The landlocked country with lots of ships
Disney, German aviation and Anime to get your Sunday going.
Hello,
The theme of my week has been the final 20% - getting something from good to great. It’s much harder and often less rewarding than the leaps and bounds you make chucking a load of ideas together in the first 80% of any endeavour.
I’ve always been a big fan of the phrase “done is better than perfect”. This will surprise no one who has been subjected to my half-baked PowerPoint presentations. Life is short and if you believe everything has to be perfect, there are lots of things you’d never start.
That being said, in a world where everyone and everything is clamouring for attention, ‘good’ just gets lost in the noise. Effort really isn’t lost on humans, we notice when something has been carefully crafted whether subconsciously or not. It’s like cooking, the little touches really make the difference. Carefully dicing the vegetables and buying that random spice you think you might have but aren’t sure elevates the whole enterprise.
Cumin isn’t optional,
Hugo
Chief Bull in a China Shop
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Wizz Air is offering an ‘all you can fly’ subscription ✈️ - like an all-you-can-eat buffet, I’m sure many will see this as a challenge for £426 a year. You can only book flights up to three days in advance and it does not include any luggage larger than a rucksack. You’ve also got to put up with the dodgy carpets on Wizz Air planes.
Paloalto apologise for using women as lamps 💡 - the cybersecurity company decided it would be a good idea to get two women to pose with lampshades on their heads at a trade event. Someone having the idea in the first place is bizarre enough, but it constantly mystifies me how this sort of thing makes it through the layers of governance multibillion dollar companies have.
Sony’s anime streaming service is making inroads in India 🇮🇳 - Crunchyroll, the world’s largest anime streaming service, is opening a second office in the world’s second most populous country and working with Bollywood stars. Anime is quite frankly none of my business, but good luck to them.
Nintendo couldn’t give a monkies about graphics 🕹️ - Microsoft and Sony have been in an arms race to make gaming as hyperrealistic as possible, but Nintendo really isn’t wasting any money on pixels, and it’s resulting in higher operating profits than their competitors. Like reality TV programmes, they’re just great at tapping into people’s dopamine reward systems.
UAE has banned ships from landlocked Eswatini 🇸🇿 - the landlocked country that used to be called Swaziland is prone to letting Russian ships use its flag to haul sanctioned oil about, which even the commercially liberal Emirates are finding a bit disagreeable.
Disney to plough more money into its theme parks 🐭 - I mean who can’t get excited about a new Monster Inc.-themed ride? The Experiences division of the conglomerate, which includes theme parks, cruises and video games, accounts for 69% of its operating income, so is clearly a candidate for investment.
Air travel to Germany is much lower than expected ✈️ - the world’s third largest economy has high airport costs and decreased corporate travel has led to them having lower airplane capacity than they did in 2013 last year. This has had a significant impact on their national carrier Lufthansa, which had 1% lower revenue in the first half of 2024 than it did in the first half of 2018.
Zimbabwe is having another go at having its own currency 🇿🇼 - the country is famous for the hyperinflation that repeatedly makes its currency worthless. ZiG will be their 8th attempt to establish a currency since 2008, this time will hopefully be different as it is backed by bullion and foreign assets owned by the state.
Half of journeys from City Airport take less than 6 hours by train 🚂 - the government are deciding whether passenger numbers should be increased from 6.5 to 9 million a year. I for one prefer the train and it’s obviously better for the environment, but the locomotive option is contingent on affordability and them working properly.
Dating apps are struggling as finding someone good is really hard ♥️ - shares in Bumble fell 30% last month due to a poor earnings report, and Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, has also reported fewer paying customers. Some indication as to why this might be came in a survey which found there are a lot of scammers and generally dodgy blokes frequenting these sort of applications.
Quote of the week
First of all, I'd like to say here the fact that I'm not naturally a craftsman has made me work very hard - Beatrice Wood