In our present society, the competition is for victimhood. It’s almost hilarious how people want to rush onstage to tell you how they’re the victim. And they’re almost in competition to see who’s the most wronged. Who’s the most wronged gender or race or color? Who’s a victim of money, social position, politics? Everybody’s out there in the competition to see who has been the most wronged. It’s like a moral competition. Who’s the most wronged here? Is it the old people or the young people? The Republicans or the Democrats? Who’s getting the biggest part of the wrong? It’s almost comical when you see it. Everybody just loves to rush on television and say how they’ve been wronged. That’s narcissism—to milk everything for all you can get out of it. And then when you finally see it for what it’s worth, and you see it through the viewpoint of the self-feeding of narcissism, you only feel sorry that people got stuck in it. It’s one thing to, as a passing phase, milk a crisis for all it’s worth, but then there’s a time to get over it. What you want to do is help people get over it and move on in life.
David Hawkins
![The Platform Delusion: Who Wins and Who Loses in the Age of Tech Titans by [Jonathan A. Knee]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41QFzYc7l6S.jpg)
An investment banker and professor explains what really drives success in the tech economy
Many think that they understand the secrets to the success of the biggest tech companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. It’s the platform economy, or network effects, or some other magical power that makes their ultimate world domination inevitable. Investment banker and professor Jonathan Knee argues that the truth is much more complicated–but entrepreneurs and investors can understand what makes the giants work, and learn the keys to lasting success in the digital economy.
Knee explains what really makes the biggest tech companies work: a surprisingly disparate portfolio of structural advantages buttressed by shrewd acquisitions, strong management, lax regulation, and often, encouraging the myth that they are invincible to discourage competitors. By offering fresh insights into the true sources of strength and very real vulnerabilities of these companies, The Platform Delusion shows how investors, existing businesses, and startups might value them, compete with them, and imitate them.
The Platform Delusion demystifies the success of the biggest digital companies in sectors from retail to media to software to hardware, offering readers what those companies don’t want everyone else to know. Knee’s insights are invaluable for entrepreneurs and investors in digital businesses seeking to understand what drives resilience and profitability for the long term.
(Recommended by Barry T)
The experience of the three crises ( Credit, Covid and Climate) of the 21st century, suggests that the common values and beliefs that underpin a successful economy are:
– dynamism to help create solutions and channel human creativity;
– resilience to make it easier to bounce back from shocks while protecting the most vulnerable in society;
– sustainability with long-term perspectives that align incentives across generations; – fairness, particularly in markets to sustain their legitimacy;
– responsibility so that individuals feel accountable for their actions;
– solidarity whereby citizens recognise their obligations to each other and share a sense of community and society;
and
– humility to recognise the limits of our knowledge, understanding and power so that we act as custodians seeking to improve the common good.
Value(s): Building a Better World for All by Mark Carney
ONE TUSK 