CategoryGeneral Tech

Blemishes

I’m guessing 1 in 5 of the posts I see on LI these days is ChatGPT generated.  They have that slightly fake feel about them, that we’re all starting to become attuned to. The equivalent of seeing an airbrushed ‘candid’ photo in your feed. Not off-putting, but not completely authentic. Your mileage may vary. Not that there’s anything wrong with this, and frankly it...

Nobody cares about the customer anymore 

Have you noticed that most companies don’t care about their customers anymore? Just a few short years ago companies were focussed on their customers’ outcomes, these days they are just focussed on their own needs. Here’s a quick test you can do next time you get a sales call: start explaining the context of your situation, and listen for how they respond. The majority of replies...

That’s all for WeWork for now

I’m just as sick of the WeWork shenanigans as you are I’m sure. So will make this my final (I hope) link to a WeWork story for a long, long time… “We have decided to postpone our IPO to focus on our core business, the fundamentals of which remain strong,” WeWork’s newly appointed co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham said on Monday. “The...

Obfuscation over Privacy

My first thought on reading this post on MIT Press about potentially using obfuscation to provide a shroud of privacy was… good luck. Computers are way too smart for that and if they can’t now, in the future they’ll be able to pick the patterns easily. Think of a 5 year old trying to talk in code with another 5 year old by using a bunch of distraction – surely that’s...

Using social media videos as a research tool

Fascinating article covering how researchers are using video analysis to highlight potential medical behaviours: Earlier this summer, a team at England’s Keele University published a behavioral study on children with autism. But it didn’t do it by interviewing subjects, or administering questionnaires. Instead, it used YouTube videos. Bappaditya Mandal and his colleagues trained an...

The new B2B go-to-market

Fascinating video from Martin Casado on the new way B2B SaaS companies are growing.

In this keynote talk from 4YFN 2019 in Barcelona, a16z General Partner Martin Casado explains the new enterprise go-to-market combination of bottoms up growth and traditional sales that is changing both the enterprise business model and the technology it sells.

via a16z blog

HubShots episode 163 is live

In episode 163 of HubShots – the podcast I co-host with Ian Jacob – we discuss HubSpot’s approach to using AI in its product, plus dive into attribution reports, and then chat about paying $130 for a mug to keep your coffee warm.

In particular we chat about the $130* ember mug.

*130 AUD, your pricing may vary

You can also listen here on Soundcloud:

Gating content rethink

As always, a good post from David, where he thinks through the right approach for gating content (ie making you fill out a form before you can access a piece of content, usually an ebook or whitepaper). A few thoughts that stood out for me from his post: don’t gate crappy contentdon’t ask for more than you need make it easy to sign up The crappy content point is interesting –...

Ross Hudgens on the Skyscraper technique

I always love reading Ross’ posts, and this one is another good example of why. In it Ross explains the difference between what the Skyscraper technique actually is versus what it’s perceived to be: Like the name states: it’s a technique. A valuable technique in any toolkit, but one many can misapply if incorrectly assessed. Think it through, have the self-awareness to know what you...

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