Memes may dominate how we communicate online, but in the last few years, their rapid spread has also necessitated the birth of a parallel, shadow ecosystem, where the best ideas are paradoxically harder to find. Not everyone wants their ideas to go viral anymore. One friend writes a newsletter that he asks people not to share around. Another publis... See more
Amazon guards its GMV closely, but we can estimate it using a "sum of parts" approach. We need to make two key assumptions. First, assume that Amazon's return rate for e-commerce sales is 15%, which is high for some categories (books, electronics) and low for others (apparel). That implies an e-commerce GMV of $12 billion [=$14b*0.75/(1-0.15)]. Sec... See more
In Paul Graham’s famous essay Cities and Ambition, there’s this idea that some cities are centers for some type of ambition, and when you come to one of those cities, you can feel the message the city is sending to you. For example, the message that you can feel in New York is “You should be richer,” while Berkeley’s is “You should live better,” Pa... See more
Sublime’s message: you should slow down and make something wonderful
By combining socially networked music, listening and audio chatting, Roadtrip has created a product where there’s serendipity amongst strangers. Casual conversations from music to business flow in and out of the rooms, normally awkward silences are occupied by music which fills the void, and the vibe is unmatched.