Nick

A lesser advertised feature of the #iphoneair is turning off the camera control button and using it as a fidget toy.

Businesses need for “storytellers” is coming from a place of perfect parody at the product level. Pattern matching in tech Manufacturing consolidation in CPG When anything can be anything, curation is the real product. “It’s toasted” #advertising #storytellers #brands #madmen

There is a special place in hell for people that touch MacBook keys with greasy fingers.

My takeaway after a week of reading the napkins: The"official story"is the most expensive fiction a company can buy The spreadsheet tells you what happened The ground truth tells you what's about to happen Stop reading memos.Start reading napkins #BusinessStrategy #Investing #Leadership #GroundTruth

Perplexity is putting its AI chatbot into Snapchat. ThePlay:"We must capture Gen Z! Massive reach!" Who is this for? Does anyone use a social app to chat with a search engine?This is a press release, not a product-market fit.A solution in search of a problem. #AI #Snapchat #Product #Tech #Strategy

The AmEx marketing sells"premium perks." The ground truth is a"No AmEx"sign in a Paris cafe. Merchants can now legally refuse high-fee cards The most valuable network isn't the one with the best "synergies." It's the one that actually works at the register. #Fintech #AmEx #Visa #Payments #CX #Travel

The press release calls the new US Bank split-card a“flexible payment solution.” It’s a BuyNow,PayLater scheme for your electric bill, launched just in time to prop up Q4. The official story is"consumer choice." The ground truth is "consumer desperation." #Fintech #Economy #Consumer #BNPL #Banking

ESPN's$2B betting failure wasn't a"strategic pivot."It was a catastrophic failure of imagination Disney is SYNERGY. So why was ESPN Bet just a generic,reskinned app? Why no Star Wars pod-racing bets?They had the world's best IP and refused to use it. #Disney #ESPN #BrandStrategy #Innovation #Synergy

Want to predict Disney's next earnings report? Go feel the napkins in the Magic Kingdom. They're thinner. This isn't a supply chain issue The layoffs, the reduced hours, and the cheap-o napkin aren't three problems. They're one spreadsheet-driven decision. #Disney #CX #Brand #Investing #MagicKingdom

Stop reading analyst reports. They're lagging indicators. Start reading the napkins. They're confessions. The analyst sees "margin improvement." The customer feels the napkin get cheaper. The report is the curated story. The napkin is the ground truth. #Business #Investing #Strategy #GroundTruth

open.substack.com/pub/nfhwfh/p...

Tiny, petty annoyances of the modern age: Every time this line I'm on hold with gives the, "Thank you for waiting, please hold for the next available..." spiel, the hold music resets to the beginning and so this song never actually gets across the bridge.

AI is coming for middle management. Pushing a flood of highly-qualified people down into the entry-level job market. The "great squeeze" is here. This is no longer a fringe idea. This is the central, practical case for a Universal Basic Income. #AI #FutureOfWork #Economy #UBI #BasicIncome

The internet became our"third space."No wonder we're miserable and isolated. We traded the coffee shop for a digital feed, and it hollowed us out. The great rejection is coming.The next wave of business will be local,in-person,and sell real community #ThirdPlace #Community #FutureOfBusiness #Culture

Looking for a Diner in #Dublin 24 hour preferred, of the Bobs Big Boy variety while not needed, appreciated. #bobsbigboy #diner #ireland

Shopping is not freedom. It's a second, unpaid job. A labyrinth of 7,000 reviews just to buy a pen The next great luxury is not more choice. It's the freedom of not having to choose An AI agent you trust to just"handle it"is the great reckoning for brands #AI #FutureOfCommerce #CX #Marketing #Luxury

The theme park model is inverting. Disney is building"mixtapes":a physical feed of random IPs to scroll through Universal is building"books":cohesive, immersive worlds One is an IP-pop The other is a long-term bet on immersion A dangerous game #Disney #Universal #EpicUniverse #Placemaking #Immersion

We are getting a sequel to the social network, can we reboot Silicon Valley? Silicon Reconning? #siliconvalley #socialnetwork

The corporate creed of "good enough" is a rot. The internal question isn’t "Is it great?"but"Is it better than it needs to be?" Excellence is a threat. It sets a new standard. A mediocre product, propped up by 50 years of nostalgia, is just a safer bet. #Disney #CX #BrandStrategy #Zootopia #Business

The counter-signal has begun. As AI floods the market with deepfakes and "personalized" slop, smart brands like Aerie and Heineken are marketing themselves as "AI-Free." "Human-Made" is the new luxury. Trust is the only asset that doesn't scale. #AI #BrandStrategy #Marketing #Trust #CX

Let’s not get married to that language. #usgov #fdic #banking

The Great Detachment is here. Since GPT 2.5, job postings are down 1/3, & the S&P 500 is up 75%. Layoffs aren't a sign of failure. They're a strategy. Companies are freeing up cash for AI, betting their future growth is no longer tied to headcount. #AI #Economy #FutureOfWork #Investing #Layoffs

We stand at a wonderful turning point. The old way of "taking" is giving way to a new challenge: "How do we create in a way that lasts?" This isn't a limit; it's the start of our greatest adventure. A future where our prosperity and our planet grow together.

What does the Marketing funnel look like when there is no funnel? open.substack.com/pub/nfhwfh/p...

So, the lights flickered! a new challenge, a new frontier. We built a magnificent tower. Now, our ingenuity is called upon to build something even better: not a single tower, but a resilient network, connected, distributed, and strong. Singularity brings us too close to the sun #AWS

We are masters at building worlds. So why do we build a magnificent, immersive world, only to chase people through it? The public doesn't just want to be scared; they want to wonder. The future of immersion is in trusting the audience. Let them explore the magic you've built. #HHN #UniversalStudios

We have unlocked a fountain of creation. New tools give us more of everything, instantly. But abundance is not the same as wisdom. The great new frontier is curation. The future belongs to the storytellers and the guides who can find the true magic in all that noise.

Better Ruins Everything open.substack.com/pub/nfhwfh/p...

Shoutout to MOFT tech accessories. Living #nocase with the #iphoneair. Camera just clears the table with the MagSafe stand.

open.substack.com/pub/nfhwfh/p... #996

open.substack.com/pub/nfhwfh/p... The dumb phone is coming for your AI startup, how will you be judged in their eyes?

Am I missing something or was building #zillow inside #chatgpt not the flex that they were showcasing it as? Happy to be wrong.

Jack Donaghy could find a domestic market for those soybeans #30rock

It all comes back to ads, boo. #chatGPT #openAI

Oh the content machine begins. #buildinpublic open.substack.com/pub/nfhwfh/p...

I am constantly disappointed at how good I feel when properly hydrated.

50 tabs is not the flex you think it is

Is there a version of #hack-a-thon for business ideation/dev? #bizdev #startups

Where is the #startup scene in #ireland?

What becomes the differentiator when every page is 100% AI optimized, in real time? Back-link? A return to some form of social trust?

What’s half a loaf of bread, three chicken nuggets, and a beer for dinner? Is that keto?

Unsolicited LinkedIn endorsements seem to be the new “someone looked at your profile” I think it was Shakespeare that said “to gameify something, is to ruin it”

About time

If you aren’t wearing a Rolex submariner did you even attend the trade show?