Uber conquering London: a lesson for marketplaces

| jmencia

When I spoke to Lamy about what was different about Uber, the conversation wasn’t about diesel consumption or the quickest way to get to Waterloo, it was about liquidity. Liquidity used to be something you associated with the stock market, he explained. But now sharing networks such as Uber and Airbnb are making assets and labour available to consumers in ways that were simply not possible before. “The way I see it, Uber brought a liquid market transaction system to transportation,” he said. “And once you had come up with this mechanism that could create liquidity in the market, it became inevitable.”

Origen: How Uber conquered London | Sam Knight | Technology | The Guardian

This is how the everyman overshadows the jumpman

| jmencia

Following a December victory over the Celtics, LeBron James took the typical postgame questions, until a query deviated from the norm. A reporter asks him about Under Armour — or at least tries to. LeBron interrupts, saying, “Who? Who? Who is that?” (Later, in an interview with Sole Collector, Curry is asked about the exchange. He says of LeBron, “Oh, he knows. That’s why he said that.”)

James ends the conversation by revealing that only one (sneaker) team is fit for his lips, saying, “I only know Nike. That’s it. Lifetime.”

James indeed has a lifetime contract with Nike worth more than $500 million, according to USA Today. He has a one-year deal with the Cavs, probably as a means of maximizing his profit and leverage. If that reporter had been allowed another subversive follow up, perhaps this question would have yielded interesting results: “Who is your primary employer?”

“Your primary employer is who pays you the most money,” ESPN’s Bomani Jones says. “LeBron was Team Nike before he was a Cleveland Cavalier or a member of the Miami Heat or any of those things. We contextualize guys around the teams they play for because that’s the relevant variable for the kind of work that we do.”

It’s perhaps more comforting to believe the team commands primary allegiance. Of course, when it comes to success on the court, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Nike wins if LeBron’s Cavs win. It just so happens that James still wears Nikes for his next team, should he ever decide to ditch Cleveland. And James will still draw checks from Nike, long after he’s done with the Cavs. He’s “lifetime,” after all.

How Curry signed for UA

 

A Complete History of the Millennium Falcon

| jmencia

With that in mind, this then is The Complete History of the Millennium Falcon — although I don’t cover production in detail, nor INT. PIRATE SHIP, maybe that will be a later addition — or as I like to call it: How I Started Worrying and Lost My Mind Completely Over a Fictional Spaceship Someone Please Do Something Send Help Why Are You Still Reading Someone Do Something.

This is the story on how your next few hours are completely sold.

 

Un pegote de mierda en la espalda

| jmencia

Comunismo y tal.

Las cuatro esquinas del mundo

Esta entrada es de 11/2007

He tardado en decidirme a escribir esta entrada. Por dos razones, porque no quiero que se piense que tengo una especie de manía persecutoria contra Francesc de Carreras, y porque sé que lo que voy a decir molestará seguramente a algún amigo. Pero me he decidido precisamente porque estoy hasta las gónadas del discurso soterrado que todavía se mantiene por el mundo biempensante. Ese que dice que los comunistas cometieron errores, pero que los había buenos y malos. El mismo que no duda en mandar a los infiernos a los nazis y a los fascistas (considerados como cajón de sastre en el que caben todos los malos del mundo), sin matices, que no lo merecen.

Me manda Brazil una cosa de D. Francesc publicada en La Vanguardia. Se llama “Los comunistas”.

Sinceramente, solo se me ocurren dos calificativos para lo que escribe nuestro catedrático:…

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