ZeroPaid.com » Liviu Oprescu

Less Is More: An Indictment of Hyper-Differentiation.

Liviu Oprescu — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:22:10 +0000

How the world has changed, and why flooding the market with endless product variations no longer provides value. Bold, Incredible, Invincible, Hero, Titan. These are words not to be ascribed lightly. Their weight and power lie in their exceptionalism – an exceptionalism defined by risk-taking, sacrifice, and numerous intangibles never to be possessed by the majority, after all we can’t all be bold, invincible, heroes, or titans, just as we can’t all be the 1%. Commodification vs. Commoditization Capitalism bears a strange fruit – one of its many idiosyncrasies. When a new disruptive product catches fire, single-handedly forges new markets, cottage industries, and changes the world, it becomes the stuff of worship.

The Future of the Smartphone: How Things Will Change in 5 Years

Liviu Oprescu — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:43:15 +0000

5 features that will revolutionize your smartphone in the next 5 years. Stop for a moment. Reach into your pocket and pull out your phone. Take a long hard look at it. If you were reading this 5 years ago you would quite literally be pulling out a “phone” – a device whose primary purpose was telephony (a system that converts acoustic vibrations to electrical signals in order to transmit sound), not unlike Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone from 1876. In the past 5 years the phone has evolved so drastically that calling it a phone is simply a misnomer. We read news, write emails, check Facebook, listen to music, take pictures, and play games far more than we talk on our phones.

Mark Zuckerberg: Of Rejection, And The $100 Billion Last Laugh

Liviu Oprescu — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:37:06 +0000

How Social Ineptitude And Rejection Brought Mark Zuckerberg To Where He Is Today “Mark, I’m not speaking in code,” says an exasperated Erica (Rooney Mara) to a pre-Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, just prior to dumping him. It’s a priceless line from Mara’s million-dollar opening-scene performance in David Fincher’s Social Network. And that is precisely the problem. Fincher’s Zuckerberg played by Jesse Eisenberg, perhaps a bit exaggerated for box office panache, suffers from a machine-like affect, with traces of Asperger’s and a dysfunctional human interface. Had she been speaking in code, he might have better filtered and organized what she was trying to communicate, namely that the two of them don’t compute.

100% Apple: How the Tech Giant is Both the 99% and the 1%

Liviu Oprescu — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:46:38 +0000

Despite a wave of populist anger at corporate profits and income inequality, Apple has managed massive success without angering the masses. This week Apple announced its 1Q12 earnings, which can best be described as staggering. The Cupertino giant hauled in an unprecedented $13.1 billion in profit on $46.3 billion in sales. Bigger still, is the roughly $100 billion stack of cash which the company sits on – that’s around $300 for every man woman and child in the country. All these astronomical figures add up to make Apple the single most valuable corporation on the planet. Whether it’s on NPR, New York Times, or even Fox News, it’s impossible to escape the current fierce spate of anti-economic-inequality populism.