Category: Learning by Proxy

  • Learning by Proxy | Insult to Injury

    Information is power and the first company to discover how to leverage this was Google. But even Google not went as far as Facebook did with leveraging information. Now, as the degree of targeting becomes obvious, there is one expose after the other that is coming forward. Cambridge Analytica exposed Facebook, but not in a…

  • Learning by Proxy | Selling Air (India)

    Learning by Proxy | Selling Air (India)

    The world seems to be in suspended animation. After a year, that has taken a lot out of each one of us, everyone is just taking a breather. On the one hand, it felt like everything was forced to transform and change in 2020; on the other hand, did it really? The year began in…

  • Learning by Proxy | Price of Data

    Learning by Proxy | Price of Data

    Facebook did not buy WhatsApp or Instagram for the data but for the products that they had built. They brought a lot of the users to the products and now they are too powerful. On the other hand, companies are getting bought only for the data that they have. Is that data worth the money…

  • Learning by Proxy | COVID Climate

    While climate change has been a topic of intense conversation, no world leader would have come anywhere close to forcing the kind of change that COVID has done. It also makes you wonder if nature knows how to protect itself. Snuff out the virus called Humans. It is also causing industries to alter in unthinkable…

  • Learning by Proxy | Chips

    Potato Chips, known as Crisps in England are thin slices of potatoes that are deep-fried. The earliest known recipe can be found in a book published in 1817 called The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchiner.  But that is not what this edition is about. Technology dominates our life. Also, it plays an important role in…

  • Learning by Proxy | Climate>COVID

    COVID has had a huge impact on business in general. Some businesses have been heavily hurt while others not so much. Some are even thriving [healthcare, except in the US]. To me, this just seems like a glimpse of what is to come when the climate goes off the handle. Reminds of a cartoon. COVID…

  • Learning by Proxy | Anger

    I was watching the formula one race last weekend; it was a useless procession of cars. That sport has never been as boring as it is not. Despite having a commanding lead and having won by a huge margin, the victor could not even feign happiness for the others. Sports is not about enmity but…

  • Learning by Proxy | Energy

    This is one planet and so many things on this planet are shared by all of us. Our environment, the internet and so much more. Should nations take charge of these things individually or should some of them get regulated through a single authority? Splinternet After the Second World War, the American government was worried…

  • Learning by Proxy | Antitrust – Travel – Economy

    Whenever the stock markets have reached historic peaks only one thing has followed – a humongous collapse. Most markets across the world are either past or flirting with historic highs. When will the bottom fall out?  It is a little more complicated. Apple posted a record quarter, that too in the middle of the pandemic.…

  • Learning by Proxy | China

    Learning by Proxy | China

    This edition became insanely long. I going to have to take some of the stuff that happened this week and move it to the next edition. Something significant is afoot in China and its relationship with the rest of the world. As a kid, I used to love cricket. Now and then there would be…