Episode #490: Friday Farrago

Business Podcast Archive and Shows - The Soul of Enterprise

NEW SHOW FEATURE: If you want to ask Ron or Ed a question and be featured on the show, please submit a voice recording from any device at https://thesoulofenterprise.com/questions

SHOW SUMMARY: Time once again for another alliterative assembly with a dash of associated assonance as Ron and Ed pull together a patchwork of punditry. In other words, Ron spent a lot of time on planes last week and digested six issues of The Economist and has a few things to say about it.

Use these show notes to follow along with the audio:

Segment one

• So what is a farrago exactly? It is a confused mixture, from the latin meaning mixed fodder. FAR = corn

• A big thank you to Hector Garcia and the team for sponsoring The Soul of Enterprise. They have a conference coming up called REFRAME. Use discount code TSOE until the end of June https://www.reframe2024.com/

• Did everyone see the Apple ad that was brutally shredded by a subset of fans and critics in the tech space? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

• Here’s an update from our tech trends show from last week. The Economist has an article called, “The AI doctor will see you….eventually” https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/03/27/the-ai-doctor-will-see-youeventually

• A big thank you to Art Kuesel of Kueselconsulting.com for being a Patron of the show at Patreon.com/TSOE. Thank you Art!

Segment two

• Will FTX customers be made whole? The Economist talks about how creditors have clawed back significant assets https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/04/04/will-ftxs-customers-be-repaid

• Hello GPT-4o, OpenAI’s new flagship model that can reason across audio, vision, and text in real time: https://openai.com/index/hello-gpt-4o/

• This is a great article from Gale Pooley (guest of the show) about “another monopoly undermined”. This one? Diamonds. https://galepooley.substack.com/p/another-monopoly-undermined-by-innovation

• Last week, FEE quipped, “This doesn't make socialism look very attractive” and published a great called, “A Marxist Professor’s (Failed) Attempt to Explain How Socialism Would Deliver a PS5” https://fee.org/articles/a-marxist-professors-failed-attempt-to-explain-how-socialism-would-deliver-a-ps5/

Segment three

• At the beginning of segment three, let’s just say that Ed is having too much with the new ChatGPT-4o model. By the way, if you have not installed this app on your phone — for free — and had a conversation with it, give this a shot.

• Here’s a great article from Andrew Stuttaford, guest of the show, called “ESG/Stakeholder Capitalism: Letting Oil Companies be Oil Companies (or not)” https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/05/esg-stakeholder-capitalism-letting-oil-companies-be-oil-companies-or-not/

• Goldene is the latest 2D material to be created since graphene in 2004: https://www.livescience.com/chemistry/worlds-thinnest-gold-leaf-dubbed-goldene-is-just-1-atom-thick

• Unilever’s new CEO has explained that “the company is underestimated how hard it's going to be to meet some of its environmental targets”. Here’s the article with background titled, “An Example for All? Unilever Gets Real With Environmental Goals” https://practicalesg.com/2024/05/an-example-for-all-unilever-gets-real-with-environmental-goals/

• Do you have a burning question for Ron or Ed? We have a NEW feature on the website. Any device will work. Here’s the link: https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/questions

Segment four

• “Free Wine at a New Italian Restaurant Is Doing the Impossible” (separating us from our phones) https://www.tfp.org/free-wine-at-a-new-italian-restaurant-is-doing-the-impossible/

• Productivity gurus through time: a match-up; James Clear v Arnold Bennett https://www.economist.com/business/2024/04/11/productivity-gurus-through-time-a-match-up

• A conversation continued from the bonus episode, there is a company called P/S that is offering subscriptions for a higher end airport service (but still a commercial flight). More on their pricing is here: https://reserveps.com/pricing

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits.