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1/ Thoughts on the Myth of the "First Mover"

This thread by @danrose stirred something I've been thinking about for a while - the myth of first mover advantage

To this day, most people assume Amazon Web Services was the first cloud computing service. This isn't quite true


2/ At its March 2006 launch, AWS was probably the 4th or 5th cloud service run by a Fortune 500 firm

HP launched its Flexible Computing Service in Nov 2005
Sun Grid went into beta in 2004
IBM launched "Linux Virtual Services" in 2002!

But AWS is the only one anybody remembers

3/ I'll focus on IBM here -

From the WSJ in *2002*: "Linux Virtual Services allows customers to run their own software on mainframes in IBM data centers and pay rates based largely on the amount of computing power they use"

https://t.co/mnKH8dF6IL

Sounds like the cloud to me!

4/ Origin stories of AWS often cite how Bezo's uncanny prediction of computing becoming a utility, like an electric grid

But Bezos didn't invent this analogy - it was widespread by the early 2000s. Here's Lou Gerstner saying the same thing in 2003


5/ So why did AWS succeed while IBM did not?

IMO there are no good explanations online. IBM LVS was quietly shut down in 2005-06. The exact date is unclear

Answering this became a personal project for me at Bernstein. I ended up cold-calling multiple former IBM product managers
Specifically, it would raise the minimum wage to $9.50 on the day of passage, then by $1.50 one year later, increasing by $1.50 each year until it reached $15 in 2025.


One other detail that the NBC screenshots leave out: After 2025, this bill would index the minimum wage to median wages, raising it automatically every year.


Here's the full text of the bill.

The minimum wage bill introduced today would phase out the tipped minimum wage loophole, raising it by $2.50 a year until the tipped minimum wage reached parity with the regular minimum wage in 2025.

Similarly, it phases out the separate minimum wage for disabled workers on the same timetable.
Today, a mezz thread!

Also, the answer to a few questions including:

Yesterday’s Value That Company!
Also, Why am I so dumb?
Finally, Why listen to me? 🤷‍♂️

Here we go!


A few years ago, I get a call from an acquaintance (we have several mutual good friends). He’s running a fast growing consumer finance company and needs cash...

It isn’t “I need $5 Million by Friday” but it’s close...


How fast are they growing? By the time we are negotiating the deal a week or 10 day later, the ask is up to $10 Million...


We did a little time travel yesterday on Value That Company, and I put you back in my shoes 3 years ago...

(Answer shortly)...
https://t.co/mNFNGgHiMI


The business is fascinating, but also extremely sensitive to assumptions, underwriting, etc...

Management is good, but also very aggressive which I’m not sure I love...

Worse, we don’t have the time to really dig into the numbers as extensively as I’d like... https://t.co/np5UPBmjnu
There’s a recurring misunderstanding/misinterpretation of public procurement numbers/costs, that does no one any good. If there’s going to be a debate let it at least be based on facts/reality not conjecture, not knee-jerk responses.

Another #thread 🙃

A few days ago I complained about a bad piece by @GuardianNigeria, in which they were busied themselves dividing distance by cost and then proceeding to make wild comparisons between rail projects. While also getting cost wrong in some cases.


The nuances of procurement, whether public or private sector, can hardly be accurately conveyed in your typical news headline, especially when headlines are driven mostly by virality ambitions. Always good to try and understand full picture before jumping to conclusions.

Important point: It’s very necessary for citizens to be able to assess public procurement projects for transparency & cost-efficiency. So I’m not saying don’t ask questions. Far from it. I’m simply saying all assessments MUST be based on a full picture, not headlines / conjecture

Take example of Super Tucanos. You’d read somewhere that Nigeria signed an almost $600m deal with the US Govt for 12 aircraft. Guess what our papers will do 😂

They’ll do their typical ‘dividing’ and say Nigeria paid $50m per aircraft. (The plane is not that expensive btw).
many points of this list boil down to MORE money for cops.

they’re asking for ONE BILLION DOLLARS in additional funding for the rape kits ALONE.


notice many of these points are about giving more money to the state so they can put more people in jail.

i’ve long said the concept of a “rape kit backlog” is copaganda. it helps cops look like they’re not the ones actively sabotaging rape cases AND justify get more $$ for an issue they don’t care about.

"as you know, this means that thousands of sexual offenders remain at large, free to reoffend"

Carceral.


Ah, yes, trauma-informed abuse 🤩

Notice how they use "strongest predictor of arrest" as a metric for success. So it isn't even about victims...its about the system throwing more people in jail. They keep talking about rapists being "at large#"