Zag To The Zig #42 :: The art of Spotify spamming, the art of selling & the art of blockchain
I’ve just come off a few intense projects, so I feel the need to keep it light. My browser(s) have lots of interesting tabs open with stuff on Government Transformation and Stakeholder Capitalism, but that’ll have to wait. This week: brain needs oxygen-recalibration. 🪁😎🧠
In the Tech Basement this week
📱 What’s on the home screen of your phone? Healthcare workers from around the world use that most personal of spaces to give an insight into their stories.
Stalwart auction house Christie’s sold a blockchain-based art work last week for a hefty 130,000 dollars. 'Block 21‘ by Robert Alice consists of both a physical installation, as well as a digital work. The latter is represented by a so-called NFT, a Non-Fungible Token, which uses the Ethereum blockchain to prove ownership.
In the Ethics Corridor
I’m putting this in Ethics, while I guess lots of people would put it in Innovation. This infographic lists 29 psychological tactics used to make us buy more.
SEO Spam for Spotify. I hadn’t heard of this, but once you read it, it sounds so obvious. Some ‘musicians‘ and platforms publish music that fits into search habits of Spotify users and as often the case with optimisation, there’s some nasty stuff going. Whose favourite band is Jazz Therapy For Cats?
In the Attic of Innovation
🚒 If you’re into Spotify, either from a tech/product point of view or as one of the examples of good company culture, you’ll find little nuggets of usefulness in this pretty open interview with founder Daniel Ek. It covers a broad spectrum of topics: from how to run successful meetings to algorithms and his daughter wanting to become a firefighter.
Counter-intuitive? This study claims that the quality of ideas in brainstorm sessions already decreases after a few minutes.
In the Economy Room
🇨🇳 China is rolling out its digital currency program. The city of Shenzen is promoting the project by giving away 10 million yuan through a lottery. In crypto, that’s called an ‘airdrop’; in national currencies, it's called a ‘promotion’. Very interesting: the money can only be used for 1 week, in designated shops. Programmable money is upon us.
🏁 End note: 1 thing I’ll be doing this week
On that note, this Friday we’ll run the first session of the online blockchain conference on Insightz. The subject is about digital payments, stablecoins,… presented by KBC’s Innovation Manager & Blockchain Lead Dirk Hermans. Really looking forward to this. It’s free, just sign up.
Random ZTTZ
🇬🇧 Footways is a map of quiet and interesting streets to walk in London. Aaah, this made me miss London. When I lived there, this was one of my favourite things to do: find new streets to walk.