Endless Appetites: How the Commodities Casino Creates Hunger and Unrest.

This book takes a deep dive world hunger/food scarcity. Get this if you’re interested in either topic. It’s probably going to be the book on this topic. The author has the bio for this, he gets the farmer perspective (having been one himself), but also the high finance. That’s refreshing.

Beware though, that this is a slog to get through. It’s was probably written with the college classroom in mind, so it has a kind of textbook feel. I could only consume it in small doses, and it took me 2 months, which is pretty rare on my part.

That said, what slows you down is the extreme research that went into this. He makes a cogent, detailed case for just how financial speculation and general mismanagement has led to world hunger.

Worth knowing.

Some already know, but I am finishing up my first book. Shooting to have it out March 1. Like my startup dystopia series, this story centers on a major technology company.

Correctly guess which one in the poll below and you’ll be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card. I’ll draw a winner this Sunday – watch my Twitter account @shloky for the announcement.

If you’d like to get an early glimpse of the title and cover art, join my mailing list. I promise that those emails will always be infrequent, short, and useful.

Obviously, that was offensive. To some degree on a professional level, but moreso on a personal level, because its someone I’ve known for a long time, someone I trusted to want to change the world, and someone I mistakenly believed had my best interests at heart.

That experience got me thinking about professional networks. I realized I don’t really believe in such a thing.

I find it to be like those business card exchanges that are disguised as ‘networking happy hours.’ It’s a very superficial, oddly competitive environment. People identifying targets, sorting them into tiers of importance, interrupting each other in an effort to spout their talking points first. Frankly, every time I’ve experienced that, I feel like everyone has their head up their own ass. Probably why I feel dirty coming away from them.

What I do believe in, are friendships, and though any of my friends will tell you I can do a much better job at maintaining these, it’s in them that I find life rewarding. Not just in the first, close circle, but the layer around that, and the next.

There is meaning in sharing experiences. In engaging in honest conversations that sometimes lead to professional collaboration,  but more often than not, just feedback and the back and forth that is human. That’s rewarding. That’s personal/professional growth.

Without the bullshit. Without your vampire squid trying to suck out my lifeblood.

The Start-Up of You

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha have written a book for people with normal jobs. Corporate jobs. What they call the “escalator model.” Show up for 9-5 every day, earn promotions every so often, and get a steady paycheck.

The two explain that the classic model is dying. Then they explain in understandable way, that you need to embrace your personal brand, engage with the people ‘around’ you in a meaningful way, and have an eye on the adjacent possible (what they call, in classic bizbook lingo, ABZ planning).

To that segment, this is a pretty decent call to step it up, hustle as they say, and own their careers. So if you know someone still in that mindset, send them this book.

But for those of us who have already embraced this approach. Or, honestly, will never know any other , this book will read like like a primer. That’s not a knock, especially since I haven’t found the perfect book on this topic, but something to be aware of.

The temples of Ellora were carved down, rather than sculpted up. 1,500 years ago. Double the size of the Parthenon. (H/T to my brother for the picture.)

We upload the address book to our servers in order to help the user find and connect to their friends and family on Path quickly and efficiently as well as to notify them when friends and family join Path. Nothing more.

Note, this is done without explicit user permission.

This is the equivalent of that geriatric Walmart greeter grabbing your purse, or trapper keeper, or briefcase, and scurrying off to make a copy, so that when you’re buying socks, everyone in your professional and personal lives is kept abreast of the development. For your convenience. And then declaring, as Path’s CEO did, that “This is currently the industry best practice.”

Path can line up all the pretty pixels they want, but they clearly don’t understand customer experience. They’d be well served shutting down, going to a mom and pop store of old, or finding a trusty barkeep, or a barista, and learning at their feet.

The test for great customer experience is simple. “Is this something I would do to a customer in real life?”

A visual programming platform for mapping functionality to open-source hardware, like Arduino.

Developers write ‘code blocks’ that accomplish certain tasks. These are either free or purchased through the market. Users only see the abstracted code, like legos, or Tetris. Total ease of use.

Users stack a few of these blocks to solve a specific problem –  in the case of a (play) combat drone: attack or defense capabilities.

Same approach to a bunch of different consumer hardware verticals. Home automation. Home theater. Toys.

Parrot.

Parrot wowed the world a couple of years ago when it launched its AR.Drone flying “quadricopter,” a helicopter-like smartphone-controlled drone with four rotors. Now the company is showing off AR.Drone 2.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Like the earlier model, this one can be controlled via a WiFi-connected smartphone or tablet. But it has a new high-definition camera, a new piloting mode, increased stability, and a new look. It also includes new video recording and flight data sharing options.

–

He pulled out his tab, flashed it on, and flipped through the screens to get to his Parrot app. He glanced around the cafe, then typed in his ID and password. He was ecstatic that this day had finally arrived.

He selected the new order pathway. Punched through various questions to the select the target, size, package. He ignored the offer to upgrade for just a hundred bucks more – that’s where they got you. He squinted to read the order confirmation page, made sure to purchase insurance, then hit the ‘submit’ button.

Within minutes, the auction was over. An Avenger drone had won. The info screen revealed it to be a minority-class disabled veteran, which gave it several additional points in the contractor bidding process.

The target appeared on the video feed. The Avenger pinged the local zone for instructions as to how to proceed. Flying into protected zones to deliver packages used to be a contentious and delicate process, and had directly led to the undoing of the American foray into Pakistan a decade ago.Things were more automated now, less reliant on human diplomacy.

To make things even simpler, the host network accepted Paypal. Currency fragmentation could have delayed or worse, compromised the entire enterprise. The worst were zones that variable valuations, dependent on how much each subscriber produced every day. Those calculations could get messy. Not the case here, however. This was straightforward.

He sat back and waited, sipping his coffee, thinking of that awful, humiliating moment. God he hated her.

The Avenger then pinged the zone server to check on the target’s drone retainer. Zones had long ago recognized that shooting down a moving, hostile object was a capital intensive task, one that did not lend itself to the guarantees of safety they were fond of making. Some of the tier-three zones had tried to make do with anti-aircraft systems, but angry family members had retaliated one too many times by blowing up corporate infrastructure, and the number crunchers had put a stop to it.

So they had taken to remote hacking – but that proved easier with the older, open brained drones. Now they had taken to simply bribing the drones in real-time, and charging their subscribers a hefty fee for this protection. Some of the tier-one zones came with the free option to turn the drone around on the sender.

In stroke of good luck, the target had not kept up with her drone retainer payments, and coverage had lapsed. The Avenger freely swooped through the air defense network, trading green blinks along the way. It then cycled through its arsenal, noting that the option for minimal collateral be set. Then it cross-checked the target’s identity and her location against three different monitoring servers.

It fired.

The Pyre shattered on impact. The fragments distributed themselves throughout various levels. A pause, and the building fireballed. The lawn and homes around it remained untouched. The drone fired a beacon. It embedded itself on the front lawn, next to a tricycle.

In it, in a dozen languages, was a name that was ostensibly responsible for the attack. This is where the insurance paid off. Had he not purchased it, the name would have been his. Now it was one selected at random from a sales server. With it, were instructions as to how to order return fire.

He watched it all as he finished his cup of coffee. Memories flashed through his head. Of walking in on them. The shouting. The anger. Leaving her, him, the kids there. As the Avenger rejoined the swarm, a notification flashed onto his tab. It read “Delivery confirmed.”  He smiled for the first time in years, and left a five star review.

—

Part of my ongoing startup dystopia series. Previous installments here.

I’m finishing my first book of fiction. Sign up for my mailing list below for exclusives – sneak peeks, discounts, an early look at the cover art, etc.

Honestly, this book is probably a pain to read and forgettable unless you’re interested in the subject matter.

That said, if you’re interested in getting an inside look at the Google’s story, this is the book for you. It came out in April of 2011, just when Schmidt stepped out of the way, so it doesn’t address that shift, but otherwise, it’s the deep dive you’re looking for (if you are).

In the same vein, if you want the Facebook story, this is the one for you. It’s the vetted story, so watch for a rose-tint. No critique, no analysis, just the facts ma’am.