Day 1 We started our journey with Templo Mayor, a 700-year-old Aztec temple, and took a guided tour of it. The ticket to the temple costs MXN 70 per person, and the guided tour in English was for MXN 300. It takes about 3-4 hours to explore the archeological remains and the museum. I would recommend this museum over other archeological museums in the Mexico city since this one had descriptions written in English. ...
The book provides a scientific perspective on the history of how humans came to dominate the planet. The book’s biggest focus is on the three revolutions the cognitive revolution which started 70, 000 years ago; the agricultural revolution which started 12, 000 years ago; and the scientific revolution which started 500 years ago and shaped the destiny of our species and the planet.
The common belief is that in the case of perfect competition (“commoditized goods”), buyers will always buy the lowest priced item, and this will dwindle down profits to practically nothing, and that’s why it’s called red ocean in the first place. While this is true in general, there is at least one notable exception to it. Consider the example of toothpaste, in the US, a toothpaste is ~1-2$ a piece. Are buyers really going to buy a white Colgate for 10¢ lower price over a red Colgate? Most would just stick to whatever they are used to. And that’s where lies the real strategy if the good’s price is an tiny fraction of the budget, it might never get optimized on. ...
The book talks about Martin’s experience as a brand consultant where he tries to expose the subtleties of marketing used by corporations to create or increase demand for their products. Some techniques mentioned in the book are morally questionable. Overall, it’s a great read into at the intersection of psychology and business. I would recommend reading this in conjunction with " Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion".
The Island of Hawai’i, popularly known as the Big Island, is the biggest island in Hawai’i. Unlike other islands, this one is too big for driving around with mopeds. The island has two cities at the two corners, Kona and Hilo. If you are a coffee lover then you would note that Kona indeed is the source of Kona coffee. Day 1 Flew into Kona late night and drove directly to Holo Holo Inn. It’s a beautiful rustic place to stay next to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. The park had an active volcano till 2013. Now, only the dried magma is left. The petroglyphs are good, but nothing worth spending too much time on. ...
Shops love selling them since the margins are great, the local government loves them since it brings in additional tax revenue, and the tourists love them since they don’t want local bacteria to interfere with their enjoyment of authentic experiences. Mother nature pays the price. It’s a classic example of negative externality where the local businesses, the local government, and the tourists get a perceived benefit at the expense of the environment. ...
Infrastructure - Architecture & Performance Android Vitals - More visibility in Google Play dev console on battery drain, wakelocks being held for too long, ANRs, crashes, dropped frames, and frozen frames. Architecture components - better handling of the lifecycle, Room (ORM for Sqlite), live data observers. The API looks clunky though. Performance 50% 1-star reviews mention stability & bugs. 60% 5-star reviews mention speed, design, or reliability. Apps with > 5% crash rate have 30% higher uninstall rate. Emerging Markets > 100M users came online in 2016. 1B 2G devices expected in 2020. 50% of India is on 2G 33% users run out of storage in India every day. Data is expensive - it costs ~$2 to download a 40MB free app in India 53% users abandon websites if it takes more than 3 seconds to load Action items ...
iPhone iPhone iPhone 3G -> iPhone 3GS iPhone 4 -> iPhone 4S iPhone 5 -> iPhone 5S iPhone 6 -> iPhone 6S (and plus sizes) iPhone 7 (and plus sizes) Android Nexus One Nexus S Galaxy Nexus Nexus 4 Nexus 5 Nexus 6 Nexus 5X & Nexus 6P Pixel & Pixel XL While iPhone is recognized as a global name while erstwhile Nexus and now, Pixel has almost no branding outside of the Android fanboys. ...
Cities have been central to the human civilization. Their dense population provides a platform for the serendipitous interactions and cross-pollination of ideas from different domains, their abandoned portions provide cost-effective real estate to struggling artists and entrepreneurs, their riches provides jobs, sometimes, side-jobs for the innovators to experiment. No wonder innovation in a city grows super-linearly (~(size)4/3) with its size. But the Internet was supposed to destroy all advantages a city has over the rural areas. The Internet was supposed to convert all of us into a global community. It did. But the cities have emerged even stronger, everywhere. One way to rationalize this is to realize that the Internet provided a platform to the cities a rent seeking ability which was extremely limited in the pre-Internet era. When a family in Kansas books an Airbnb in Thailand using Mastercard credit card, books the flight with Expedia, and uses an Uber in Thailand then these intermediaries take a cut. Similarly, when a person in Nebraska buys West Texas Intermediate from New York stock exchange, then New York stock exchange takes a cut. Now, what happens when these companies take these cuts? A big chunk of that is used for salaries, expenses, or charity donations which are usually highly localized activities and benefit the cities where these companies are headquartered. Most of these rent-seeking activities were either non-existent or of limited leverage in the pre-Internet era. ...
Detroit used to symbolize the prowess of American manufacturing. Foreign delegates would drive or fly to Detroit to see this iconic city. San Francisco Bay Area (Silicon Valley) was once called the Detroit of the west, and at that time, it meant admiration. The city has a tumultuous racial history. It’s the only city in the US to be taken over by the Federal army thrice to control riots. Before my visit, I had read the book " Detroit: An American Autopsy", it’s a bit long but gives a thorough understanding of this once iconic city. ...