But with MAME comes a bunch of licensing implications for commercial use. 9000-in-one cabinets just flagrantly disregard these implications and I have encountered bars that sidestep these rules ("I'm not charging to use this machine at my bar, so it's practically personal use")
Still, it confounds me that the simultaneous rise of indie game devs and barcades hasn't led to an arcade renaissance yet. Niche games like Nidhogg and Black Emperor cost $6k for a cabinet. Killer Queen, oftentimes considered the cult-favorite of the scene, costs magnitudes more and puts off bar owners because the cabinet takes up so much floor space.
You'd think engineers could reduce those costs and developers could work out a royalty agreement that beats home sales on itch.io. To me it seems inevitable, but maybe there are just too many incumbents and bad actors in the arcade industry for such creativity to thrive.
Back in college (2010), a friend started working at a bustling coffee shop, and pretty soon our friend circle included her "coffee crew" of friends from the shop. Every Monday, a paper with shifts for the next two weeks were posted and someone would take a photo so they could "fix it" without management involved.
The owner could never keep track of who had classes or specific commitments, so they would get together (originally in person) to independently swap shifts and make sure the people who needed more hours could get it. A few hours of communication, the schedule would be completely revised.
This was the peak of app-dreaming, and I always figured it was a matter of time before a ubiquitous shift scheduler took over the industry. The crucial piece would be giving workers a level of autonomy that would be challenging for management to accept. As far as I can tell, no app ever took off, but this flexible work option sounds like an evolution of that idea for a much larger operation.
Years ago, my friend and I had a tumblr called Loo York City where we reviewed bar bathrooms in NYC. We had some fun nights drinking at bars and writing up grandiose assessments about life based on where you go pee. The page received no traction whatsoever and we eventually took it down, but I still have local copies of the reviews and reread them more often than I care to admit. The writing is more entertaining and memory-triggering than any free-form journal I ever attempted.
Nowadays, I write beer (and sometimes wine) reviews in a similar matter. I would never post them on untappd or elsewhere because the thought of someone who brewed the beer actually stumbling across something so self-indulgent makes me uneasy, but I have found it to be a fun, low-stakes creative outlet (even if my wife dislikes me writing notes while we're out)
I think the improvements and increased acceptance of prefabricated construction and machine learning can make for an intriguing combination. I am by no means a construction specialist, but if you distill ML to new innovation from historical data sets, architecture certainly has untapped potential.
Just imagine being able to input a geolocation and automatically receiving insight about construction that optimizes for usable space, energy efficiency, or even the prospective homeowner's lifestyle (an AI that recommends different layout options for a family of 5, lifelong bachelor, and non-family roommates on identical quarter-acre plots)
On a slightly more disruptive angle, imagine an AI that could understand a municipality's building code and optimize the space while complying with the literal requirements. Your town has banned finished attics without two methods of egress? Here is an ideal renovation that will provide that necessary balcony while maintaining budget (and here are 4 other buildings in the town that were approved with the same design).
Observe a trivia night focused on a specific TV Show (like Simpsons or Seinfeld trivia) and you'll see this phenomena en masse. People make connections based on plotlines, celebrity guest stars, or even head writers on episodes and then can drill down to a precise line of dialogue or gag.
The same thing happens with die-hard sports fans. You ask "Who was the rookie points leader on the 05-06 Toronto Maple Leafs?" and a sports nut can start piecing together how the team did that year, who was on their roster, and finally derive an educated guess.
I don't do a lot of interviewing at my company, but I encountered my first fraud candidate two weeks ago. He said he was having connectivity issues and asked about not joining video. I offered to work with HR to reschedule but he said he didn't want to inconvenience anyone. If it was purely my decision, I would say no video = no interview, but I guess fraudsters thrive when administrative coordination breaks down.
He gave a technically sound answer to every question, but I was extremely skeptical. For one thing, he wholeheartedly agreed to the design outlined in my "honeypot" question where the solution would be something prone to triggering immense technical debt. He also dismissed the "soft" question about a time he encountered a challenge.
His most recent work experience was at a competitor where a former colleague works (we're in a niche space). That friend told me he encountered the same thing, including a candidate who recently claimed to work at my company and was moving (I never heard of the name nor could find mention in Slack/AD).
It's not quite "dying", but there is a pattern that is so obvious it's confounding:
> Small group of experts form Boutique Consultancy focused on specific technology (Cloud, SaaS Product, Framework, Open-source tool, etc.); Headcount = ~10 employees
> Experts start making referrals and mentoring analysts in specific technology; Slight diversification in offerings; Headcount = ~100 employees
> Boutique Consultancy makes major splash with huge client; Hire like crazy; Maybe accept additional investment; Headcount = ~300 employees
> Boutique Consultancy gets acquired by Global Service and Consulting Provider; Assurance that branding and leadership will remain; Buyers interested in "synergy deals"; Headcount = ~300 employees in +100,000 employee network
> Original experts and early employees take acquisition payouts and find/found new Boutique Consultancies; Buyers satisfied with acquired brand and customer base; Headcount = ~100 employees
I am curious how the leanest of "cutting-edge" startups will adapt to these new employee expectations. In the short-term, designing a company as "remote first" is a huge boon, but I could foresee a bounce-back to close collaboration in the coming years.
Innovation is rarely harvested in a vacuum; the best ideas emerge when experts hang out "at the water cooler". I think the volatility of the past two years has reduced the demand for innovation, as no one knows what the "new normal" is actually going to look like. Once this stabilizes, I can foresee passionate, lean teams that work in close proximity outperforming pre-2020 firms.
Or maybe my contrarian views are unfounded and the "Garage Startup" has truly been killed by the "Discord Startup"
To start, malls tend to be built on highways removed from a municipality's center. Many of the people in this area will need certain amenities (for example, schools) and will have commutes. The entire surrounding area would have to be redesigned before you can plop 2,000 new residents in an empty lot.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but making something more desirable is more complicated than just rezoning. And making something less desirable could be absolutely dystopian.
Yeah, I'm a firm believer in moderation and not allowing perfection to get in the way of progress. So many decisions can be seen as immoral once examined under heavy scrutiny and choosing to be "vegetarian" instead of just "eating meat on special occasions" has a profoundly different impact on relationships and daily life.
My entire argument above was basically that an invisible hand removing meat from everyday products will be a greater win for the environment than expecting a segment of consumers to go completely vegan.
I feel similarly, but when the thing being imitated is just breaded and fried "stuff" like a nugget, it seems like an inexpensive, tasty vegan filling should be simpler. Maybe the distinction is making a bite that is delicious, not necessarily something meat-like. If the nugget is good, you won't care if the filling is chicken, mozzarella, bean, or something else.
My wife is pescatarian, which has really lowered my consumption of meat. There is such a weird contrast between meat marketing and the actual use. With my reduced consumption, I am still sometimes pulled in by marketing: the masterfully grilled steak; the shawarma roasting on a spit; the artisanal burger with a delicate balance of ground beef, fat, sausage, and maybe one or two secret ingredients...
...but this expectation rarely meets the reality when I order a meat item. Modern consumers have high demands for consistency and convenience, and that usually means adjuncts, breading, blending, and other techniques to account for the uncertainties of agriculture. I think we are still generations away from indistinguishable lab meat, but there are so many advances that are ready for market.
I don't understand why the industry is so determined to R&D that "replaces" all animal consumption when more specific, modest goals (replacing the chicken nugget, replacing the pepperoni) would have a notable environmental improvement.
Not only is it tougher to book an act and fill a venue outside of a town whose economy is fueled by 20-somethings, but I think there is also a NIMBY factor, mostly justified by noise complaints. If there are any residential neighbors next to your pre-war warehouse turned-venue, you will get noise complaints... except in a college town where everyone is basically inoculated to that behavior.
I'll do you one better: a curated retailer that only carried merchandise with a 10+ year manufacturer's warranty. And they automatically register/store all proof of purchase information in an online portal.
If that isn't profitable, make the warranty storage/customer service advocacy a yearly subscription where they take care of the full return process.
That was an awesome video. I can't wait for someone to inevitably start a The Joy of pAInting twitch feed, complete with chill commentary and occasionally ruining the canvas with a daring addition to the picture.
It is an awful side-effect of products getting bazaar-ified, where technology reduces friction in entering the marketplace and new "stalls" appear en masse. Human curation is a clear remedy - I can only listen to so much music or eat so many meals a day, so do I really need an algorithm to "optimize" that quantity?
I bet many listeners believe the Spotify-presented playlists are being curated, as if the stock image models in the thumbnail actually are jamming together and meeting with musicians face-to-face. So much of the recommendation service seems obfuscated to customers that I honestly don't understand what the end game is. Everyone is racing to just be "stickier" than their opponent that I can imagine a sudden pivot in customer demands where "Made for you" becomes a technology mistake akin to "Facebook Games"
It just seems like the end result of a culture that believes it has conquered food scarcity. Gourmet develops in response to different environmental restrictions; coastal nations eat more seafood, temperate climates have "hearty" meals for winter, dispersed communities recreate treasured recipes with local ingredients.
But agricultural and transportation revolutions in the 20th century have lead to promises of any food whenever you want. This isn't all bad (I personally love getting a December-January fruit season from Argentina), but the expectation has lead to cutting costs, revising recipes for practical purposes, and introducing one-formula-fits-all preservatives and other ingredients. To suggest otherwise - that a Dominos pizza has nothing in common with nineteenth century Italian flatbreads or that the supermarket tomatoes pale in comparison to more expensive Farmer's Market varieties - immediately makes you a snob. There are clear and dangerous consequences to this mentality, but any scientific argument is muddled and overshadowed by customer's demand for convenience over anything else.
It's clear that taste is losing to convenience in this culture war, but I have no clue what can change. But it is curious how cuisine gets blander and more predictable as food becomes more accessible.
Zendesk competitor ServiceNow ($88B Mkt cap) has stated their long-term strategy is upselling to massive customers who will use their more mature features (Operations Management, Security Operations, GRC). If ServiceNow is willing to leave crumbs on the table, I could see Zendesk marketing itself as the go-to firm for smaller IT departments.
Still, it confounds me that the simultaneous rise of indie game devs and barcades hasn't led to an arcade renaissance yet. Niche games like Nidhogg and Black Emperor cost $6k for a cabinet. Killer Queen, oftentimes considered the cult-favorite of the scene, costs magnitudes more and puts off bar owners because the cabinet takes up so much floor space.
You'd think engineers could reduce those costs and developers could work out a royalty agreement that beats home sales on itch.io. To me it seems inevitable, but maybe there are just too many incumbents and bad actors in the arcade industry for such creativity to thrive.