Things and You

Buy Things, Not Experiences

Harold Lee | 9th January 2022

Current wisdom advises spending disposable income on "experiences, not things”. But this would be perverse behaviour. Material goods are cheaper than ever. Why shun their probably temporary abundance in favour of buying services, from exotic vacations to designer haircuts, which, thanks to Baumol’s cost disease, are "just as hard to produce as ever", and historically relatively expensive? (785 words)

You, Yourself, And Your Brand Name

Nancy Friedman | Medium | 12th January 2022

"Implicit egotism" is the new nominal determinism. If you choose a name for your company or your product, chances are you will factor in your own name to some degree, perhaps without even noticing. Is it mere coincidence that Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, Instagram by Kevin Systrom, Zoom by Yuan Zheng? Well, perhaps yes. More data is needed. But still, an interesting conjecture (800 words)

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