Mike's Notes

From farm to city to car to circuit, the consumer’s story.

See more at http://thewaiterspad.com

F1 CAC

More: https://thewaiterpad.com

A confusing calculation

More at https://thewaiterspad.com/2021/08/05/a-confusing-life-expectancy-calculation/

CAC Pack: 5 studies

Five examples about clever Customer Acquisition (Cost) Strategies 1. The Happy Meal 2. AOL Discs 3. HoTMaiL 4. Netflix Coupons 5. Zillow vs Expedia sorry for the previous episode's audio

The physical to digital trend

The transition from physical to digital is currently happening, this episode looks at examples so far, and tries to raise an awareness for noticing things in the future. Digital is not better than physical, but digital does improve things relative to certain jobs to be done.

Mike's Notes (Trailer)

Stakeholders 🕖

What are the stakeholders in our lives and what questions can we ask about them? donate: http://paypal.me/mikedariano venmo: mike-dariano

Sam Walton, making it in America

Notes and highlights from Walton's book, https://amzn.to/2uu4S6q. More at http://thewaiterspad.com/2018/07/26/sam-walton.

An Attitude Of Factfullness

In this episode, we'll look at the numbers (from A or Z to A to Z), the world (it changes), and the brain (it's fast). I'll also suggest some solutions like getting distance, asking 'What's cheaper than a helicopter?', and the advantages of travel. Hans Rosling's is a nice contribution to the literature of books like A Field Guide to Lies, The Half-Life of Facts, How to Lie with Statistics, and How Not to Be Wrong. What makes Rosling's book different (and excellent) is the gusto. It's a book wri...

#101 Venturing And Capitalizing Advice From Chris Douvos

Links at http://thewaiterspad.com

CLIP: When was a Derby Horse born?

from the 5/2/18 Wharton Moneyball Podcast ... "In Gladwell's book, he pointed out in the NHL all these great players were all born in January and February. The leagues are all by age, and so they're older than the other kids and they get the best coaches, and they do the best early, and they go in the best leagues so there's a huge skew toward hockey players born early in the year. Well, in horse racing, every horses's birthday is officially January first. So you're a three-year-old on January f...

CLIP: How to Communicate Analytics

"Teams need to be thoughtful in the way they present this information and they need to allow for different players to want data in different ways. They need to be flexible to really make a difference." Cade Massey "I remember Sam Hinkie talking about how he conveys information to the organization. Back when he was working for Daryl Morey as assistant GM of the Rockets, Sam would give information to his head coach one way, to Daryl in a different way, to the players in a third way altogether. You...

CLIP: Massey NFL Draft Persistence

In The Success Equation http://amzn.to/2ecUWVU Michael Mauboussin urgers readers to ask; how fast is mean reversion, how predictable is the result, and are cause and effect easily identifiable? Those answer will guide a person to using base rates or experience as their decision guide. This clip is from the 5/2/18 Wharton Moneyball Podcast

Three ideas from Albert Wenger #100

1/ Adapting your thesis 2/ Crypto-currency and techno-economic changes. 3/ Wolrd After Capital

#099 Brian Koppelman's career capital, chips, and arc

How do you make Billions? Spend two hours a day six days a week writing in a storage locker with one chair with your best friend and then repeat that (kinda) for twenty years.

How Katrina Lake started Stitch Fix

notes at http://thewaiterspad.com/2018/04/10/katrina-lake

skimm lessons

In summary, Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin have succeeded because they noticed poor product-market fit and made a small bet to build something using their existing skills and being curious along the way. Once their brand snowball got rolling, they focused on strengthening it and are now expanding to other areas. More notes at https://thewaiterspad.com/2018/03/19/theskimm/

Moats and Allocators

- Why does alpha erosion occur? - How are business moats built? - Who are the best capital allocators? Show notes at: http://thewaiterspad.com/2018/03/01/moats-and-allocators

David Ogilvy's work 'rules'

David Ogilvy was known for his advertising 'rules.' After diving deeper into his work I found out these aren't really rules at all but conclusions. Ogilvy's first principle is *do what works*. This episode will focus on three things that anyone in any industry can do. 1/ He was objective in his research. If the facts differ from your beliefs, change your beliefs rather than the facts. 2/ He created advertising around big ideas. Images should aim to inspire intrigue, not win awards at Cannes. 3/ ...

Grab Bag 4

A few things that caught my eye. Notes at http://thewaiterspad.com Why is Nick Saban undefeated against former assistant coaches? Why is Philadelphia an undefeated home underdog? Why are there called strikes in betting pools? Why is visualizing data so helpful? Why is novel data helpful too? Why is a bit identity footprint better?

#093 The 2 🌍 's of Business, revisitng Brian Arthur

More details at: http://thewaiterspad.com Arthur's paper: http://www.iwp.jku.at/born/mpwfst/02/BArthur/Arthur_B.pdf Mauboussin's interview: https://overcast.fm/+Iz-J-F6_E

#092 Traffic assumptions, traffic feedback, traffic adaptations.

Inspiration: http://amzn.to/2kf2xXW

Things I learned in '17 - Part 2

Part two of the audio version of these posts: https://thewaiterspad.com/?s=%22TIL2017+Summary+Series%22

Things I Learned in '17 - Part 1

An audio version of the end-of-year posts at http://thewaiterspad.com

Rory Week - posts in audio

For links and block quotes: https://thewaiterspad.com/2017/10/23/rory-week-15/

RRW

Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HL5xe_oUzThcpZLYiiTVqRjaXRs4w8DMnTkUU1m4pZw/edit?usp=sharing

The effects of cities - or any system

We all exist within a system and each system nudges (or shoves) us certain ways. Whether it's women in tech, people on bikes, or neighborhoods with more roads than sidewalks. Inspiration from http://amzn.to/2xBVGj6 Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P7RdgegXusudhZBhhfQF3lfV77Vlofwf6GQgRMNocQQ/edit?usp=sharing

Does architecture make you happy?

Inspiration: http://amzn.to/2vpYJJK

Tea And Platforms

For All the Tea in China http://amzn.to/2u9Mam1 is a wonderful book. It covers the 1800 East India Company, Robert Fortune (and his forgotten wife!), and how to succeed in England without even dying. We'll touch on only a few parts of Fortune's story. Modern Monopolies http://amzn.to/2uj8REC makes the case that it's platform businesses that will rule the day. I guess that YouTube is the best of these. We also look at 6 things platforms need to do (#5 is no naked men).

Talking to Dead Companies Walking

Inspiration: http://amzn.to/2ti2tKk Any business person needs to get out of the office and talk to her suppliers, customers, and competitors. "Get up and go outside, you'll learn more in five minutes of talking to somebody at a company than you will in a week of crunching its numbers." - Stephen Mandel They'll all have their own biases but they also have crucial information. You will too. "I was mixing up what I liked with what my customers wanted, writes Fearon. If you make a mistake, get out. ...