I have a copy of Monocle's Guide to Hotels, Inns and Hideaways sitting on my desk and I love flipping through it. There's something magical about a great hotel. Part of that magic is intrinsic -- it's just a good hotel. And part of it is the fact that we're probably all a bit more open to new experiences when we travel. Our mindset changes.
On the first of January, I wrote (briefly) about two recent experiences where I was no longer required to interact with a person in order to check into a hotel. It was all done electronically. Some of you followed up and asked: "Do you think this is a good thing? Don't you miss the human connection?"
My response was that I think it is inevitable. There is a long history of technology/automation replacing human jobs. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. We used to have people shoveling coal into furnaces. Now we don't. And I think that's okay. We created different jobs. The same is likely to happen with Uber/Lyft drivers.
At the same time, our need for human connections isn't going away. One of the best features of a great hotel is the bar. Whether it's sitting at the bar and talking with the bartender or meeting someone new, those moments of interaction will always remain precious.
I have a copy of Monocle's Guide to Hotels, Inns and Hideaways sitting on my desk and I love flipping through it. There's something magical about a great hotel. Part of that magic is intrinsic -- it's just a good hotel. And part of it is the fact that we're probably all a bit more open to new experiences when we travel. Our mindset changes.
On the first of January, I wrote (briefly) about two recent experiences where I was no longer required to interact with a person in order to check into a hotel. It was all done electronically. Some of you followed up and asked: "Do you think this is a good thing? Don't you miss the human connection?"
My response was that I think it is inevitable. There is a long history of technology/automation replacing human jobs. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. We used to have people shoveling coal into furnaces. Now we don't. And I think that's okay. We created different jobs. The same is likely to happen with Uber/Lyft drivers.
At the same time, our need for human connections isn't going away. One of the best features of a great hotel is the bar. Whether it's sitting at the bar and talking with the bartender or meeting someone new, those moments of interaction will always remain precious.
And it's one of the reasons why, I think, platforms such as Airbnb haven't meant the demise of hotels. Part of it has to do with the service offerings and consistency of a good hotel. But part of it also has to do with our desire to be around other humans. In the words of Monocle: "There's something about a hotel bar that captures our collective imagination."
I just finished reading a few articles (here's one and here's another by Cory Doctorow) on something called "adversarial interoperability." This is relevant because it is being put forward as the thing that's needed to solve big tech -- as opposed to, say, just trying to break up big tech into small tech, which is what some policy makers think we should do.
Jerry Neumann's recent blog post on the "taxonomy of moats" is a great summary of the ways in which companies -- and perhaps even cities -- can protect themselves against competition.
Here's an excerpt from his introduction:
Value is created through innovation, but how much of that value accrues to the innovator depends partly on how quickly their competitors imitate the innovation. Innovators must deter competition to get some of the value they created. These ways of deterring competition are called, in various contexts, barriers to entry, sustainable competitive advantages, or, colloquially, moats. There are many different moats but they have at their root only a few different principles. This post is an attempt at categorizing the best-known moats by those principles in order to evaluate them systematically in the context of starting a company.
And here is his taxonomy of moats. He identifies four main sources:
As a sidebar, consider how this might also apply to cities.
If you'd like to read Jerry's full post, click here. And if you're interested in this space, I recommend you also check out Fred Wilson's recent post on, "The Great Public Market Reckoning."
And it's one of the reasons why, I think, platforms such as Airbnb haven't meant the demise of hotels. Part of it has to do with the service offerings and consistency of a good hotel. But part of it also has to do with our desire to be around other humans. In the words of Monocle: "There's something about a hotel bar that captures our collective imagination."
I just finished reading a few articles (here's one and here's another by Cory Doctorow) on something called "adversarial interoperability." This is relevant because it is being put forward as the thing that's needed to solve big tech -- as opposed to, say, just trying to break up big tech into small tech, which is what some policy makers think we should do.
Jerry Neumann's recent blog post on the "taxonomy of moats" is a great summary of the ways in which companies -- and perhaps even cities -- can protect themselves against competition.
Here's an excerpt from his introduction:
Value is created through innovation, but how much of that value accrues to the innovator depends partly on how quickly their competitors imitate the innovation. Innovators must deter competition to get some of the value they created. These ways of deterring competition are called, in various contexts, barriers to entry, sustainable competitive advantages, or, colloquially, moats. There are many different moats but they have at their root only a few different principles. This post is an attempt at categorizing the best-known moats by those principles in order to evaluate them systematically in the context of starting a company.
And here is his taxonomy of moats. He identifies four main sources:
As a sidebar, consider how this might also apply to cities.
If you'd like to read Jerry's full post, click here. And if you're interested in this space, I recommend you also check out Fred Wilson's recent post on, "The Great Public Market Reckoning."
Interoperability is, quite simply, the ability for different products and/or services to work together. It's the USB charger in your hotel room nightstand that empowers you to charge your phone. (Relevant post:
) But, of course, there are different types of interoperability, ranging from cooperative to adversarial.
Adversarial interoperability is when two products and/or services work together to the extreme chagrin of one of the companies. Usually that company is blatantly trying to stop it from happening so as to further strengthen their market dominance.
The argument being put forward is that this adversarial relationship is fundamental to tech and fundamental to innovation. It allows new ideas to emerge. And so the real problem at hand is that big tech has gotten so big that it has managed to largely quash this varietal of interoperability. The result is less innovation and the persistence of big tech.
For a proper reading list on this topic, click here.
Interoperability is, quite simply, the ability for different products and/or services to work together. It's the USB charger in your hotel room nightstand that empowers you to charge your phone. (Relevant post:
) But, of course, there are different types of interoperability, ranging from cooperative to adversarial.
Adversarial interoperability is when two products and/or services work together to the extreme chagrin of one of the companies. Usually that company is blatantly trying to stop it from happening so as to further strengthen their market dominance.
The argument being put forward is that this adversarial relationship is fundamental to tech and fundamental to innovation. It allows new ideas to emerge. And so the real problem at hand is that big tech has gotten so big that it has managed to largely quash this varietal of interoperability. The result is less innovation and the persistence of big tech.
For a proper reading list on this topic, click here.
