Curation, Taste, and Scooters
Pushing Instagram aside, curation on TV, and why scooters are awesome
I love feedback and want to highlight a response sent by a subscriber regarding the machine learning piece in my last newsletter.
In their view, I am a deviation from the norm. That's true. I'm shorter than average, have hazel eyes, and cannot pronounce "vehemently" correctly despite possessing perfect information. In all seriousness, the comment is accurate. Perhaps my status as well-off, educated, and ambitious white-collar professional correlates to stronger protection from the rise of machine learning. He is concerned about the difficulty of protecting workers who lack education, interest, and opportunities.
In his note, Benedict Evans wrote about how relational databases created "use cases and new billion-dollar companies." He didn't mention jobs, but I think it's easy to presume these use cases created new jobs. Others disappeared because prior specialties were longer as relevant. Even if workers today don't have the education to make themselves invincible to machine replacement, is it fair to assume the entire education system won't learn how to train the less-fortunate? Already, the number of ways one can educate themselves on technical and automation-oriented topics is vastly more abundant than it was in the past. Maybe we can think harder about JFK's line on the rise of machines against us.
I had a lot to say this week. Enjoy.
Thinking Like An Art Gallery
My first post was sparked in part by Benedict Evans from Andreessen Horowitz. He tweeted about remembering when Instagram wasn't exclusively meant for influencers and story-obsessed users and instead promoted taste and curation.
I'm an Instagram user but agree wholeheartedly with this take on the product. It has moved away from curated content to indexed content via Stories. Influencers are the most dominant users. Too many photographers post the same shots over and over again, causing value depreciation for everyone. If curation and taste are no longer intrinsic to the platform, where have they gone?
VSCO, I think. If you're unfamiliar, find the app in your favorite app store or go here.
A family friend in their early twenties told me anecdotally that Instagram is no longer "cool" and VSCO is where you go to be "cool," and importantly, creative. VSCO has a free-tier and a paid tier called VSCO X, the latter of which costs $20 per year. The subscription enables numerous filters and photo and video editing tools you would otherwise source from multiple apps.
Most importantly, VSCO doesn't allow for social media virality and the never-ending quest for engagement. There are no likes, no comments, and no stories. One way users can express admiration is by reposting photos on their own feeds. Users can also mark images they like with stars, an action that lives entirely in a private communication channel between you and the originator of the photo. Other users do not see the interaction. The service surfaces new content to users via the Discover tab, also known as the Grid.
Said another way, the VSCO community is curation at its finest. The company doesn't drive towards collecting the most massive user-base. It doesn't need or want to earn its corporate parent $20B in revenue. A physical analog is an art gallery. Pieces are often hand-selected by gallery owners. You won't find throngs of people in galleries like those in Apple stores. Collectors and the ignorant -- like me -- are alike because they visit and purchase art if they like it. The entire ecosystem can only ever be a niche because of purposeful limitations on content. VSCO is an app-based art gallery for the internet-inclined.
Feel free to peruse my VSCO for a taste of the site's style. Mine is the definition of true curation: photos of New York architecture and my tiny but adorable daughter.
Curation On TV
NYU professor and L2 founder Scott Galloway penned an essay on Friday begging AT&T not to push HBO towards Netflix's business model. His view is complicated but boils down to a couple of key themes:
HBO works closely with writers, producers, and directors to distribute some of the most creative content on TV, and is one of the few companies that has been able to scale their content-making process
HBO possesses a sizable moat that clamps down the aspirations of other competitors, though perhaps the hold isn't quite as firm on Netflix
I don't have a deep understanding of the dynamics of the media markets but have a special place in my heart for HBO. For years, I've either subscribed via my cable/fiber TV provider or just used the credentials of a friend to access HBO Go. I'm almost never disappointed by HBO shows. In fact, many friends and acquaintances are unanimous in the view that the company created the best show ever made: The Wire. I'm right there with them.
This topic is interesting to me because I think it's closely related to viewing habits, but those aren't key to Scott's essay. Except for a few shows, Netflix releases entire series at once and allows its user-base to devour them as quickly or slowly as they desire. HBO, by contrast, enables this type of viewing on only it's back-catalog of shows, documentaries, and movies. HBO subscribers expect to wait, a lot. Netflix subscribers don't. In isolation, they aren't the same. Subscribers to both willingly switch contexts.
So, while the networks may fight over content and inevitably announce huge deals with star producers, they won't have the same viewing model in the short-term. I am happy to continue paying Netflix for its content stream both high in quantity and ok in quality. I like enough shows to stay engaged. I'm also pleased to pay HBO -- through my cable provider -- to be impatient every week waiting for episodes of Silicon Valley and Last Week Tonight, and to experience severe agony waiting for Game of Thrones just to come back already.
With those preferences in mind, these are the questions I have in no particular order:
Will HBO allows real-time streaming of live content on HBO Now, it's standalone service?
How many options does AT&T have to fight Netflix, or will they merely pin their hopes on flexing HBO's business model and stealing some vision from Reed Hastings?
Will there be a substantial shift in viewing habits such that HBO cannot continue to operate as a niche and mostly-weekly network and must go the way of Netflix?
Will Netflix or HBO win more Emmy awards? The list of nominations is clear: HBO is not the leader for the first time in many years. Netflix temporarily holds the gold medal and the champagne.
Finally, how will Disney's forthcoming streaming service help further disrupt media, or will it fall flat, and what does it mean for HBO?
We'll see some answers appear soon.
Scooters Just Make Sense
Nikil Saval wrote an opinionated piece in the New Yorker about the recent scooter craze and his own experience trying to find one in Washington, D.C. during rush hour. His short story: no one knows whether they will take cars off the street, they're downright ugly, and no one asked for them anyway. Putting aside looks, I disagree with nearly the entire essay. There are quite a few components to unpack.
While there may be little proof cars are removed from streets when electric scooters invade, this point is shortsighted. We are in the early days of observing how scooters may alter transportation models in various cities. Falling flat is entirely possible, but that same possibility existed when Uber arrived in densely-packed cities such as New York. One can barely travel in New York now without running into traffic caused in part by the influx of Uber, Lyft, Juno, Via, and Chariot drivers. Taxis worked adequately well in the past. Adoption and change will take some time despite what our instant-satisfaction neurons lead us to believe otherwise.
What's bizarre is the idea that none of us ever asked for the scooter solution. Sure, I hadn't ruminated on scooters, but the first-mile and last-mile issues referenced in the piece are both real and powerful modifiers of behavior. A friend described what we think when we see scooters in the wild: "thank you for shoving it in my face that you're so much more efficient than me." Amen.
Residents and tourists in New York have a dizzying array of transportation options. You can rent a car and drive around or hail a cab. The subway is often running and is the fastest and cheapest option in many situations. As mentioned, ride-sharing services such as Uber are already deeply connected to the city, and Citibikes are a common sight. Scooters slot conveniently into space where a particular destination is too far to walk, too close for an Uber, and potentially inaccessible via the subway due to time, distance, or both.
But I think scooters can fill the far larger space of replacing bikes on all but the longest inner-city commutes. I walk roughly twenty-five blocks to my office. The subway generally gets me there faster, but I enjoy the trip back and forth on my feet. Citi Bike stations exist close enough to my departure and arrival locations to ride both ways, but there's a problem: heat. Wherever I end up, I will be a sloppy sweaty mess by the time I get there. In so many ways, the scooter seems like the winner:
For those of us who need to remain presentable rather than damp when we arrive at our destination
In situations where storage of your own bike or scooter is important. Few places allow bikes within their space. Scooters can be folded
For pedestrians and others on the road, I can't imagine a scooter presents a more significant danger than a bike.
Docks -- as we know -- aren't required. The same can be said for bikes, but I have a hard time believing dockless bikes will ever make it. Dockless scooters take up less space.
Finally, scooters solve useful problems in some cities without robust public transportation networks. Nikil mentions Nashville in his piece. It is not a city known for plentiful transportation options other than driving everywhere and ride-sharing services. Scooters would be perfect for Vanderbilt students walking to and from class. They would be ideal for culture-hungry residents and tourists crisscrossing the city from Germantown to 12 South to East Nashville. These neighborhoods are a few miles from each other at most.
When I lived in Nashville, I yearned for a way to get somewhere without driving, without sweating from biking, and frankly, without a car at all. Electric scooters might be the best answer.