Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
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Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
Intent-based Collaboration Environments
AI Native IDEs for Code, Engineering, Science
Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
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It is well worth reading the arstechnica piece on the Apple ebook price collusion verdict in full. This is the perfect case study of what happens in markets where some participants have too much power. It is fascinating to see how at first Amazon was using its then 90% market share in the ebook market to drive prices down (all the while paying wholesale rates to publishers). Then Apple got together with the handful or publishers that control most of the books to come up with a different (and higher) pricing model and used its app store clout to force Random House in line. The deal then in turn forced Amazon to also accept the agency model.
One particularly exciting chart shows exactly how much in sync the price movement occurred and also how Random House was initially not part of the arrangement:
All of this is an amazing display of high stakes poker among a very small group of players with the losers being readers (and authors). Thankfully this market structure will not persist and I am excited about what’s in store for the future of books from companies such as Plympton, Wattpad and others (disclaimer: Susan and I have a personal investment in Plympton which acquired DailyLit and Wattpad is a USV portfolio company).
It is well worth reading the arstechnica piece on the Apple ebook price collusion verdict in full. This is the perfect case study of what happens in markets where some participants have too much power. It is fascinating to see how at first Amazon was using its then 90% market share in the ebook market to drive prices down (all the while paying wholesale rates to publishers). Then Apple got together with the handful or publishers that control most of the books to come up with a different (and higher) pricing model and used its app store clout to force Random House in line. The deal then in turn forced Amazon to also accept the agency model.
One particularly exciting chart shows exactly how much in sync the price movement occurred and also how Random House was initially not part of the arrangement:
All of this is an amazing display of high stakes poker among a very small group of players with the losers being readers (and authors). Thankfully this market structure will not persist and I am excited about what’s in store for the future of books from companies such as Plympton, Wattpad and others (disclaimer: Susan and I have a personal investment in Plympton which acquired DailyLit and Wattpad is a USV portfolio company).
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