Despite fears of skittishness, US consumers poured a record amount of cash into online retail on Black Friday.

Unsurprising

The election ended, holiday proximity realization set in, and emotional releases / coping mechanisms were ripe for the having.

I’m guessing the election impact caused this year’s holiday shopping to be a bit more like ye olden days (when it didn’t start in October).

The whole podcast linked to here is worth listening to, if only to hear a true infovore’s approach to information discovery and self-knowledge.

Tyler Cowen’s core principles of economics:

• Incentives matter
• There’s always an opportunity cost (aka no free lunch)

you create the conditions for people to do the things they’ve always wanted to do

Seth Godin on the status games aspect of strategy

Forrester has made its 2025 predictions 🔮

In: “Brand smart”
Out: Brand safety

embracing new practices like swapping keyword exclusion lists with lists of publishers to include in their campaigns.

Out: TikTok ban in 2025
In (again): SEO-powered AI

Out: In-housing
In: Agencies (out-housing? (depends on the agency, I guess))