Whose fault is it?
When everyone is looking for someone to blame, those who choose to look for solutions instead will come out on top.
Good afternoon! Today, Realm’s no-code beta enters it’s very first live-testing phase, and we gear up for iteration throughout the summer.
Friday Quote:
“If anyone can refute me – show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective — I’ll gladly change.
It’s the truth I’m after and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.”
— Marcus Aurelius in Meditations
Friday Thoughts:
Slowdown.
Interest rates, inflation, supply chain shocks, and the tumbling stock market, has leaders everywhere worried. Layoffs left and right, in big and small companies. At minimum 25 companies that went public through a SPAC last year and the year before have serious concerns about going bust.
Substack, rethinks efforts to raise money. Seems to come far too late and with little planning though. I also think too many companies try to raise at the most advantageous time according to market, and not at the most advantageous time according to themselves. Letting your behaviour be determined by external circumstances you cannot control is a gravely dangerous path to walk.
Innovation.
Crypto continues to cause a stir as investigations into celebrity endorsements ensue. I think it is really sad that young audiences were basically advertised to based off of their vulnerability and little understanding. This was in with no doubt a legal form of gambling.
But the celebrities aren’t the issue.
I don’t think they understood what they were advertising or meant any malice. As influencers, their job is to find sponsorships worth the most money. It is the job of creators of the law to protect consumers.
When the value of something, by design, simply cannot be correctly advertised from the outset, it needs to be a consumer’s choice, coming from personal knowledge and interest, to find and buy the thing. They should not be allowed to be used in advertisements. And that is a matter of law, not a matter of morals.
The unclear laws are the issue.
And here goes the SEC oversimplifying the issue and blaming celebrities, the easy scapegoat. I think it would be noble for the SEC to admit the truth once and say: “Hey, this is a new thing in the market, there were no clear laws on it, so it was no one’s fault, but from hereon-in we will create laws so it does not happen in the future.” I think fighting these retrospective battles is really a waste of time and energy.
Lots of times in life, when things go wrong, it is rarely anyone’s fault. And often the parties blaming each-other should rather be working together to face the issue at hand.
Software meets school shootings.
In the wake of the Uvalde Texas school shooting, there is now an effort to leverage software to detect potential violent behaviour. AI is meant pick up signs from a student’s digital behaviour such as emails and Google Docs. Basic issues like differentiating a kid writing an essay on suicide vs. one who is potentially suicidal still remain. And there are also looming privacy concerns. It seems there is a long way to go before this type of technology becomes truly useful.
And that’s a wrap for the final Friday of May! I hope you’ve had a lovely month, and see you here in June.
With love,
Angeline
Resources:
Mullin, Benjamin. “Substack Drops Fund-Raising Efforts as Market Sours.” The New York Times, May 26, 2022.
Sorkin, Andrew Ross. “Recession, cypto and Russia.” DealBook, The New York Times, May 27, 2022.
Thomas, Zoe & Jargon, Julie. “Could the Next School Shooting Be Prevented With Tech?” Tech News Briefing, WSJ Podcasts, The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2022.