On My Mind
Reminder: After decades of predicting and writing about the future, we end up looking either geniuses or idiots. This 1995 Newsweek article brushing off the internet as “useless” shows why it’s better to stay hopeful about the future and what it might bring. There will always be doubters who question what’s possible. Seth Godin recently put this idea well:
“New ideas aren’t adopted all at once. A few people go first while the rest of us watch to see how it goes. This is the story of tech innovations, dance crazes and even food.Ideas spread horizontally, and people who prefer the status quo will embrace an idea only when they feel as though they don’t have much of a choice.”
In 1995, I held a view diametrically opposed to this writer’s view.
Exabytes’R’Us
The exabyte era is firmly here. To think that at at the turn of the century we had a telecom bubble and how overvalued everything seemed. Fast forward to today, and look where where we are. When I reflect on it, what a unique opportunity it has been to experience such a transformative period.
- I thought about data in exabytes nearly 20 years ago. Recently, I found this fact: Google moves 1.2 exabytes of data worldwide on its own network daily for “backup”? Link
- We’ve come far since 2010, when a year’s mobile data was just over an exabyte.
- The US app market made $44.9 billion in 2023. Smartphone users spent 217 billion hours on their apps. Link
- It’s no wonder our data usage is going up and up. OpenVault estimates that for the second quarter of 2024, the monthly average data usage was 585.8 GB, up 9.7% year over year from 533.8 GB in 2Q23. About 20% of broadband users are now consuming 1 terabyte (or more) data, with some using as much as 5 TB. Link
5 Very Important Reads
- Who is Palmer Luckey? Now is your chance to read all about him. Link.
- Polluters (aka the plastic industry) want to pass themselves off as recyclers and friends of climate change. What a crock, as this investigation finds out. Link.
- The real climate crisis, from an individual standpoint, will be precipitated by insurance companies. No, seriously. This warning should make you read this key essay. Link.
- Great deep dive into Ozempic (and its GLP-1 cousins). Link.
- After the A’s announced they were leaving Oakland, a pair of lifelong fans set out to do something audacious: start a beloved pro baseball team of their own. Remarkably, they pulled it off. Now the Oakland Ballers need to survive. Link
Etc:
August 21, 2024. San Francisco
