Online Ad Targeting

  • Two years ago Apple introduced Intelligent Tracking Prevention for Safari browser in mobile and desktop.
  • This meant that advertisers lost the ability to target ads on Safari.
  • It has been remarkably successful – the cost of reaching Safari users has fallen 60% in the last two years, while other browsers have risen.
  • That is a huge change in the landscape especially in mobile where Safari market share is 53% and tend to be higher value eyeballs.

Air Pollution

  • Great post showing how air pollution is detrimental to intelligence.
  • Chess players make more mistakes on polluted days: We find that an increase of 10 µg/m³ raises the probability of making an error by 1.5 percentage points, and increases the magnitude of the errors by 9.4%.
  • World Bank air pollution data can be found here.
  • Interestingly pollution has been declining, but 45% of the global population is still exposed to levels above those recommended by WHO.

Brunello Cucinelli

  • Interesting article about the “cashmere king”, who, over 40 years, built the business that bears his name from nothing.
  • His company doesn’t allow any emails after 17:30 among many other interesting ideas about how a business should be run.
  • Those who come to me and say, “You know, I work 15 hours a day,” I say, “I am not interested.” I am interested in the quality of working hours, not the quantity. The brain of the human being. Do you think that during the first five hours of the day you are the same as you are in the last five hours? No way. You’re tired, and if you’re tired, you stop listening, and the decisions you make are risky.

M&G suspends property fund

  • M&G have suspended their UK commercial property fund – the largest.
  • It is a £2.5bn fund.
  • It has suffered £1bn of outflows over the last 12-months.
  • They cite Brexit uncertainty. There was a 4-month suspension in 2016 post the referendum.
  • Performance since 2016 relative to the sector has been poor.

List worth reading (2019)

  • We previously mentioned this really interesting list.
  • The 2019 version is out and is equally awesome. 52 gems.
  • Highlights:
  • Spotify pays by the song. Two three minute songs are twice as profitable as one six minute song. So songs are getting shorter.
  • Nigeria spends more on petrol subsidies than on health, or education, or defence.
  • The goal of walking 10,000 steps per day may have originated when a Japanese pedometer manufacturer noticed that the 万 symbol (which means 10,000) looks a little like someone walking. The actual health merits of that number ‘have never been validated by research.’
  • Asking ‘What questions to do you have for me?’ can be dramatically more effective than ‘Any questions?’ at the end of a talk. 
  • All references and related articles found in the link. h/t Fluxx Studio Notes.
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