Rich Ziade and Paul Ford answer listener questions and respond to listener comments. Topics discussed include: The abysmal UX of Google’s ad products; Amazon’s strategies for world domination; the digital technologies in today’s elementary schools; and what exactly Spotify’s Discover Weekly thinks of Paul and Rich. (“Guys. Really? Come on. Get out of my house.”)
Paul: (on Google’s ad products, and why the UX might not matter) So it’s like, here is an extreme weather event of software dumping down on your forehead, but it’s your entire career, so who cares if you can’t find the button?
Paul: I would never particularly want to go do business with Amazon. They scare the crap out of me.
Rich: You mean as a business.
Paul: Oh, as a consumer you have no choice.
Rich: They’re pretty hardcore. I mean, you get that sense.
Paul: No, their stupid smiley boxes come in the door, you know, I don’t even know. I have subscriptions to products I don’t even understand.
Rich: I subscribe to anchovies.
Paul: Yeah! No, that makes sense. I subscribe to cat food and razors. I don’t know how it happened.
Rich: I think we’ve got a title for this podcast, by the way.
Paul: “Cat Food and Razors!”
Rich: I was going to say “Cat Food and Anchovies.”
Paul: That’s perfect. No, you’re right. It should be both of us together.
Rich: Co-founders, Paul.
Paul: [heavy sigh]
Rich: For a while I was getting a lot of female singer-songwriters that were alone with the guitar. And I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t know if Spotify was going through my email as well as my musical habits.
Paul: Rich, we know why.
►iTunes/►SoundCloud/►Overcast/►Stitcher/►WWW(MP3)/►RSS
“This Internet Millionaire Has a New Deal For You,” by Tim Rogers at D Magazine. This is the original source of the “breakfast octopus” anecdote. For posterity, the exact quote from Jeff Bezos is, “When I look at the menu, you’re the thing I don’t understand, the thing I’ve never had. I must have the breakfast octopus.”]
“The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store” by Brad Stone at Bloomberg Businessweek. (An excerpt from the book that details the downfall of Quidsi/diapers.com.)
“Has the imagination disappeared from Lego?” by Justin Parkinson at BBC News Magazine (on the kit-ification of Lego)
The Lego corporation are a cult.
“Six-Word Reviews of 763 SXSW Mp3s” by Paul Ford at The Morning News
Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Coordination, research, and management by Elizabeth Minkel, who also prepared the summary of this episode. Production and editing by Tom Meyers. Podcast logo and design by Matt Quintanilla of Postlight. We record with Paul Ruest at Argot Studios. Listen to more episodes here.