fought, to varying degrees, to maintain their own identity. The founders left over issues around monetization and user privacy. After two of the hardest years Facebook has ever faced, Facebook loyalists are and will be in control of every property. A company with an unusual ownership structure that concentrated power in Zuckerberg has now doubled down by extending that power

Why the Boss Of the Future Will Require a Different Mindset and Skills

The command and control model is giving way under the weight of an economy in which bigger decisions have to be made with less information in shorter time frames.

Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics reduce the margin for error but still rely on informed leaders to make final decisions.

Successful companies encourage a collaborative organization in which optimization is based not on hierarchy but shared intelligence. JL


Marcel Schwantes reports in Inc.:

74% of employees have the ability to move to different areas to work. 52% of employees have choice over when they work. 43% of employees work away from their team some of the time. "Workplaces are increasingly project-based, and employees are attracted to interesting problems and meaningful work -- not just a title."(But) managers can't just offer autonomy and disappear."The personal relationship they have with their supervisor is the most meaningful relationship they have with their organization." Managers must act more like leaders and think more 'big picture.'

Why It Matters That Tencent's AI Beat Starcraft II's AI

The implication goes beyond gaming, demonstrating that AI designed on the basis of independent human thought processes can outperform more 'robotic' types of AI. JL


Tristan Greene reports in The Next Web:

Researchers developed AI capable of defeating StarCraft II’s “AI” on the highest difficulty levels in full matches — the first to do so. A macro-micro controller (can) handle entire facets of the gameplay independently. Like all neural network-based AI agents, they were designed to imitate human thought process. Players act in real time. (Plus) there are thousands of units in play. The commander paradigm keeps track of the overall strategy while depending on low-level algorithms for unit management, so the bots are more human-like than the computer opponent. That means they dominate it.

Uh Oh: Robotic Process Automation Is Moving Beyond Simple, Repeatable Tasks

And we thought our ability to think provided job security. JL

Rolfe Winkler reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Software robots perform jobs like data entry, such as opening a pdf file attached to an email, scanning the document, and entering the information in some other database. Higher-order artificial-intelligence software can learn when presented with new data and make decisions without human input, such as determining whether to underwrite an insurance policy. The market is growing because chief information officers can show their bosses real cost savings using bots to complete tasks faster, more cheaply and with lower error rates

The Deliberate Negativity of Social Media

Its a feature, not a bug. JL

Mark O'Connell reports in The New Yorker:

The nexus of consumer technologies and submerged algorithms, which forms so large a part of contemporary reality, is deliberately engineered to get us hooked. Social-media platforms know what you’re seeing, they know how you acted in the aftermath of seeing it, and they can decide what you will see next in order to further determine how you act—a feedback loop that becomes a binding force. Negative emotions like outrage and contempt drive  more engagement than positive ones. This miasma of bad vibes is the fuel on which it has been engineered to run.

What China Can Teach the US About Artificial Intelligence - and Vice Versa

US and China companies strove together to imagine, design, produce and distribute what has become the technological revolution. They brought different strengths to that endeavor, which worked optimally as a collaborative effort.

This may now be the case with AI. It will probably succeed not an 'either-or' proposition, but as a partnership. JL


Kai-fu Lee comments in the New York Times:

Movement from discovery to implementation marks a significant shift in A.I.’s center of gravity. The age of discovery relied on innovation coming out of the United States, which excels at visionary research and moonshot projects. A.I. implementation plays to a different set of strengths, manifested in China: abundant data and a hypercompetitive business landscape that excels at turning an abstract scientific breakthrough into thousands of useful and commercially viable products.

Network Effect: How Shopify Is Powering Direct To Consumer Commerce

Shopify helps startups and - increasingly - established brands optimize their online sales potential. It provides everything from design to advertising to retargeting on Facebook and Google to data analysis.

And unlike Amazon, merchants dont fear the company will steal their best ideas and become a competitor. JL

Shareen Pathak reports in Digiday:

Shopify has become the core platform for direct-to-consumer brands threatening established brands. Merchants get store templates, analytics and ways to manage inventory. Shopify plugs into platforms (such as) Instagram so merchants can drive people from social to Shopify and complete the sale. Small businesses are the backbone of Shopify, (but it) has made an effort to go after big businesses (like) DeBeers and  Comme des Garçons. Amazon scares brands because it thinks “merchants don’t matter.”

Why Uber Drivers And Other Gig Workers Are Earning Half What They Did 5 Years Ago

Increased numbers of drivers working fewer hours is part of the explanation. Meanwhile, those leasing - such as Airbnb owners - have seen incomes rise as greater demand has yet to drive down prices. JL

Rani Molla reports in Re/code:

Drivers who transport people (Uber or Lyft) or things (Uber Eats or Postmates) through an app made 53% less in 2017 than they did in 2013. Leasing apps — Airbnb and others that let you rent assets like your home, car or parking space — saw their incomes rise 69%. Demand hasnt increased to meet the increased number of drivers. Drivers are working fewer hours. Trip prices have fallen. Platforms are paying drivers lower rates. 

Can 'The Best' Human Values Be Instilled In AI - Or Will Nature And Tech Take Their Course?

It is not clear that 'the better angels of our nature' can or will win. And there is a possibility that AI may do more teaching to humans than vice versa. JL

Ben Goertzel reports in Singularity Hub:

The bulk of AI development now occurs in large for-profit organizations bound by law to pursue the maximization of shareholder value. Material abundance and novel political and economic structures may fail to create a positive future. (But) interaction with robot consciousness triggered a change of consciousness in human subjects. Statistically the positive effect was quite significant across all cases.

App-Only Banks Taking Aim At Traditional Lenders - With Regulatory Support

Banking is one area in which Europe is moving more aggressively to support innovation, driven, in part, by their fear of what damage the 'too big to fail' global banks have done - and could do again. JL


Adam Satariano reports in the New York Times:

Start-up banks, still ha(ve) to figure out how to be profitable. But ha(ve) already begun to reimagine banking for an increasingly cashless society. Customers of the future won’t need branches when they can text a customer service representative. Detailed spending breakdowns help account holders control their spending. Doing without retail space and tellers keeps costs down, allowing the company to reduce fees and hire programmers. Officials have been concerned about the power of large banks in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and they see start-ups as weakening the hold of traditional lenders.

The Future of Credit Card ID Verification

Not just eyeballs and fingerprints, but AI gives systems the ability to read how you swipe. JL

Mischa Frankl-Duval reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Credit-card companies, banks and vendors are changing how they verify consumers’ identities. Passwords and PINs could become less important. Biometric analysis the norm.“With touch-screen devices, we have a lot of sensors, so we’re able to infer how you swipe, the pressure you put on the screen, how much of your finger you’d leave on the button as you pause before the next one. Not so much what you’re doing as how you’re doing it.”

Using Predictive Algorithms To Decide If Children Are Safe. With Their Parents.

Which raises questions about the capabilities and biases of those designing the models in use - as well as those of the people charged with interpreting the data they produce. JL

Elizabeth Brico reports in Undark:

“Sometimes when you start using data-driven methods, the flaws in the results highlight the flaws in the underlying system.” If those trends are analyzed in the name of gathering knowledge rather than predicting behavior, they can be used to correct systemic bias. One-fifth of investigated maltreatment allegations are ever substantiated by a court or child welfare agency. As these algorithms function now, they appear to simply perpetuate disparities.

How Google Is Building A Global Auto Network For Android

Google is also partnering with Volvo - now owned by Zhejiang-Geely Group, a Chinese conglomerate - and has been in discussions with German and American automakers.

Strategically, it probably makes most sense for the car companies to offer universal compatibility in order to sell as many cars as possible. JL


Shannon Liao reports in The Verge:

Google is partnering with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, which sells more cars than any other carmaker collective, to build the operating system behind the entertainment and GPS systems. These new systems will offer apps through the Play Store, navigation through Google Maps, and voice commands via Google Assistant. The systems will still be compatible with mobile devices running other operating systems like Apple’s CarPlay, so it looks like automakers are still keeping their options open.

How Artificial Intelligence Is Shaking Up the Job Market

It is not just the demand for new technological skills based on machine learning, neural nets and the like, but a co-evolutionary increase in the need for better people skills in order to optimize the impact of AI and associated advances. JL


Igor Perisic reports in the World Economic Forum:

Our analysis uncovered two trends: the rise of tech jobs and skills, and a growth in “human-centric” jobs and skills. AI skills are among the fastest-growing, and saw a 190% increase from 2015 to 2017. Industries with more AI skills among their workforce are the fastest-changing industries. While AI is unlikely to replace human workers, uncertainty remains regarding what types of jobs will be created, how permanent they will be, and what kind of training they require. Preparing for these changes will depend on a data-driven approach to understanding the trends and investing in lifelong learning.

Neurocinematics: How Brain-Computer Interaction Is Changing Cinema

Research is beginning to analyze viewers' brain activity in response to film sequences and this may lead to deeper audience engagement by empowering brain-to-computer driven changes in plot and outcome. JL

Polina Zioga reports in Singularity Hub:

Brain-computer interaction in cinema can enhance audience engagement (and) empower collectively control (of) a film through combined brain activity together with study of the effect of films on the spectators’ brain activity (neurocinematics). The most recent innovations are wireless brain-computer interfaces, available as low-cost headsets. Already used in computer games and the arts, more recently they have been applied in filmmaking. Universal and 20th-Century Fox have released interactive versions of their films where the spectator can control the plot with the use of a BCI headset.

What Is the Greatest Threat To Science?

It's not the cynical skepticism voiced by politicians playing to public fears, but desire by funders for the glory and profits of big hits over the steady accumulation of smaller accomplishments tied to long term goals. JL

Jeremy Baumberg reports in Project Syndicate:

As globalization increases competition, it also reinforces certain narratives – such as those dictating which research areas deserve the most funding. Just as “trending” topics in the media can dominate public attention, trending research areas attract the majority of funding. Support for parallel research in the same areas reduces efficiency, and herding behavior by donors may even preclude some of the most significant advances, which often come as a result of combining seemingly unrelated research. The digitization of knowledge has intensified these effects.

Alexa Is Coming Along For the Ride

At $24.99, why would any car-owning consumer say no? Which is exactly the point from Amazon's market share gobbling perspective. JL


Aftermarket News reports:

With Echo Auto, drivers can ask Alexa to hear the morning news, listen to an Audible book on your commute, get the latest traffic updates and more. Users also can set a routine that turns on the car’s lights when the driver pulls into the driveway, set reminders to pick up dry cleaning, add errands to a to-do list and check them off when they’re complete, build a shopping list or manage your calendar — all while your eyes stay on the road.

How Two-Day Shipping Has Changed Shopping Forever

The convenience offered by two-day delivery has supplanted other qualities as a determinant of customer purchase decisions. And the race now will be to reduce that time frame even more. JL

Christopher Mims reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The future goes to players big enough (or innovative enough) to cut costs on shipping, even while getting goods to everyone in the U.S. in two days or less. And that “or less” is key. While competition mounts, Amazon continues to ratchet up pressure by offering same-day—and even two-hour—delivery. And that’s before delivery drones.

Knowledge vs Skill

Thanks to technology, 'knowledge is table stakes.' Skill, practice and preparation are essential for success. JL

Ben Carlson reports in A Wealth of Common Sense:

In the past, knowledge offered many first mover advantage. Technology has leveled that playing field. Almost everyone has the sum total of human knowledge in their handheld pocket supercomputer these days. It’s skill that now makes the biggest difference but even talent alone can only take you so far in life. Once a person reaches a certain level of performance additional years of practice won’t help them improve if they don’t approach it the right way. Knowledge is table stakes.

Why What Jeff Bezos Does With His Wealth Is Society's Business

He benefited from socio-political policies unique to his time and place. Which suggests that the wealth so accumulated - and - how it is applied or distributed has become a matter of public interest. JL


Farhad Manjoo comments in the New York Times:

What responsibility comes with his wealth — and is it any business of ours what he does with it? Of course it’s our business. Mr. Bezos’ extreme wealth is not only a product of his own ingenuity. It is also a function of forces shaping the global economy: the unequal impact of digital technology, which has reduced costs and brought conveniences to many, but whose economic benefits have accrued to a small number of companies and their largest shareholders. There is also the effect of labor and economic policy, which in the United States has aggravated, the problem of tech-driven concentrations of wealth.