No Mercy No Malice
And why Pinterest and Snapchat are leaving money on the table
“The task is… not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.”
― Erwin Schrödinger
Just as life is not about what happens to you, but about how you respond to what happens to you, insight is not a function of data, but of how you perceive the data. Plotting data in different ways is illuminating, even fun, and it can lead one to discover stories. And while “stories” often connotes fiction, stories can also be true, and can even create truth.
The best way…
No Mercy No Malice
Proof that kindness compounds over the long term
As the news keeps thrusting the CEO of Robinhood in my face, I have two thoughts. One: Is the Javier Bardem No Country for Old Men hairstyle back in vogue? And two: Investing in — and holding — stocks has changed my life profoundly. …
No Mercy No Malice
Scott Galloway’s four unexpected principles for achieving economic security
The news of the (second) impeachment seems strangely pedestrian after the blowtorch intensity of Reddit vs. The Hedge Funds. The good news is that the hedge funds didn’t conspire with market makers and trading apps to suppress a (warranted) generational revolution. The inevitable Netflix/Hulu/Starz versions will not be so romantic; Reddit mainly inspired a transfer of wealth from one hedge fund to others. It was a pump and dump masquerading as a movement… with many retail investors left holding the bag. …
No Mercy No Malice
The social media giant’s toxicity and subpar financial results are one and the same problem
Every day, 187 million people open Twitter for news, entertainment, and a social connection. It is the real-time global communications network that sci-fi novelists envisioned. It is also a catalyst for conspiracy theories, a forum for hate speech, and a surprisingly lousy business.
In last week’s issue of New York magazine (February 1, 2021), I make the case that Twitter’s toxicity and subpar financial results are one and the same problem, amenable to one and the same solution. Fixing Twitter starts at the top — replacing an absentee CEO — and from there, changing the company’s business model. …
No Mercy No Malice
The S&P 500 registered the best Inauguration Day return since Reagan’s second term
The most striking thing about this abnormal inauguration? The normalcy.
The normalcy of a president speaking calmly. Speaking of unity and of a nation coming together. A president who is credible when he says it.
The normalcy of a previous, if not the prior, Republican president, saying to the incoming Democrat, “Mr. President, I’m pulling for your success. Your success is our country’s success and God bless you.”
The incoming president taking his oath to protect the Constitution on a Bible that has been in his family since 1893. …
No Mercy No Malice
While a quarter of America is behind on rent, the shareholder class has experienced an explosion in net worth
The federal response to the pandemic has been massive — a $5 trillion effort. It has also been a con. Under the cloud cover of Covid-19, the shareholder class has used its outsized influence over the government to toss a few loaves of bread at those suffering all while accruing trillions of dollars in wealth financed on the backs of younger and future generations.
How did we get here? In a healthy capitalist economy, wealth is always at risk. Competition spurs innovation, which disrupts the established order, creating winners — and also losers. Joseph Schumpeter called this the “gale of…
No Mercy No Malice
24 hours after a failed coup, the lead story on Twitter is Elon Musk becoming the wealthiest man in the world
On my podcast last week, public health expert Dr. Abdul El-Sayed highlighted that while viruses are naturally occurring, epidemics are a function of human action or inaction. This week, as a mob overran the U.S. Capitol, his observation registered increased purchase.
Extremism, misinformation, sociopaths stewarding profit-incentivized algorithms: All viruses. What we witnessed Wednesday afternoon — and have seen at least since November 4th — is an epidemic. Record deaths from Covid-19 and the U.S. Capitol overrun by a mob on the same day. How did this happen?
The virus has broken containment, preying on our comorbidities.
No Mercy No Malice
Why Airbnb, Robinhood, and Walmart will be the most important companies to watch this year
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower tweeted that in 1957 (it was a speech, Ed). The value of a prediction is not accuracy (though it is better to be right than wrong), but the reasoning and conversation that the prediction catalyzes. Predictions can also be self-fulfilling prophecies, as the best way to predict the future is to make it… and predictions can make it (the future). After last year’s predictions, seven Fortune 100 CEOs came to me for advice. …
No Mercy No Malice
America’s kids are tuning into the gaming platform over 2.5 hours per day
This is the second in a series of posts about one of the most accretive paradigm shifts in our economy since globalization and digitization: dispersion.
The market added half a trillion in value in the past two weeks: AT&T busted a baller move to a rundle, the FTC filed suit against Facebook, and an overhyped DoorDash and underhyped Airbnb went public.
AT&T’s announcement that it will release movies simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters predictably pissed off Hollywood players, who make millions from the current system. But Christopher Nolan calling HBO Max “the worst streaming service” is similar to…
No Mercy No Malice
Why we’ll never go back to life before Covid
The pandemic’s most enduring feature will be as an accelerant of existing trends. The trend that encapsulates the greatest reshuffling of stakeholder value in recent history is… the Great Dispersion. Similar to prior macro trends like globalization and digitization, it offers enormous opportunity, but also real threats.
In 1997, I was asked to address the board of Levi Strauss on the future of brands and retail. The title of my presentation was “The Death of Distance.” My basic rap was that all brands needed to establish a direct relationship with the consumer (e-commerce). …
Scott Galloway
Prof Marketing @NYUStern · Founder @L2_digital @redenvelope @prophetBrand · Contributor @bloombergtv · Cohost Pivot podcast · Weekly musings profgalloway.com
