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Today's Tea Leaves (Dec. 2018)

David Sherry
2 min read

Your iPhone is a key.

It unlocks pretty much everything related to your day to day living, from your car (summon an Uber), to maps, music, friends, destinations, bookings, reminders.

This is still just the beginning.

What is a store?

Everything is shipped to you. Fast fulfillment reigns, your average goods become commodities and we all know Amazon has the lowest price. And this is why we see so many “sheik” designed versions of the same old basics. The hip deodorant, or toothbrush, or razor.

You can no longer compete on price. So the vertical is in the packaging, brand and product aesthetic. At the end of the day, they're the same goods.

A store is now a community gathering space and experience.

Watch for Apple and others to double down here.

What is a bank?

I haven’t been to one in 8+ months and I run a business. See point one.

Your private information is exposed.

You think that Facebook, Equifax, Sony, Mariott hacks are the end, but they're just the tip of the iceberg. Wait for more dominoes to fall in centralized systems who haven't invested enough in security.

Your info has been compromised, salvage what you can and try and not make future mistakes (all but impossible). If your personal career is reliant on gatekeepers, think before you tweet.

Lying to the public has been normalized.

Can we go back? I’m not sure. Has it always been happening? To varying degrees. Will the catch all tech giants and their filters help us or hurt us? And will the coming regulation around these networks make them any better for us?

We pay for the experience.

In the cushy life of delivery goods and Netflix we rarely venture out of the home, except for a live experience that gives us excitement, inspiration or online kudos for gathering IRL.

Smart strategies of the day relate to scarcity, like the recently acquired by Lauren Powell Jobs "Pop-Up Magazine," 29 Rooms, and concerts which look and sound different in every show of the tour.

Sharing it online is the memorabilia.

Software Eats the World, but Not in Healthcare or Finance... yet.

We're still waiting for 2 big pillars, finance and healthcare, to drop and re-arrange themselves around a new future. This will happen slowly and then all at once. There is a collective target on both of these industries from the valley.

The markets are huge, but the problems will need to be elegant to defy the complexity of existing systems.

Love returns?

Can new smaller communities and networks come from the learnings of the giants and bring back what we're lacking in friendship, love, and companionship?

People are hurting and addicted. Tech can help, but only if it aligns for the benefit of the user instead of the advertiser.

xx David