Brian Watson

“ Many people, especially economists, would argue that specialization is the best way to maximize productivity. While this may be true in the strict sense of economic output, offloading every chore and decision outside of our narrow area of expertise threatens to leave us so limited that we may end up handicapping ourselves in the real world, incapable of functioning without a vast array of people and services to deliver our most basic needs. Taken to an extreme, an extreme many now appear to be approaching, this total reliance on others serves to limit our knowledge and skills. ”

“ The problem with the way to make music today, these are turnkey systems; they come with preset banks and sounds. They’re not inviting you to challenge the systems themselves, or giving you the ability to showcase your personality, individuality. They’re making it as if it’s somehow easier to make the same music you hear on the radio. Then it creates a very vicious cycle: How can you challenge that when the system and the media are not challenging it in the first place? ”

“ There is a power law in the app rankings chart. In other words, there is not a clean linear relationship between rankings and app growth; instead it’s closer to a geometric shaped curve. […] If Kik is typically ranked twice as well as WhatsApp, I conclude we’re acquiring new iOS US-based subscribers are a rate that’s more than 2X faster than WhatsApp. ”