The Diary of a Grandpa Chicken Robot

This week is going to be a short one, you might be pleased to hear. It has been a week and a half. Thankfully, its been mostly in a good way. Before I start, props to my colleagues at Zest for winning The Rewards - Technology Award for the 3rd year running.

Plus, we are taking the puppy for some long overdue training today. He's wonderful and cute but has a few behaviour quirks that need some TLC, like his love of tech. RIP Nintendo DS left shoulder button.

I also met the co-founder of pet tech training tool Petcademy the other day. Bailey Schroeder , what an excellent idea. We'll certainly be considering it depending on how his training goes.

Speaking of great ideas. Have you seen Steven Bartlett 's The Diary? No its not a film, its an actual diary. What's impressive is how he has turned a ￡15 product into a ￡45 product by adding value to the usual diary experience. No longer is a diary just take, take, take. This one actually gives back and coaches you. It's also incredibly on brand for him. I suspect they are flying out the door, though his post says "once they're gone, they're gone", but on the website it saying they are printing to order to reduce waste.

I appreciate trying to create urgency, but which one is it Stephen? Still I'm tempted to get one because I'm a sucker for a product with a good purpose.

The social media world continues to fold in on itself to the point where every platform is a variation of each other. Don't believe me? LinkedIn now has Facebook style templates and TikTok now has BeReal style functionality. Something InstaBook is also doing. It's almost like they are all now related to each other.

"How's cousin TikTok? "He's now married to Auntie BeReal, or she looks like her. So your cousin is now also your uncle?" All will make sense with the video of the week.

I won't talk about Elon or the big T, you can read and listen on last weeks big crossover event. But I am running out of popcorn, please send supplies.

Notion is entering the AI assistant race and whilst it doesn't work well yet. You can join a waiting list, which also didn't work for a while, probably due to demand. I'm now 111k on the waiting list, I guess that's not so bad considering their number of MAUs.

Theranos (which still has a LinkedIn page) founder Elizabeth Holmes jailed for 11 years for fraud. Jail time is rare for founders of failed tech firms, as are TV shows. Though an FTX collapse mini series has already been commissioned by Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios . #NotMessingAround

Speaking of 亚马逊 , Alexia is losing a cool $10bn per year. However, that might be shortsighted as whilst Alexia isn't the direct money spinner they wanted it to be. How many people buy from Amazon and sign up to their many additional services because of Alexia?

The true figure when looked at holistically will be much different and much of it won't be easily attributed to direct sales. If (and its a big if) Amazon sunsetted Alexia, they would lose one of their USPs and some of the stickiness to their ecosystem.

This week I also had lunch in Slim Chicken near Liverpool Street station. It's like KFC, but with less gravy. (Don't start Indi Tatla , you're narrow mindedness about chips, cheese and gravy still upsets me). Anyway, they had a delivery robot that went back and forth in the restaurant, complete with a big red stop button. It was fun it watch and clearly not the best at navigating a very busy store.

For Martech fans, Carlos Doughty and the LXA team have the state of Martech report. Its a $500bn+ market now and that's huge, I need help from Odd Morten S?rensen to make sense of it all, but I will report back. If you can't wait, drop a comment on the post by Carlos and he'll drop a copy into your inbox.

Whilst I am watching the world cup, I am intentionally being quiet about it online. Quiet protest and no waistcoat wearing for me this year. However, Japan and their culture of cleaning up after themselves fills me with joy. If only us Brits did the same when visiting the seaside.

For you water guzzlers out there, scientists say eight glasses of water a day may be too much. Apparently this overly simplistic advice turned out to not include water consumption from food and people being different or needing different amounts depending on their age.

What isn't clear from the research is how much you should actually drink. The simplicity of the message meant it was clear and achievable. Think of your five fruit and veg a day. It's not actually how much you need but it was clear and achievable for many. Nudging people to change habits doesn't do well when things are complex.

This week, to play you out is the song form of what social networks are becoming as they increasingly copy each other. The classic "I'm my own Grandpa" is well worth a listen and can also explain anything if you try hard enough.

Enjoy your weekend and please like, subscribe, comment and share!