Platformonomics TGIF is a weekly roll-up of links, comments on those links, and perhaps a little too much tugging on my favorite threads.
Get Platformonomics Updates By Email
A busy week for many of our favorite recurring characters: energy abundance, companies that masquerade as technology companies, the superpower of cheese, Chinese fellow travelers, and pernicious private equity.
News
It’s Time to Build: Energy Edition
Energy abundance might actually be back on the table.
Previous:
It’s Time to Build: On Your Wrist
The wrist-based neural interface technology Meta acquired with CTRL-Labs is probably the most impressive technology demo I’ve ever experienced. I saw it a couple years ago (thanks Reardon) and it works amazingly well. And unlike NeuroLink and other brain-computer interfaces, it is non-invasive (i.e. they don’t have to drill into your skull).
The big question is whether Zuckerberg will let this technology bloom as needed to realize its potential or will it be sacrificed in his Captain Ahab/Sun Microsystems-like obsession with Apple and the iPhone.
Salesforce + Indian Mystic + AI = ???
Whatever jokes I make about Salesforce can’t compete with their reality.
Previous:
“There’s an art to this kind of horseshit, and Benioff is its Michelangelo”, The Hard Thing About “Hard Pivots”, Thought Leadership (in Mascots), Salesforce Rallies Its Deep Bench of AI Experts (and Cartoon Characters), Bluster, Bombast and Bullshit: Just Another Day at Salesforce, Salesforce’s Shamelessness is Staggering, Salesforce Gonna Salesforce, The Spectacle that is Dreamforce, Antitrust Incoherence: Don’t Forget Microsoft
IBM is Not a Technology Company: Layoffs Are Their Specialty
Stuck in a bit of a paradox it seems.
Previous:
IBM is Not a Technology Company: But Ecstatic to be Treated Like One, IBM is Not a Technology Company: McDonald’s Edition, This Week in Securities Fraud, IBM and the Art of Misleading Investors, Last IBM Strategic Imperative Bites the Dust, IBM’s “Cloud” Business (or Lack Thereof), Tweetstorm Digest: Reactions to Barron’s “IBM’s Reboot” Story, IBM’s Lost Decade, Follow the CAPEX: The Clown Car Race Checkered Flag, Introducing Platformonomics ClownWatch™,
Not Available in Europe: This Week’s Edition
The superpower of cheese’s (only) frontier model champion opting out of their regulatory scheme is particularly delicious.
Previous:
EU Insanity: Regulations for Thee, But Not for Me
It turns out the aspiration to regulate globally is not limited to Europe. But the Europeans don’t seem to like it so much when the kabob is on the other spit:
But the snack’s status could be in jeopardy if the European Commission approves a bid by Turkey to regulate what can legally take the döner kebab name.
“The kebab belongs to Germany. Everyone should be allowed to decide for themselves how it is prepared and eaten here. There’s no need for guidelines from Ankara,” Cem Özdemir, Germany’s federal food and agriculture minister who also has Turkish roots.
In its objection, the German Hotel and Restaurant Association wrote that Turkey’s proposals differ from typical German preparations for döner, and that the regulations could lead to economic problems for kebab shops — as well as potential legal challenges.
The German döner kebab economy should not be held to Turkish rules, the [German Hotel and Restaurant Association] said in a statement.
“The diversity of the kebab must be preserved,” the association said.
I’ll refrain (barely) from doing a search and replace of döner kebab with AI. Hat tip: Steve.
Previous:
EU Insanity: Thierry’s Termination Tizzy, EU Insanity: Experts Agree, EU Insanity: EU Goes Too Far, Even for EU, Move Fast and Regulate Things: Welcome to the Morning After, Move Fast and Regulate Things (You Don’t Understand), When “Move Fast and Regulate Things” Breaks Down, AI Regulation: Move Fast and Regulate Things, EU Insanity: Regulating Blue Checks, EU Tweets While Ukraine Burns, EU Insanity: AI Regulatory Suicide, EU Insanity: Mistral Edition, The EU Will Continue to Fiddle While Rome Burns, EU Insanity: AI Energy Suicide, EU Insanity: AI Energy Suicide (Part Deux)
Related:
Software Migration Alert: SmartSheet
Confirmed! Time to execute that migration plan you’ve been preparing.
Private Equity in Action: WP Engine
Who could have foreseen private equity strip-mining a gentle open source community? (I have visions of orcs ravaging the Shire).
And nice to see “cancer” come full circle as an open source epithet.
Who could have foreseen that a super-aggressive private equity company would use the same super-aggressive law firm as thin-skinned fractional CEO and king of the frivolous lawsuit Elon Musk? (And then deny their legal threats had any actual legal substance).
Previous:
Private Equity in Action: Intel
Intel and Boeing are both demonstrating how hard it is for a technology company that has fallen off the frontier to reattain that frontier in the face of competent competition that remains on the frontier. I’m rooting for both companies (and I say that in spite of having worked extensively with Intel), but it is hard to imagine how getting private equity involved would help in any way.
Private Equity in Action: Broadcom Tells Customers to “F#)k Off”
Always a good sign when your customers are suing you!
Previous:
Private Equity in Action: VMware Customer Sues Broadcom, Private Equity in Action: Not Every VMware Customer Was Screwed, Private Equity in Action: The VMware Saga May Never End, Private Equity in Action: VMware “Unease” Continues, Perfidious Private Equity, Private Equity in Action: VMware Yet Again, Private Equity in Action: VMware (Continued), Private Equity in Action: VMware, Private Equity Will Buy and Ruin More Software Companies, Software Migration Alert: VMware (Continued), Software Migration Alert: VMware, Private Equity in Action: VMware Customer Complaints “Unwarranted”
Delusion Springs Eternal: VC Edition
If you’re a VC and think a 50 basis point interest rate cut is going to turn around your investment results (or lack thereof), you’re in the wrong business. Maybe go trade Treasuries. Venture capital is one of the least rate-sensitive businesses around.
Goldman Sachs Disavows AI Investment Banking Business
That leaky Chinese wall leaks in both directions.
Don’t Lecture Winnie-the-Pooh on Economics
General Secretary and President-for-Life Xi Jinping has ordered a resurgence in West Taiwanese economic confidence.
Previous:
One, Two, Three, Four: We Want a Meme War, Xi Jinping Thought on Wall Street Running Dogs, The Perils of Working for a Cult of Personality, Press Releases We’d Like to See, Best Nickname for Emmanuel Macron, Winnie-the-Pooh: Lover of Honey, Champion of Freedom, Missing the (Bamboo) Forest for the (Apple) Trees
Useful Idiots, Fellow Travelers and Unregistered Foreign Agents: Angelist
Previous:
Useful Idiots, Fellow Travelers and Unregistered Foreign Agents: Elon Musk Part II, The Donald, Jeff Yass, Microsoft Bing, DC Lobbyists Part III, Hollywood, DC Lobbyists Part II, NBA, Warner Bros. Discovery, Germany, DC Lobbyists, Elon/Twitter, The Hugo Awards, Harvard University, Wall Street, Apple
