The Razors-and-Blades Myth(s) by Randal C. Picker :: SSRN This one was recommended by Byrne in TheDiff. An interesting “well, actually” story about the origin of the “razors and blades” model Gillette didn’t sell razors at a loss and make up for it with the blades! They actually charged a premium for both their razors and their blades, both during and after the life of their first patents.
I didn’t read as much this week: I do most of my article reading during school via print-outs1 I bring from home2. It works out because it’s nowhere near as obvious as a book but still gives me back some of the time that’s being absolutely destroyed by whichever class I’m required to attend. Also, we had Monday off for Labor Day, and I have been super tired. Instacart is the Best and Worst Grocery Business Imaginable (thediff.
I drew a few things a couple months ago. What types of things? I drew two people: a man and a woman, based on a coloring page and the first ‘beginner drawing’ technique I found1 on YouTube. I drew a mushroom and some spheres. It was actually quite nice: I like to multitask, to feel like I’m completely engaged. I’ve struggled with this, though, because there’s a hard limit (at least for most of us) at one stream2 of language.
I’ve fallen victim to a corollary of Parkinson’s Law. Indeed, as work expands to fill the time it’s been allotted, use of that time becomes less efficient. This has described much of my summer: I have accomplished very few of the things I set aside for “when I have more time”. I, embarrassingly, feel as though I haven’t done much at all. While some of that might be due to quirks in memory, I certainly haven’t been terribly productive.
Even accounting for hindsight bias, I think Amazon’s nuking Halo might’ve been an easy call. I didn’t make it, and I didn’t think it’d come true so quickly – they just released a new device (Halo Rise) to the lineup earlier this year; this year isn’t half over! The bands were constantly on sale, and it seemed like Amazon was trying to liquidate them. One of the few things I actually remember from congressional hearings is that Amazon, somewhat unsurprisingly, does lose money on its in-house products like Kindle and (especially) Echo1, but only when they’re on sale (which is often).
In January, I felt the sudden urge to buy a fingerprint sensor. I have a habit of locking my desktop each time I get up, and retyping my password ten times daily was getting annoying. More than that, though, leaving the computer unattended for more than ten minutes locks the password manager. That’s probably drop-down menu away from being fixed, but a fingerprint sensor seemed cool. Naturally, my purchase research began with an Amazon search for “fingerprint reader”.
I wrote this a few months ago, without publishing it. It hasn’t become any less relevant lately, so I’ll leave it here. It could be a little cleaner and more concise. I’ve never understood the point. Why? Isn’t the old adage about the positive correlation between banning things and the demand for and allure of those things true? My school district, and its superintendent – Tim “I own this” Forson – just banned another 23 books.
The last time I had a laptop was late 2021, before I returned it and built a desktop. That was the right choice: the laptop1 was overpriced and underperformant, and the desktop turned out to be a much better fit. Not having a laptop, though, was annoying: I would have waste time, functionality, efficiency, and frustration using the computers at school. I would often have to worry about having access to a computer for sufficient time to e.
Most of my writing these days (at least, until this site) is literary analysis for my (excellent) English teacher. Predictably, I frequently use quotes, and often, those quotes will come at the end of a sentence or before a comma. For fear of seeming ignorant: yes, I know that in American English, the comma or period goes inside the quote. For example, Tom, “forc[ing] him out of the room,” demonstrates his violent assertiveness.
Something I read on Read Max a few months ago stuck with me. He wrote about how actually writing, or actually producing is what makes you better; what really matters is that you produce at all. I didn’t act on it at the time, but it stayed in the back of my mind, as I was thinking about (but not actually writing) my blog. The thesis of that post is essentially the rationale behind this blog, much of which I detailed here and here.