Zag To The Zig #53 :: Fired! Flying! Or The Future of Fandom!
Welcome to this ‘Sort-of-Summer’ edition of ZTTZ. Before it gets a little more quiet, I thought I’d update you on a few things that triggered my curiosity recently. Enjoy yourselves! ⛱️⛱️
In the Tech Basement
Anything that dispels a few myths is always worth a read in casa ZTTZ. This time: IT systems will bake the earth because of electricity consumption. Not so fast.
So that flying car is becoming a reality?
In the Economy Room
🍅🍅 Digital adoption and e-commerce has been sustained, post-Covid, apart from grocery shopping. That’s not strange, I think. An insurance pack is an insurance pack. We’ve gotten pretty good at representing and choosing a hotel room online, through photos/reviews. But a tomato is not a tomato. I can see an opportunity for a supermarket that can distinguish ‘tomatoes for today’ from ‘tomatoes for in 5 days‘ and offer that online.
Recently, I’ve been doing some work for a blockchain start-up that sits in that so-called Creator Economy space. Super-interesting stuff; that field is hotting up and not just with NFTs. Just work your way through this overview of Zoe Scaman called ‘The Future Of Fandom’, which argues for a Creator-meets-Fan-Economy.
If anything, it’s worth paying attention to developments in this space. Even Instagram is experimenting with Exclusive Fan Clubs and NFTs.
Welcome to the strange market of TikTok videos for Chinese factories.
In Jail
Another strange market. Read this incredible story on the dark side of illegal game cheats.
In the (remote) office
We all love a peek into people's homes, but this is a pandemic work-from-home version. A few stories (beautifully presented) about how people around the world dealt with working from home.
And finally, in the Ethics Corridor
If we walked into a book shop and saw the manager treat their staff this way, we'd never shop there again. How Amazon uses algorithms to automatically fire their flex-drivers.
Random ZTTZ
🎾👅 Tennis + lip reading: How Boris Becker's subconscious tics taught Andre Agassi how to return his unstoppable serves.