Hi friends š
Sorry for not dropping by last week; hope you missed me. My laptop died and by the time it was resuscitated, it was too late for a Pulseā¦ #SinglePointOfFailure š
Things were going fine in preparation for this issue, but then, there was a power surge in my building and, my flat was without electricity for over 8 hoursā¦ and again, my laptop battery didnāt helpā¦ again, #SinglePointOfFailure.
Had to sit in the lobby and try to write!
Note: the lobby is not the best place to concentrate.
Anyways, yesterday evening, I had an event on Clubhouse with a couple of friends talking about āthings we learned from Naval Ravikantā [in Persian]. Couldnāt do that in the lobby either.
So I had to go back to my flat where still there was no electricity. And attend the event almost in the dark; apparently, reading notes in the dark isnāt like watching a movie in the dark; itās not that much fun.
The power came back on just as we were listening to the audience sharing their finishing thoughts. #Enlightening
In light of the past two weeks, Iām thinking of adding another device to my desk to make sure Iāve got a backup device to sort out last-minute dead laptops, but I donāt think itās the best time to buy a Mac right now with the WWDC and the summer just around the corner; although I do like the new 24ā iMacā¦ Itās an expensive decision Iām not ready to make right now.
Also, Iām seriously thinking of changing the format of this newsletter. Iām not exactly satisfied right now, and I think it needs to be more focusedā¦ What do you think? If you have any suggestions, reply to this email and let me know.
Oh, and how do you feel about hanging out on a Discord server?
Last Week in the News
Instagram making changes to its algorithm after it was accused of censoring pro-Palestinian content [link]
Elon Musk tweets Tesla Model S Plaid delivery to be delayed until June 10th [link]
NASAās Curiosity rover has captured amazing images of clouds on Mars [link]
Apple delays podcast subscription, WhatsApp backtracks, and more on Twitter [link]
Twitter Blue's arrival, social platforms suing Florida Gov, and more SolarWinds [link]
Amazonās second-largest acquisition, Facebookās burying of misinfo sharers, and Twitter Spaces on the web [link]
New portable gaming device, WhatsApp suing a government, and Tesla [link]
Elonās latest Bitcoin tweets, Appleās WWDC 2021 & bug updates, and a no-selfie camera app [link]
š¦š¤Ā a gift for you.
Worth Your Attention
Noise by Daniel Kahneman is out. After his other book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, itās another really interesting view of some simple things with profound impactā¦
if you want to learn more about it, i highly recommend this episode of Hidden Brain where Daniel Kahneman talks about some of the ideas in the book.
Is It Loyalty or Habit? Ashok Sethi talks about a different approach to loyalty; look at it like a habit loopā¦
looking at loyalty as creating a habit loop may not involve significant additional resources, but can substantially enhance the effectiveness of the loyalty programs or marketing.
Music and podcasts are competing for the same time ā by Mark Mulligan.
not to mention social live audio platforms, like Clubhouse or Twitter Spacesā¦
Chart of the Week
Stories Remain at About 1/3 of Instagram Ad Spend
Storiesā share of Instagram ad-spend increased by a sizable degree in the first quarter of this year over the same quarter in 2020, per the latest quarterly digital marketing report from Merkle. This most recent analysis of Merkleās clients shows that Instagram Stories accounted for 32% of total ad spend on Instagram in Q1, up from 22% in Q1 2020.
However, this is not the first quarter that investment in Stories has accounted for one-third of Instagram ad spend. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Stories accounted for a full 33% of total Instagram ad spend.
In terms of engagement, although Instagram Stories accounted for 33% of impressions on Instagram in Q1 2021, its share of impressions does seem to be slipping slightly from Q3 (35%) and Q4 (34%) last year.
Instagram itself saw a lift in ad spend in Q1, increasing 57.5% YoY. This is up from the 34% growth seen in Q3 2020 and the 29.6% in Q4 2020.
read more onĀ MarketingCharts.
& more stats
The UK emerges from lockdown at 30% ecommerce penetration; the US is at 20% [link]
Read/Write platform apps are the fastest grossing segment of the creator economy [link]
Top programming languages between 2004-2021
Tools & Apps
Lens: Convert images on the fly [macOS]
this is not the first time iām posting Lens, but itās that useful!
Clubhouse Toolbox: Elevate your experience
if youāre on Clubhouse, use these; if youāre not, hereās a Clubhouse invite for you.
š¦ Tweets of the Week
Fun Stuff
The year is 1996ā¦ a young grad student called Lawrence Page asks for help with his Java web crawler projectā¦ any idea how this turned out? [link]
and now weāre done for this week
What did you think of this issue? Either way, donāt microwave your phone andā¦