I Reviewed Restaurants for 12 Years. They’ve Changed, and Not for the Better.
The playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar described our “click-bait consciousness,” trained to interact with anything in the feed designed to be triggering. “The worship of algorithms is mutilating creative industries,” the television writer Cord Jefferson complained. “Culture is no longer made. It is simply curated from existing culture, refined, an
... See moreKyle Chayka • Filterworld
In entertainment, as in dining, modernity has transformed a ritual of togetherness into an experience of homebound reclusion and even solitude.
Derek Thompson • The Anti-Social Century
This is great leadership, but it presents a host of marketing problems. How do you communicate the price increase and elimination of tipping to a regular customer, someone who values the perception of a special relationship because he sees himself as an above-average tipper? How to communicate this to a tourist, who is comparing menu prices online
... See moreSeth Godin • This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See
What matters is that they have a story—“My friend Bob has been going there for years, and the Times wrote about it a little while ago”—that makes the Jackson Diner an eclectic but safe dining choice. That’s why the most crowded restaurants are usually not as good as they used to be. As they move through the curve, the success of the restaurant isn’
... See moreSeth Godin • All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works--and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All
The bundle no longer makes sense. In fact, it no longer exists. The few services that still require interaction with people of different classes are now governed by apps and algorithms. It is no longer necessary to get along with people or to be nice to them. You click on an app, someone delivers something, and you decide whether to add a tip witho... See more