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Created September 9, 2013 02:18 — forked from jkp/readme.md

Like Homo Economicus Scorned

Over Labor Day Weekend, Twitter user @VXDS flew off his handle (so sorry) and made history. British Airways had lost his bag amd had been negligent in responding. Without the following to start a viral outcry over poor customer service, @XVDS did what any rational person would: he bought a promoted tweet and lamabasted the company for customer services.

The incident brings to mind a famous study in behavioral economics. In an experiment published in the Journal of Psychology, researchers gave people the chance to penalize teammates in a game for ruining the chance for the team to make money. Invariably, they did. The research flies in the face of classical economic assumption about Homo Economicus, ie the purely self-interested man. People are willing to spend their own capital in order to enforce social norms.

Is Software Eating Cities?

One prerequisite for a healthy city neighborhood, writes Jane Jacobs, is the presence of public spaces and commerce where people ca

Life in the platform economy

At some point in the 1990s, entrepreneurs realized that entire businesses could be built online. Servers could be hosted on Amazon Web Services. Websites could be built with open-source software. Distribution costs could be tracked on Google AdWords. In other words, the costs of entrepreneurship dwindled to zero.

Fledgling companies were buoyed by a pervasive assumption among VCs - that in this initial land grab, we are looking for the company that will "win" the Inter

What's Going On With This This Site.

I want a site that reflects the way I think. My opinions aren't static blog posts, and my thoughts aren't endless streams. They're connected, and I wanted to give myself more context.

Is Software Eating Cities?

One prerequisite for a healthy city neighborhood, writes Jane Jacobs, is the presence of public spaces and commerce where people can congregate on different schedules, and for multiple uses (ie a well-designed park or bustling sidewalk). In contrast, Wall Street is "miserable...its eating places and clothing shops are pitifully inadequate for the demands on them." 50 years later, Amazon's same-day delivery and Seamless' delivery for corporate accounts seemed to have solved those problems.

But is Wall Street a better neighborhood for it? Jacobs' lament of Wall Street is as apt now as then. Software is getting good at solving easy problems. One can only hope this makes the harder problems easier, too.

#Building The Culture Stack.

Judging a company's culture by its office decor and happy hours is the equivalent of evaluating its technology by its homepage. Like technology, culture is a stack, and we can define it by spanning the lifetime of an employee: hiring practice, onboarding, business process, career mobility, marketing & PR, and social engagement.

I.

Automate Your Job the Right Way.

If you're like me, there is a good chance your job won't exist in 20 years. We are not alone; earlier this year, Oxford researchers estimated that 47 percent of U.S. jobs are susceptible to computerized automation over the next two decades, in careers ranging from transportation and logistics to administrative support to customer service.

The business of automation is already pervading corporate consciousness. Early December, Amazon gave a preview of its drone delivery service - a concept so alien they had to clarify it wasn't a prank.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/98BIu9dpwHU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The next morning, I listened on NPR to an altogether logical conversation: why couldn't Amazon Prime Air automate pizza delivery? Or laundry delivery? Or really the entirety of human log

II.

Friend-Driven Automation

On most days, Bill, a senior analyst, glided across the office sporting plaid button-downs tucked into comfortable khakis, armed with a laptop, a friendly wave, and a witty joke. He never turned down a conversation, always took extended lunches with coworkers, and then banged out a few hours of solid work. Speaking with him, I got the impression that his job was nothing more than a series of pleasant conversations and simple conclusions.

I was fooled.

My first month on the job, I was asked to do analyze the root causes behind poor customer experiences that caused high-dollar refunds. This involved talking with teams across the office: customer service, operations, sales, and finance.

Naturally, I sent out a slew of emails and set up a series of meetings over the next week. I felt important.