This doesn’t surprise me
Retail sales, which captures spending on all goods and food services, fell 0.8% in January
That was even lower than the downwardly revised 0.4% increase in December, and well below economists’ expectations of a 0.1% decline
Black Friday was huge and early January showed signs of slowing spend, a holiday hangover of sorts.
Tax season and spring might thaw things a bit, but we’re back in the land of general economic uncertainty (which I have thoughts on)
via CNN
I’m turning into a Google bear 🐻
Competition from OpenAI: Develops Web Search Product in Challenge to Google
Arc Search getting buzz (I’ve used it & can easily see this being a glimpse of search’s future)
It’s important to remember that each individual listener actually does experience the record in their own way.
Even though the online and streaming mentalities seem to flatten out that individual experience.
It’s important to remember that every individual listener is hearing the record their own way.
Don’t let the promise of scale and mass trick you into thinking you’re talking to a mass.
Two Anthony De Mello quotes:
A village blacksmith found an apprentice willing to work hard at low pay. The smith immediately began his instructions to the lad: “When I take the metal out of the fire, I’ll lay it on the anvil; and when I nod my head you hit it with the hammer.” The apprentice did precisely what he thought he was told. Next day he was the village blacksmith.
&
Those who make no mistakes are making the biggest mistake of all-they are attempting nothing new.
We’re not rational decision makers, we’re rationalizing decision makers.
An important fact to keep in mind.
We justify a purchase after—not before—making it.
NVIDIA’s new local LLM chatbot seems tailor made to corporate office/knowledge workers
Those with compatible hardware can now install Chat With RTX, an AI chatbot that turns local files into its dataset.
…
At its core, Chat With RTX is a personal assistant that digs through your documents and notes. It saves you the trouble of manually searching through files you’ve written, downloaded, or received from others.
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can also pull transcripts from YouTube videos.
…
a matter-of-fact tone
No offsite data transfer.
“Chat” with local files.
At the very least, employee onboarding could become easier.
Soft landing? More like slow landing.
CNN spoke with the Atlanta Fed President, who:
is anticipating the nation’s inflation rate — which currently stands at around 3% — will be near “the lower twos” by the end of 2024.
& said
With that outlook, I really see the first move coming sometime in the summertime
Thing is, according to Fed data our current rate environment is more the norm compared to the 0 rate exception the market got used to.
Earlier this month I asked if Google was now Microsoft.
Magic 8 ball says “Signs point to yes” 🎱
via Inside:
A U.S. federal judge has scheduled an antitrust trial against Google for Sept. 9, 2024. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit targets the search giant’s alleged monopoly over online advertising.
If, like Microsoft, Big G limits/unwinds development to avoid more antitrust actions, we may have seen the last of Google as portal to the Internet.
& yes, it’s an existing trend that is accelerating.
& yes, Microsoft pulled a phoenix so it’s not necessarily The End.
Nearly 90% of consumers no longer trust influencers
Consumers are becoming fed up with influencer marketing and are starting to seek out user-generated content (UGC), or brand-related content created by customers instead
This is people’s natural preference for something that feels more like word-of-mouth than paid advertising. Influencers are part of “the system” now.
TikTok’s Shop push isn’t likely to help this either.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was more about mega-influencers and obviously paid promo material either.
An important caveat to the Stanley Drops.
They were the fuel, not the fire or the fire starter.
The frenzy is “something that was, and still is, actually driven by women content creators”
Most brands won’t be able to start trends. It’s about knowing what to do when you find one.
via Garbage Day