Tech estimates

Interesting chart from Morgan Stanley (“The Morgan Stanley AI Guidebook: Third Edition”, October 2023) on how analysts typically underestimate the size of new (tech) markets. I would venture to say that consultants typically over estimate! Anyway, not easy getting this stuff right.

Consulting salaries

I came across this salary survey for strategy consulting that I thought it would interesting to share. A few charts that caught my eye:

~70% overall that are unlikely to leave consultants (“trapped?!”).

For those that do escape, tech and PE seem to be the top choices, with PE providing a ~30% expected bump in pay.

Theoretically, one should be able to take more breaks since it’s a matter of scheduling these between cases, but 4+ weeks seems like a dream for most…

UK rich list

Nicely written article about the recently released “Sunday Times Rich List“. Some tidbits:

• A private jet takes off or arrives at a British airport every six minutes
• When the Sunday Times Rich List was first published, in 1989, the person at number one was the queen
• When this list began there were nine billionaires in the UK; in 2022 there were 177

Critics

Nice article in the Economist about the role that critics play and how they have become soft over the years. The parts that jumped out at me:

• About 150k books were published (in Britain alone) last year
• George Orwell, a veteran critic, knew that reviews should be brutal. He wrote, “In much more than nine cases out of ten the only objectively truthful criticism would be ‘This book is worthless,’” while the only truthful review would say, “This book does not interest me in any way, and I would not write about it unless I were paid to.”
• Euphemisms for the word “boring”, which is in effect forbidden on literary pages: So there is “detailed” (“boring”); “exhaustive” (“really boring”); “magisterial” (“boring but by a professor, and I did not finish it so cannot criticise it”). 

Worth a read.

Electric bikes unpacked

Really nice article in the New Yorker about electric bikes in all their manifestations. These are essentially bikes with electric battery that can help the rider (instead of the normal manual bikes). Some points that jumped out:

• Americans bought twice as many e-bikes as they did electric cars (in 2020). In China, e-bikes outnumber all cars.
• They cost at least about $1000
• NPR reported that an e-bike (or scooter) catches fire at least four times a week in NYC
• The Netherlands has the highest number of bikes per capita (no surprises here)
• France gives anyone up to $4000 to anyone willing to replace a car with an e-bike; Belgium pays you 25c per mile if you bike to work.

The article is not only informative and well written but wicked funny. Worth a read / laugh.

Books as decor

Apparently rich people are asking designers to stock their bookshelves (hundred of books at a time) to look pretty on Zoom. My god. Doesn’t anyone read anymore? Awful.

Developer skills trends

Interesting report on developer preferences and trends that is not based on surveys but rather the collection of data from Hacker Rank. Lots to chew on here if you are selling to developers or just want to understand their mindset.

Java, Python and C++ remain top choices, even though the newer ones are gaining rapidly.

Problem solving (duh!) always in demand. Data wrangling and visualization with highest growth.

You get the idea. Worth a spin.

Harmful language

Interesting list of words from Stanford that are offensive. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of using several of them by mistake. A couple of them that I did not know the origin of include:

• Basket case: Originally referred to one who has lost all four limbs and therefore needed to be carried around in a basket.
• Rule of thumb: An old British law that allowed men to beat their wives with sticks no wider than their thumb.

Some of the items here however are taking it too far — e.g. circle the wagons, white paper etc. I think these just make the language richer. YMMV.

SaaS exits

Interesting data on SaaS exits: essentially enterprise SaaS companies have longer exits (10 years) vs. consumer focused ones (7 years). I’m wondering how that will change in this current environment.

French tech ecosystem

Nice report on the French tech ecosystem. Lots to chew on. Some slides that caught my eye:

Show me the money…

The VC / investment funds involved …

Unicorns by year (it’s slowing down)

(Btw, the doc is worth flipping for its cool MidJourney images alone!