Transmissions #26: Innovation is Hard, DAOs in Reality, a Man on a Horse, and a $100 Trillion Drug.
Design, ideas and other flotsam
Hello. Welcome.
This is Transmissions by me, Martin Brown. Father. Husband. Design Lead at Craig Walker, sometime lecturer at RMIT. Marty to most.
This is an ongoing fortnightly newsletter that collates some of the more interesting stories, links, quotes and other curios that float my way.
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Design
Challenges of Innovative Business Models in the Cosmetics Industry: Lessons Learned from SJÚ
Welker, Sagebiel & Matter, Zurich University of Applied Sciences
A post by my former colleague, the extremely talented creative director and founder of Fieldwork Facility Robin Howie, led me to this fascinating warts-and-all whitepaper about the rise and fall of SJÚ, a new suite of personalised skincare products, developed by the cosmetic giant Mibelle Group in 2017, launched in 2018, and mothballed in 2020.
Having worked personally in the design and innovation consultancy space for over a decade, I can attest that building new products and services is really hard. Even for a well-funded enterprise, equipped with a team of experts, there are literally thousands of points of potential failure. Sometimes, like in this example, what looks like an advantage (a well funded conglomerate with an established distribution network) can actually be the achilles heel, as new ideas and ways of working clash against an established model that demands a brutal level of efficiency.
Ideas
‘Buy the Constitution’ Aftermath: Everyone Very Mad, Confused, Losing Lots of Money, Fighting, Crying, Etc.
By Jordan Pearson & Jason Koebler, VICE
One way of looking at new technology is to think, wow, this new gizmo has the power to change everything. And in some ways you might be right. The world is a very different place since the internet.
Another viewpoint says technology really only gives us new ways to do old things. The world might look different on the surface, but as humans we haven’t really changed at all, and so, once the excitement of the new gizmo wears off, we’ll be left with much the of the same problems we’ve always had.
So when the hottest new idea in governance, a DAO, or Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, failed to ‘buy’ the US constitution, it ran headfirst into a nest of problems that might be new to DAOs, but have been part of human politics since forever. Read on, through your fingers, as optimism and naivety powered by technological prowess run headfirst into messy reality.
Quotes
“Gooooooooooal! Gooooooooooal! I want to cry! Dear God! Long live football! Gooooooooooal! Diegoal! Maradona! It’s enough to make you cry, forgive me. Maradona, in an unforgettable run, in the play of all time. Cosmic kite! What planet are you from? Leaving in your wake so many Englishmen, so that the whole country is a clenched fist shouting for Argentina? Argentina 2, England 0. Diegoal, Diegoal, Diego Armando Maradona. Thank you, God, for football, for Maradona, for these tears, for this, Argentina 2, England 0."
– Uruguayan commentator Victor Hugo Morales, on Maradona’s second goal vs England in 1986. From Beautiful Chaos: The Passion of Maradona.
Chart of the Week
Other
👄 An hilarious, scathing restaurant review leads to a deranged rebuttal from the furious chef, one that starts with a drawing of a horse and only gets better. (Link)
📝 Tom Whitwell’s 52 things I learned in 2021. A self-recommending list of wondrous things. Link
📈 Benedict Evans’ yearly summary of what’s important in tech. The man wields charts like weapons. Link
🚀 Elon Musk’s starship is a bigger deal than you think. Link
💉 “Not content with being the deadliest substance on earth, it is likely that the pure crystalline form of Botulinum toxin (the active ingredient in Botox), is now also the most valuable, with an estimated street value of $100 trillion per kilogram.” Link
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Have a great holiday period everyone, and if you liked this, please do share it!
Till next time!