A Few Thoughts To Start The Year

Slowing our communication, remote vs. physical fitness, and what companies know about you.

The Teardown

Tuesday :: January 18th, 2021

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Long-time subscribers know that I’ve delivered different types of newsletters in the past. Some were personal commentary on a particular post. Others were news or interest focused in which I discussed recent stories or products.

I’ve long agonized over topics, structure, and wording, but recently read another author’s post that said (I’m oversimplifying): just send the damn thing. Even if it’s not finished.

So, here I am at the start of 2022 sending a piece that I’ve spent too long writing because I’ve rewritten it too many times. And I’m adopting this simpler approach forward from here - writing more frequently, agonizing less, and iterating and learning from the process without spending months inside my own brain.

Slow[er] Communication

We're bombarded today by communications that nag us. We all know this scenario: you receive an email, but because you're not a crime-hunting precog, you don't respond immediately and soon receive an IM or maybe another email asking "if you saw my email." This vicious assault on the delicate balance of reading and responding to emails is only getting worse, too. We use Slack, Teams, iMessage, WhatsApp, and numerous other apps that demand extraordinarily prompt attention. Slow responders are unreliable, unresponsive, or, as I've heard it, "you're not a texter." 

Pony is an app that seeks to slow our communications to a dribble. You and your friends sign up to send each other messages delivered once per day. Just once per day. Did you want to send something sooner? Maybe step-dance around the rules? Nope. Just once.

What would you send if you could only send it once per day? An essay? Maybe you're working on a new haiku about Web3 that's taking forever to write. Pony conveniently allows you to agonize over the text all day. Perhaps a friend sent you a particularly passive-aggressive text about your kid's behavior, and you need time to settle and respond, so the precogs don't illuminate a future activity. Pony ensures you don't end a relationship, friendship, or playdate through rapid-fire anger-typing.

The problem is, of course, the network. Apps that allow you to talk to other people need to have those other people on the platform. There's a cold start problem here. If no one uses the network, will you? Conversely, if you don't use the network, why would your friends? 

I like Pony's concept. But it's an app that requires groups of contacts to migrate some of their communication from the existing platform. The enormous momentum behind apps such as iMessage, WhatsApp, and Teams is difficult to redirect. Let’s hope that Pony achieves some success and helps some folks find the right cadence for their daily communication with others.

Does Remote Fitness Work

Peloton's stock price on 12/31/2021 was $36, down from its peak at $163 almost exactly one year earlier. That drop must mean remote fitness is dead, right? We're back in gyms, classes, and CrossFit boxes instead of at home on Peloton bikes and yoga mats.

Aside from Omicron's current disruption, the truth is somewhere in between. I own a Peloton and built a small home gym last August. The replacement gym was necessary because I had previously been at the gym most days during the week. That routine was an essential piece of my mental and physical health infrastructure.

I also started using an app called Future late early last year. Future blends some of the benefits of personal training with some of the benefits of remote fitness. The result is a platform that helps folks like me grab near real-time feedback on our movements without requiring an in-person training session. 

I didn't need someone to tell me to do a bench press or squat or some other movement, but I did want someone to tell me if I was doing any exercise correctly. I would, at the gym, occasionally ask a trainer to give me a quick tip regarding form if I was sure I had an issue with my technique. Those little tips were invaluable.

Lots of live fitness activities provide rich visual feedback. Your class leader sees you slacking and yells at you. A trainer tells you to move your elbows to achieve a better bench press. This all happens in real-time. So I’m fascinated to watch the fitness space evolve as our fitness requirements and nice-to-haves are decoupled from physical locations.

Who Collects Your Data

A group of friends and I recently discussed life insurance. The scenario is this: you apply for term life, but you say you never smoked on the application despite smoking at one point during your life. That generally means you'll be charged less per dollar of coverage than someone who smoked in the past, or worse, smokes now. Then suppose, unfortunately, that you file a claim.

Should the insurance company pay you? You might think yes. The insurance company might not believe yes. After all, you wrote something false on your application. But can the company know that during the application process and otherwise collect and monitor data about you during your policy period?

I'll put aside that direct answer because this scenario got me thinking much more about personal data. What's collected, who owns it, where does it go, and what happens with it once it's collected?

A recent article from The Verge about Life 360’s data business followed that conversation:

Life360, the company that bills its product as a “family safety service,” has been selling location data on its 31 million customers — including kids — since 2016, The Markup reports.

Former employees from data broker companies told The Markup that Life360 is “one of the largest sources of data” for what has become a $12 billion phone location tracking industry. In November, the company announced it’s reached a deal to acquire the popular item tracking company Tile for $205 million and said it plans to pursue a dual public listing in the US (it’s currently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange) next year.

There’s an immediate contrast between an app marketed as a “family safety service” and the company’s data-as-an-asset business. The article later clarifies what is shared, sort of:

Hulls continued in the email response to The Markup saying Life360 prohibits tracing back information to individual customers in its contracts with data purchasers. Hulls says he is also not aware of any instance where a customer was re-identified, stating Life360 follows privacy practices that are “industry best.”

I don’t know how these contracts work and would love to hear from someone who does. But one line in the above statement is illuminating: Life’s 360 CEO is not aware of a situation in which an individual was personally re-identified from anonymized location data. Sure, he’s not aware. But if I’m a company that has identified one or more individuals from that data, would I tell Life 360’s CEO? Probably not. Why would they? This sort of data connection is the secret sauce. Companies don’t like telling other companies about their core IP, the puzzle pieces that help deliver actual value.

You can certainly blame me for cherry-picking snippets from the article. Licensees of Life 360's data (note: not you, probably hedge funds) might use it honestly and strictly based on the wording of their contracts.

But I’m a skeptic. Lots of companies ingest lots of data. Sometimes they use the data honestly. Plenty don’t, and I can’t think of many heart-warming morally-positive stories highlighting a firm or business practice tied to the location-data industry.

Stepping back into life insurance, I asked whether a life insurer would know about a lie on an application and deny a claim. I don't think we should affirmatively assume the answer is no. Whether or not your life insurer is equipped to uncover that lie is a different question. But it seems perfectly reasonable to think that the company is collecting data that might help them derive the answer during the life of a policy.