What does the pope's name have to do with AI?
Gold, diamonds and lots of planes.
Hello,
I’ve been thinking about the line from the original version of John Lennon’s song Imagine that goes:
“Imagine a world without Microsoft”
It’s clear from a lyrical perspective why it wasn’t included in the version that we’ve all come to know and love (except when celebrities sing it from their big houses during a pandemic). The extra syllable means it just doesn’t scan well. But we have been deprived of what I think is an excellent thought experiment.
I’m not disputing the utility Microsoft has, capitalism basically runs on it. Documents, slide decks and spreadsheets are the media we use to get stuff done in the information age and for the past 30+ years, Microsoft has been dominant in this arena. But what if things had been different?
Maybe we’d have escaped spreadsheets by now. I think our great-grandchildren will look back at us, hunched over our laptops for hours a day trying to remember formulas, with astonishment. People often say Excel is the second-best tool for everything which explains its dominance. It’s everything to all people. The problem is there’s a world of possibility out there with regards to data storage, data management, visualisation, collaboration and calculation. The tools are just less ubiquitous.
Maybe corporate communication would be more varied and exciting. There’s nothing inherently evil about slide decks, fundamentally they enable storytelling which is what everyone is trying to do. PowerPoint however sends you down a road trodden a billion times before when you are trying to put together something expressive and interesting. The term ‘slideware’ is a testament to how commoditised they’ve become, people almost apologise as they share their screen - “I promise we haven’t got too many to get through.”
Despite Microsoft’s dominance to date, we are reaching a fork in the road. If they cannot nail the integration of AI into their applications so one can ‘talk’ to Excel or PowerPoint, they’re in trouble. In many ways, it seems that’d be no bad thing if it lets a thousand blossoms bloom.
You may say I’m a dreamer,
Hugo
Chief Alternative Historian
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Owner of British Airways buys a whole load of planes ✈️ - IAG has ordered 71 long-haul jets split between Airbus and Boeing. This comes straight after the trade deal was announced between the US and UK which may have impacted the split between the American and French plane manufacturers. Airlines have to think really long-term as most of the planes probably won’t be delivered until the early 2030s when we’ll probably have jetpacks anyway.
WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy amid weight-loss drug boom 💉 - we often think about digital technology being disruptive but innovation anywhere can turn whole industries upside down across the board. WeightWatchers has gone from 4.5 million subscribers globally to filing for bankruptcy to help pay down its $1.5bn debt.
Disney to open a theme park in the Middle East 🐭 - it’s pretty astonishing it’s taken this long (potentially something to do with the political climate) but Disney will be opening an island on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island. The last theme park Disney opened was in Shanghai in 2016 and the continued expansion in difficult macroeconomic times points to the strength of their in-person business and the Middle Eastern market.
You can now become a train driver at the age of 18 🚂 - the rail sector is currently faced with a retirement crisis which has led them to lower the age at which someone can drive a train. The hope is that the move reduces 87% of ‘P-coded’ cancellations (those made the night before a service is meant to run) that are caused by driver shortages. I’m all for it.
Deliveroo is set to be bought by DoorDash for £2.9bn 👋 - the acquisition by the American company is making some question the strength of the UK’s capital markets as it struggles to retain top technology companies. Will Shu, Deliveroo’s founder and CEO, maintains the UK is a great place to start a business and we just need to have a more positive mental attitude. I’d be feeling pretty positive if I was him right now.
De Beers is currently sitting on a stockpile of $2 billion worth of diamonds 💎 - this makes them sound like a sort of Smaug-esque dragon but the issue is people are just buying synthetic diamonds now so they’re struggling to sell their mined rocks. The natural diamond market is now in a very tenuous position as cash-strapped consumers are becoming increasingly conditioned to the idea that lab-grown diamonds do the trick (whatever that means).
‘Destination dupes’ are all the rage this summer ☀️ - ‘dupes’ more generally are a thing at the moment - I love it when a silly word becomes widely used. Many people are planning holidays to places like Montenegro and North Macedonia which could be mistaken for the Med without having the same budget and crowding implications. Since 2019, TikTok has driven huge volumes of passengers to hidden gem destinations. Not a bad idea to spread the load.
Gold smuggling is on the rise in Japan 🏅 - there is generally a very high global demand for gold at the moment as it is seen as a safe asset and Japan is up for selling it. 20 tonnes are leaving per month but the authorities are unclear where it is all coming from as they haven’t seen the tax revenue they would expect from that much coming in, in the first place.
Packaged bread is on the decline in the UK 🍞 - it was once a standard part of the weekly shop but has become the villain of the UPF wars with its high nonsense content which no one particularly needs or wants. Hovis’s owner is currently in talks about a possible merger with Kingsmill as the market is just not of a size that it can sustain both. The number of people eating sliced bread on a daily basis has dropped from nearly half to a third since 2015.
Pope Leo XIV points to AI as one of the reasons for his name ✝️ - the incoming pope has said that he chose his name in part due to the fact Leo XIII was faced with many of the social questions of the Industrial Revolution. Leo XIV suggested that his and the church's role is to help people navigate the latest industrial revolution as it unfolds over the coming years.
Quote of the week
“Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
― Susan Sontag