Must Reads 274

Good morning Must Reads, #274 is packed with brilliant must reads stories impacting the future.

» Threads 🧵 - It’s two weeks in and here is my complete Threads (strategic) breakdown. FWIW Threads will continue to do well with core niches and struggle with mass adoption, just like Twitter. Prepare for Threads to rush out features but still disappoint many users.

» Heatwave ❎ Amazon - An interesting way to understand heatwaves around the world (more specifically in this case 🇺🇸) how Amazon has seen +200% increase in air cons units to help battle the scorching heat. In many European countries the same is happening but with more local players.

» Apple AI 🤖 - Apple are famous for not having to go first and allowing the market to build while they go deeper into product builds. Siri has been awful for a few years so AppleGPT as it’s being dubbed will no doubt be a massive improvement. Apple and Meta have been slow to forcing out AI while Microsoft and Google have gone all in - my bet is Apple might just allow others to build prime use cases and they swoop in make money via app stores and then drop one or two gems of their own.

» AI isn’t all great and all bad but I love the idea of how AI will help and solve problems with biology. As someone who has had struggles before this might really help individuals with prevention and treatment (listen 👇)

» BNPL Usage Rollercoaster 🎢 - Usage of BNPL services went from clothes to electronics to unfortunately food, it’s popularity fluctuates one interesting element happening under the surface is the downloads are dropping. A usual indication of less usage and hitting the wall from a user POV. BNPL has helped many people in hard times but has put a number of younger people in debt and those who mistook it for free credit. BNPL is going to have to consolidate and with Apple entering in play, we are likely going to see this market shrink but lending continue.

Find out about caffeine naive is and why everybody bodies different ↙️

» Sports Washing 🎾- Wimbledon was a huge success, world number 1 winning in the men’s and dethroning dominant Djokovic and unseeded and limited sponsored Markéta Vondroušová winning the women’s tournament. The issue now is how tennis is the next sport likely being targeted by sports washing via huge investments. WWE, UFC, the F1, golf, now football through Saudi and Qatari leagues (& Newcastle co ownership) have seen huge investments made into these areas and teams. We will see this continue, players moving to set their family up while the avid fan won’t be aware of ongoing issues and problems caused by this influx of cash.

» Wikipedia Problems 🌍 - Despite what many people believe with Wikipedia, many millions of people understand basic to the most complicated subjects from wikipedia results every day. The problem bubbling under the surface is with AI and chat bots (being trained across Wikipedia data, Reddit data and open web data) Wikipedia has a fight against time to stay as the destination (via search engines and people coming direct) and the canonical resource for many every day. Wikipedia is run for free by editors and while the web runs on webpages and websites Wikipedia should be ok but when behaviour shifts and instant results by queries becomes more common how could Wikipedia stay alive…

» NO Masks Allowed 😷 - In an interesting twist In and Out burger have told employees that masks can only be warn if you have health conditions when working in their restaurants. Customer Service is essential but in the current climate should corporates be in charge for how someone feels comfortable in the workplace… FWIW difficult decisions have to be made every day in the boardroom & this likely took a number of months of debates to come to a conclusion

++ Trivia Answer ++ (C) 45% of all YouTube views are on TV sets. Pretty incredible shift from desktop and mobile to almost half of all views are now recorded on TV screens.

If you are going to watch the women’s World Cup, here is a great guide.

Go and have a great weekend.

Thanks,

Danny Denhard