(LINK) Neither, and New: Lessons from Uber and Vision Fund – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Sounds like Ben is shifting his stance quite a bit.

Will be interesting to see that change.

Neither, and New: Lessons from Uber and Vision Fund – Stratechery by Ben Thompson:

Going forward I plan to be a lot more skeptical about other tech startups that interface with the real world and the attendant drag on margins that follows; I am not saying that the category isn’t viable, and technology truly makes these companies different than the incumbents in their space, but they are not necessarily tech companies either.

(LINK) WordPress.com owner Automattic raises $300 million – Axios

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

What an empire. Slightly baffled by the entire round being taken by Salesforce but I guess they want to own a piece of this puppy.

I love WordPress. Used it for years and even went to the hosting by Automattic to make life easier.

I think the other thing that is not mentioned enough is that Automattic is completely remote and I think has zero offices.

Amazing.

WordPress.com owner Automattic raises $300 million – Axios

(LINK) The Consumerism Curse, The Apple Chip, Tesla + Great Reads

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I like Om’s weekly email and this one is pretty spot on about consumerism.

Much to grok.

The Consumerism Curse, The Apple Chip, Tesla + Great Reads:

But there is one demon I have not been able to conquer, an addiction that is worse than nicotine: consumerism. For the past four years, every year, I make an effort to get rid of things and buy less. It is not easy to do — the machines of desire work constantly and are powerful. I looked at my own spending trends, and I am at about 25 percent of where I was four years ago. I have bought much fewer things and gotten rid of an average of 10 things a month. And yet, it is not enough.