Consumer psychology is weird

Links: Office gossip in the remote work age, codec wars & Neanderthal art!: Context Collapse #97

Jun 06, 2021

Hello you wonderful people.

Let’s get to the links.

New Futures:

I finally read Lawrence Wright’s The Plague Year in the New Yorker and the novel-length retelling of America’s 2020 COVID experience is kind of amazing.

Inside the ‘email job’ caste.

How office gossip has adapted to the age of remote work.

Michael Manville on how parking destroys cities.

Diving into the Pentagon’s quiet control of a huge portion of the internet.

Donald McNeil Jr on the ebbing of the COVID pandemic in America:

This virus is slowly becoming endemic: something we live with.
We will probably have bad seasons and good seasons, as we do with flu. We may have annual shots with a blend of the South African, Brazilian, Indian or whatever variants are circling the globe that year. Luckily, because coronaviruses mutate more slowly than influenza viruses, they will probably be better matches than flu shots are.
But the epidemic-endemic border is fuzzy. My epidemic may end before yours does.

Advertising/Marketing/PR:

The psychology of why consumers go with the status quo instead of choosing a new brand.

What it’s like making a Super Bowl ad.

Examining the politician-to-television-star-industrial complex:

When Beto O’Rourke dropped out of the Democratic primary, analysts speculated on the Texas politician’s future on the national stage. For help navigating it, Mr. O’Rourke turned to Creative Artists Agency, the Hollywood talent agency known for shaping the careers of Beyoncé and Brad Pitt.
CAA, United Talent Agency and other firms have recruited political clients in recent years to help mold careers outside public service and find opportunities beyond book deals and political punditry. They have signed Democrats (Georgia politician Stacey Abrams), Republicans (former Ohio governor John Kasich), flashy newcomers (onetime presidential candidate Andrew Yang) and less flashy bureaucrats (former Obama administration Education Secretary Arne Duncan).

Jonas Dromberg on why so many journalists become venture capitalists:

The hierarchy in flow processes are also similar. Reporters and principals siphon most of the dealflow, bringing the best cases to editors and managing partners. The actual heavy-lifting in both newsrooms and venture funds begins only after the flow items have reached this editor/managing partner level. While every term-sheet includes a heavy administrative process, so do the biggest news stories. A Pulitzer Prize story may involve more teamwork than an early investment into Google.

Media:

In 2021 future, companies love fighting over codexes and compression technology, which is a big reason why YouTube TV and Roku are lawyering up.

The reasons why newspapers make it difficult for readers to cancel subscriptions.

Armin Rosen at Tablet has a pretty good overview of how nation-states use Twitter to spread propaganda.

Inside J.D. Vance’s strategy of Twitter trolling his way to the Senate.

Tech:

Duolingo just launched their new Duolingo for Schools product.

Stack Overflow just sold for $1.8 billion!

Default Friend’s emotional history of the internet:

When I rack my brain for an answer to the question, “What changed?” The first thing I think of is the role of the screenshot.
Screenshots have always been a feature of computers, but as far as I can tell, nobody’s really done a good job of documenting how their usage has changed over time.
We know that in the 1980s, gamers used screenshots to share their high scores and we know that in 2007, the iPhone allowed us to screenshot our text messages for the first time.