Price K’s 10, Papi homers as Sox top Tribe.

Horace Dediu on Apple at 40:

Buyers are buying experiences… They are buying safety, comfort, convenience, simplicity, productivity.… They are buying hope, satisfaction, escape or vanity. In other words they don’t know what they want but know when they have it.... By employing the product, and a whole lot more—effort, time, mental energy and repetitive actions—they learn to exploit a product to achieve satisfaction.

Products are enablers, as are experiences and software and ecosystems and services. They are modules used in a melee of activity to make the user feel they are making progress. And if that module is better than no module then it will command a price and if it’s better than another module or modules then it will command a premium. And if most people agree then it will be popular with many. And only if all these are true will it create a big number on a report.

Cathy O’Neil on the politics of (mis-)measurement:

Before long, it’s all about the score, at least until dissenting voices point out that all this focus on the score hasn’t actually addressed the initial problem. In fact, it’s gotten worse over time. The focus on this metric is given up by some, held on to by others who have found other uses for it, and everyone starts looking around for a new metric to solve the initial problem.

David Chang (of Momofuku fame) was recently interviewed by Ezra Klein, who btw is getting very good at podcasting.

Topics ranged from management and scaling to food and labor policy, as well as the disengenuous nature of vegetarianism, and the flavor benefits of fermentation.

Highly recommended listening.

At least the bum is spending his millions on decade old political science.

I didn’t enjoy this season of the podcast Serial as much as the first, but the final episode is fantastic. Highly recommend listening.

The title should really have been Blame War or Court-Martial Society, instead of the weaker “Present for Duty.”

Also it’s not obvious that you’d need to listen to the previous episodes detailing Bowe Bergdahl’s story to get Sarah Koenig’s meta point about war. Of course, this could be taken as a sign of weakness for the whole season or strength of the finale. Or maybe a murder investigation just makes for a better narrative.

I could not be more excited for this comic book.

In which Donald Trump goes on a conservative talk show and learns that the host has opinions:

I’m a little surprised that talk show hosts would be supporting somebody. You’d think there be a certain impartiality.