Funston Brief (Issue No. 18)
This month, our featured commentary discusses the launch of Threads and the changing landscape of content distribution.
In July, Facebook's parent company, Meta, unveiled Threads as a Twitter alternative (and rival). While Stories or Reels duplicated something already successful, Mark Zuckerberg hopes to reach 1 billion users with Threads. The excitement is not unwarranted, with the app hitting 100 million users within a few days after its introduction. Though Threads is brand-new, Mark Zuckerberg has long considered competing with Twitter. In 2013, he stated, "Twitter is such a mess – it's as if they drove a clown car to a gold mine and fell in." However, the launch capitalizes on the erosion of confidence in Twitter and the deterioration of the product.
Eugene Wei wrote a very insightful article on the collapse of Twitter. Algorithms can strongly influence perceptions. TikTok's more algorithmically focused feed does a better job of surfacing intriguing information than a follow graph since, most likely, the person who has the most fascinating content for you to read or watch is probably not one network hop away. However, "capturing that passive disapproval is something Twitter has never done well." It's difficult to understand scrolling as passively delightful consuming or as quickly scrolling through anything annoying when the usual engagement is to scroll a lot, like a little, and tweet or retweet more occasionally than that. So the follower network is important, and a more algorithmic feed creates a completely different experience. That said, the ongoing TikTokification of the internet, particularly social media, opens up an entirely different can of worms.
ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS.
How to do great work: Paul Graham wrote a long, insightful essay about how to do excellent work. Although writing of this sort must be somewhat vague, Graham manages to instill some precision. The idea is to begin by assuming that "the rules" are inherently flawed and that applying their guiding principles will reveal important indications of internal inconsistencies in their application.
Key Insight: There may be some jobs where it's advantageous to be cynical and pessimistic, but if you want to do great work, it's an advantage to be optimistic, even though that means you'll risk looking like a fool sometimes. There's an old tradition of doing the opposite. The Old Testament says it's better to keep quiet lest you look like a fool. But that's advice for seeming smart. If you actually want to discover new things, it's better to take the risk of telling people your ideas. Link
How AI will change organizations: At Mutable AI, Omar Shams writes about how AI will change organizations. Most of the discussion of AI today focuses on 1:1 interactions like ChatGPT, but we aren’t talking as much about how AI will change organizations. AI will dramatically enhance our collective communication abilities, leading us to overhaul the structure of the corporation completely.
Key Insight: The "org chart" was developed to increase the efficiency of running railroads. While it's a terrific method to model how a railroad operates, it only worsens when more and more other types of businesses use it. If managing information flow is what "organization" and org charts are all about, making sure the correct person has the right information at the right time, then this is another way AI will affect a broad range of businesses outside the typical list of predicted benefactors. Link
EAR TO THE GROUND.
Podcast Episode: Freakonomics Radio - Ari Emanuel is never indifferent
Guests: Ari Emanuel
Takeaway:
Ari Emanuel turned a small Hollywood talent agency into a massive sports-and-entertainment empire. In a freewheeling conversation with Freakonomics’ Stephen Dubner, he explains how he did it and why it nearly killed him.
“I read a book by George Gilder, who became a friend, Life After Television. And he said to me, “Content’s going to be more valuable.” I was one of the big television agents. I didn’t want to work for anybody. And I said, “I’ve got one of the best television client lists ever. I’ll put some shows on. I’ll get packages. I’ll make a lot more than what this could be.” And then, [...] we just had cash, and we just started playing. And I had this idea about what this thing could look like. There’s going to have to be a different way to market companies and sponsorship. Getting I.M.G., I had thought about all that stuff. That it happened is insane.”
- Ari Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor
$1.3B
Databricks acquired MosaicML for $1.3B. CB Insights assessed the valuations of top generative AI companies and identified the unicorns in the space with an even higher valuation per employee than MosaicML. Link
PROFILE.
The New Yorker dives into Mattel's brilliant turnaround tale. Ynon Kreiz, an entrepreneur of Israeli descent, took over as CEO of Mattel in 2018, becoming the company's fourth CEO in four years. Sales had lately decreased as a result of Toys R Us' bankruptcy. But he recognized a chance for improvement. He claimed that Mattel has a children's entertainment selection was "second only to Disney." Have fun reading!
“My thesis was that we needed to transition from being a toy-manufacturing company, making items, to an I.P. company, managing franchises.” - Ynon Kreiz, CEO of Mattel
ON MY RADAR.
Deloitte 2023 media trends. Link