Billions of people live in extreme poverty with almost no income, but this often feels too abstract to be meaningful. This prompted statistician Anna Rosling to launch Dollar Street, a project that uses photos to showcase the reality of living in poverty. Photographers have documented hundreds of homes in 50 countries so far, and in each home the photographer spends a day taking photos of up to 135 objects – everything from toothbrushes to shoes.
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The beauty brand was hailed as a poster child for the DTC model. But now, as Shane O Leary notes, “it has 11 stores and a Sephora partnership is key to recent growth.” Like many brands it is realising that physical stores play a crucial role in brand growth.
The world’s most annoying singer.
Getting home insurance is a serious faff, especially when providers ask you about intricate details you’ve never thought about. But the website GoCompare makes the process more consumer friendly by using visual cues. After all, it’s much easier to recognise your lock from an image than a description.
Some of the greatest artists in history – Picasso, Woody Allen, Kanye West – do things that are morally (and legally) wrong. Should we think of them as good or bad? In many cases, the answer is both.
Few people recognise this quote: “whenever a government seeks to rely on a previously observed statistical regularity for control purposes, that regularity will collapse”. But it’s actually the original formation of Goodhart’s Law, as described by economist Charles Goodhart. Thankfully, the law was simplified by anthropologist Marilyn Strathern beyond the world of statistics: “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
Google pays $26.3bn to make its search engine the default on smartphones and browsers. It recognises that simply being present is enough to drive usage.
People say they seek out the best option, but their behaviour says otherwise. Only 0.63% of Google searchers clicked on something from the second page (hence it’s an excellent place to hide something bad…).
GoPro was founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman, a surfer who wanted a better way to capture action photos of himself and his friends, leading to the development of a 35mm film camera strapped to the wrist (which became the first GoPro Hero).
60% of Americans think the government is spending too much. But what exactly is the government spending too much on? Not social security: 62% think the government spends too little on that, versus 7% who think it spends too much. Not Medicare (58% want more spending, 10% want less). Not healthcare (63% want more spending). Not education (65% want more). This is the danger of relying on general wording when the devil is in the detail.
In January 2016 Halo Top ice cream was making a few hundred thousands in revenue, but its big break came when a GQ writer detailed eating nothing but Halo Top for 10 days. According to co-founder Doug Bouton, “it put millions of eyeballs on the product” and doubled the brand’s sales within a month.
Graduates of top universities earn more in the future, but how much of that is down to the teaching? After all, the best universities are more likely to receive applications from people who are already bright. One study got around this by analysing students who got into top US colleges, like Stanford and Yale, but decided not to go. Interestingly these students didn’t seem to suffer by attending less-selective schools. Apparently, an acceptance letter from Stanford is just as good as going.
According to UK law, graffiti “is an act of criminal damage, and those found guilty can be punished with a maximum fine of £5,000.” But when Bansky does it, and tourists flock to see the work, it’s considered artistic genius.
Grammarly can help…
When you use Grammarly’s (premium) plagiarism checker, it warns you that “we are checking your work against billions of webpages. It may take a while.” The fact it’s not frictionless gives you confidence that the results will be legit.