User Profile

This book tells the story of the modeling agency business from its inception to the present day, with a focus on the US and Europe.

Interesting fact: I was surprised to learn that the very first modeling agency was created in the US, and not in France or Italy.

The book tells about how Eileen Ford, the founder of the Ford agency, besides providing modeling jobs to her models, also wanted to act as a matchmaker between models and suitable parties, who were often rich middle-aged men.

As it turns out, people working in the modeling industry, be it photographers, agents or scouts had other ideas. Why act as middlemen when they could be themselves the suitable parties, even if they were not so much. The book singles out the European fashion scene, and in particular Italy and France. The Elite agency deserves a special, unfortunately negative, mention here.

As a result, for many girls modeling became a trap that prevented them from building their private lives, instead of being a source of better opportunities in terms of suitable parties.

In reading this book, one gets a sense of an industry where backstabbing, predatory behavior and financial tinkering are rampant. Is this rhetoric veering on the sensationalist side? One must be an insider to answer this question.

Illuminating.

In this book, the author tries to imagine a stable human society where individual suffering is abolished.

In this society:
There is a cast system similar to the one that exists in India (or has existed?).
People's embryos are interfered with in order to make them conform to this cast system at the biological level.
Colleagues in workplaces are clones of oneself, which reduces frictions.
Sentimental exclusivity is banished in a hippy-like fashion.
* Drugs and indoctrination are used for making people forcibly conform to this societal framework. The author thinks that this is preferable to using religion for that very same purpose.

Ultimately, such society proves incompatible with human nature. Indeed, a man who was raised amongst savages and was unhappy amongst them ends up committing suicide when he emigrates to this advanced society.

In final analysis, this story seems to make the case that the very concept of human society is incompatible with the self-interests of individuals. Or, at the very least, that it takes significant effort and sacrifice on the part of individuals to make human societies viable.

Although this book has the merit of pointing at a global pandemic, unfortunately there is little evidence that the methods presented here are effective, as far as I am aware.

The incredible thing is that the medical profession still cannot say what causes myopia (check out the medical literature like I did)!

In terms of preventing myopia, it seems to me that one environmental/behavioural avenue that hasn't been explored yet is the possibility that the optic nerve may be pulling on the eye when the eye's exterior muscles (the rectus muscles, maybe also the obliques) contract to move the gaze direction away from its resting position. When this pull happens for prolonged periods, this could contribute to elongating the eye durably, and this could explain the onset of myopia.

Alternatively, the exterior muscle contractions could by themselves be contributing to eye deformation. In either case, preventative measures that reduce the frequency and duration of external eye muscle contractions would be effective, such as:

* Outfitting classrooms with tables which have an inclined table top. With horizontal table tops, both possible body postures are less than optimal: When stooping close over the table, eyes do not need to be directed downwards, but they do need to be directed inwards. When sitting upright, eyes do not need to be directed inwards, but they do need to be directed downwards.

Was wird passieren, wenn die globalen Öl-Reserven sich dem Ende zuneigen? Soll man nach neuen Öl-Beständen suchen, oder in eine ganz andere Richtung aufbrechen? Dieses Buch gibt eine mögliche Antwort dazu.

Der Autor ist der Ansicht, dass die Menschheit zu sehr von Öl abhängig ist, obwohl es keine ökologisch tragbare Energiequelle ist. Daher soll die hiesige Öl-basierte Zivilisation in der nahen Zukunft verschwinden und demzufolge soll ein wirtschaftlicher Rückgang zustandekommen.

Das ganze liest sich auch als das Zertrümmern des "American Dream"s. Die Hauptfigur ist ein Deutscher, der in die USA emigriert, um dort an Ruhm und Reichtum zu gelangen. Sein Traum ist es, möglichst rasch ein großes Unternehmen zu gründen.

Dazu setzt er erstmal eine "OPI-OPM"-Strategie ein (other people's idea, other people's money). Zufällig begegnet er einem vermeintlichen Erfinder, der behauptet, eine Methode entwickelt zu haben, um neue Ölquellen unter der Erde aufzufinden. Er holt sich auch Investoren, die den Start-up finanzieren. Das Vorhaben kollabiert jedoch, weil die Methode sich als unzuverlässig entlarvt.

Sein zweiter Versuch beansprucht eine Erfindung seines verstorbenen Vaters, die sich als umsetzbar entpuppt. Es handelt sich um eine Methode, biologischen Abfall in einen Ölersatz umzuwandeln. Die Herstellung des entsprechenden Gerätes wird hauptsächlich von seiner reichen Frau finanziert (was wenig glamourös ist!). Doch aus unerläuterten Gründen denkt er nicht daran, die Methode zu patentieren. Stattdessen bietet er diese Erfindung der US-Regierung an, die sie annimmt, um die globale Wirtschaft wieder einigermaßen auf die Beine zu stellen. Er verdient kein Cent damit.

Dazu ist seine Beziehung zu seiner Frau von Anfang an durch Geldgier an beiden Seiten ungesund, und verschlechtert sich mit der Zeit. Toller amerikanischer Traum!

Das Buch macht Spaß, selbst wenn man nicht solcher pessimistischen Verfassung ist.

Da der Autor zweifelsohne intelligent ist, gibt es als Bonus viele interessanten Bemerkungen und Erläuterungen, was die Weltgeschichte anbelangt. Beispiel: sinkende Ölpreise hat maßgeblich zur Ende der UdSSR beigetragen, da Öl damals ein großer Teil des UdSSR-Exports ausmachte. Ich würde hinzufügen, daß das "Star Wars"-Projekt der Reagan-Regierung auch eine erhebliche Rolle darin gespielt haben muss. Vielleicht war es nicht so sehr ein militärischer Vorhaben (die Technologie funktioniert bis heute nicht!) als ein wirtschaftlicher Angriff an die UdSSR.

The book does a great job of overviewing the blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies and ecosystems.

The authors are working for well established companies, and their opinions are predictably conservative and pro-government regarding the potential upside of these technologies.

They think that blockchains will primarily be used internally by big companies, and that cryptocurrencies will find a marginal use only in international money transfers.

The presented argumentations are also slightly nationalistic in that the dominance of the Chinese in this space is presented in a negative light, arguing that a technology that was supposed to encourage decentralization has instead led to a centralized ecosystem that is led by the Chinese. Indeed, the biggest cryptocurrency mining company and the biggest producer of cryptocurrency mining hardware and the biggest cryptocurrency exchange are all Chinese.

Surprisingly, the biggest story that everybody including this book seems to miss is that cryptocurrencies could lead to a world where governments the world over are able to exert much less influence in the global economy as is currently the case. The current nation-based way of organizing the world could give way to a predominantly economy based system.

The book mentions in two different instances how currencies should be stable over time and how stock prices become more stable over time as companies mature. What if we put two and two together and infer that the stocks of mature companies with stable prices could be used as currencies?

The biggest leverage that governments have over economies is their control of currencies. What if Amazon and Apple and Alibaba were to issue their own currencies?

The author makes the case that the role of marketers in subscription businesses differs markedly from the traditional role that marketers have in traditional transactional businesses.

The author argues that the role of marketers should evolve towards subscription marketing even in transactional businesses that wish to maintain an ongoing relation with individual customers through membership programs or similar measures.

According to the author, subscription marketing is different from "transactional" marketing in that:

Marketing activities are not limited to the pre-sales part of the customer journey.

Marketers engage with customers throughout the customer journey, from after-sales onwards using what the author calls "value nurturing" activities, the intent being to remind the customer of the value he/she is getting from the subscription.

The argument made here is that, with the rise of the subscription model that the economy is currently experiencing, the marketing role will naturally expand to include other after-sales activities.

The reverse argument could equally be made, perhaps more convincingly. Namely, that in a subscription economy marketing would become less prevalent, and that after-sales customer success teams (which the book mentions without emphasising) would come to the forefront that engage with customers on a more individual basis than a marketer would.

The book mainly talks about transforming existing transaction-based businesses into subscription businesses, the goal being to acquire a loyal customer base and maximize CLV (customer lifetime value) rather than short term profit.

This desire to be sticky with customers makes sense in business sectors that are not innovative and where there are many competitors. This is the type of business that the book mainly delves into, although the subscription model is legitimately applicable to other business sectors where the product being sold depreciates quickly and needs ongoing updates, such as software.

If a company is transitioning to a subscription model, that can be a red signal for the customer, as the company might be willing to hang on to its customers at all costs. Indeed, malpractices abound, and the book mentions some of them. Many businesses make it unduly difficult for customers to unsubscribe by hiding the “unsubscribe” button or by requiring cumbersome steps such as personal phone calls or handwritten letters. I have personally had a similar experience with BitDefender recently.

Regulating the economy is a government responsibility, and everybody pays them taxes. So why are these malpractices so prevalent?

The business cases discussed pertain to retail (shoes...) and community-based services (weight loss...) mostly. The book also talks about the subscription models of Netflix and EA (Electronic Art) to name a few cases in the digital realm.

Helpfully, the book mentions the typical KPIs (key performance indicators) that are relevant for subscription businesses, and the metrics to track for monitoring company health and reducing churn.

Overall, I have found this book to be confusing rather than illuminating. One has to make an extra effort to gain insights from the presented material by casting aside many of the confusing argumentations. The reason might have been that the author has intended to point out what is not working in the subscription model without launching an overt critique on the sector. In that, she has succeeded.