Article: Everybody Wants Their Pound of Flesh (Negotiating with Buyers)

Probably the best article I've read about this topic. I see this in pretty much every negotiation I take part to, especially the larger ones:

I could sum up my negotiation mentality as a seller in one phrase that I’ve used as short-hand for my portfolio companies for years, “Everybody wants their pound of flesh.”
It’s short-hand for showing that despite our aversion to the process of negotiations – as buyers we’re conditioned to it and even rewarded for it.

Article: Minimal Mac - TV is broken

I read this article by Patrick Rhone which epitomizes pretty much everything that's wrong with today's TV, especially in the US:

Of course, not more than ten minutes later, the movie is once again interrupted by a round of commercials.  "Why did they stop the movie again?", Beatrix asks. Thus leading to essentially the same conversation as before.

She just does not understand why one would want to watch anything this way. It's boring and frustrating. She makes it through the end of the movie but has little interest in watching more. She'd rather play. The television is never turned on again during our stay.

From: http://minimalmac.com/post/18189678921/tv-is-broken

I wrote before about the future of TV. My stance hasn't changed much, but reading about this kind of experience makes me even more eager to see what the future holds for TV.

Looking at the other options available today, it's almost amazing that people have borne interruptive ads for so long.

The true power of Big Data

Amazing story in the New-York times about how much retail companies know about our shopping habits:

Andrew Pole had just started working as a statistician for Target in 2002, when two colleagues from the marketing department stopped by his desk to ask an odd question: “If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that? ”

If you've ever wondered why and what information stores collect about you... Well now you know.

From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all