Lav Agrawal

Bored with Facebook

[THE SKIN DOCTOR @theskindoctor13]

A few days ago, this video went viral, showing speed breakers on NH-25. People naturally assumed that locals had installed them, because who else would? After all, speed breakers are illegal on highways.

Today, NHAI issued a "clarification" that they only had installed them at the "request" (read: political lobbying or pressure) of a local public representative, and that these are not speed breakers but rumble strips. Lol!

The way these people think the aam janta of this country has no brains of their own is unbelievable!

[Musthaq @haxzie_]

What is the point of airport taxi, that too called as a "premier" and a sedan if it cannot fit two suitcases. This has been a repeated issue everytime. @Uber_India @Uber

[Abhi @_Avykt]

Reporter : “Because you vendors block the footpath people walk on the road & meet with accidents”

Footpath vendor : “So what, everyone has to die when the time comes, it’s not our fault, otherwise give us govt jobs or 10k per month”

You can’t argue with these people

[Priyansh Patidar @priyanshh32]

tried the footpath at Indiranagar 1st A Cross road near Shri Krishna Temple. 10/10 experience. Would recommend

[Sudhakar Rao @sudhakar10]

Dear @krishnabgowda Sir,

Please change the messaging of your communication. The free footpath campaign is not against street vendors but 'encroachers'. This is not rich Vs poor. This is for every common man & family using footpaths on a daily basis.

Please act against every institution that is encroaching the footpaths. Private builders are the biggest nuisance. They don't just occupy footpaths but their construction materials overflow from the footpaths onto the road.

This is 17th Main Road in HSR. I hope we will see some action here too @comm_blr_south

[Varun Mayya @waitin4agi_]

I really like this article. I think that the capabilities of a country are fully dependent on the local buying capacity and the size of the local economy. Whether physical or digital, the farther away you have to distribute something, the more expensive it is. Local distribution is always much easier but if local buying power is low then companies have to export which carries a bigger distribution cost because you have to compete against locals in other countries who have a much lower distribution cost. Actually it’s not just distribution: it’s everything from consumer insights to feedback to key relationships that are a distance away. So if you do innovate but you have to necessarily export that innovation to make money, you’re at a disadvantage against local players.

One personal example is that India has never made high quality games simply because the local purchasing power is low. If we had a lot more PCs things would be very different. China has roughly 320 million PC gamers and India is about 39 million. So on players alone, China’s PC base is roughly 8x India’s. BUT China’s PC game spend is on the order of 80–100x India’s, even though its player base is only like 8x larger. The difference mainly is monetization as Indian gamers spend much less (core ARPU has run around $0.29/month), so 39M PC players translate into very little premium game revenue. Game Science’s art director Yang Qi confirmed that nearly 70% of Wukong’s sales came from China itself. Knowing a local buying market exists justifies spending. The only way we can justify what we are spending now on UTA is because we found inroads into global markets through content otherwise this would be a money losing exercise.

The other problem is that low purchasing power economies have too tiny a market for early adopters. If you built an OpenAI in India before anyone else 50% of people wouldn’t believe you and 50% of people will tell you it won’t work or doesn’t have use cases. I think you need a crackpot high purchasing power early adopter network with high failure and bullshit tolerance to make truly innovative things and also forgive crazy companies during early mistakes because history teaches us that the best companies all had v0.1s that were not very convincing to the masses.

Thats why it’s critical for anyone who wants this country to succeed to first really create more jobs, more disposable income, even if that means creating the nth packaged food brand (American grocery stores still have a much wider variety of biscuit brands than India for example) or food delivery apps before they take bigger bets. Not because they need the capital themselves to try bigger bets, but so that they can diffuse more capital into the ecosystem via jobs and the rewards of equity ownership such that that cohort of people become early adopters for other innovative companies.

Success comes from satisfying local market demand (sometimes like in the case of Tesla or Ford there is hidden demand and entrepreneurs need to unlock it) and rarely comes from creating something that has no local demand. After studying Chinese social media so much I have a long thesis on why they did well (bans on global social media platforms constrain desire of products to local players only who now get revenue and profit to do RnD. Think about what % of disposable income from India is being spent on global brands where the desire to buy starts on a global social media platform).

Anyway people complaining about India building “easier businesses” are really not spending the mental energy to think second order. And 9/10 times this same type of person will completely ignore local innovation that is almost always happening in parallel but gets less media coverage.

[Sravy G @sravytweets]

When an all “MAGA”, “America First”, “Americans First”guy from Frisco Texas speaks sense. A lot of it actually. Because he sure knows how economy works & sustains 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

[Lav Agrawal @lav0id]

I agree. AI helps wrap a mediocre in good, but it doesn't make an expert better.

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

An important nuance, not just restricted to design, is that the output of new AI tools will outperform the output of the *median* designer/PM/engineer today—so these tools will get popular—but a top designer/PM/engineer has a certain embedded context that AI doesn’t yet access.

[Anang Mittal अनंग मित्तल @anangbhai]

For decades, a select group of organizations has published reports that shape public perception of India, Indian immigrants, and Hindus. Today, I'm launching a new project that scores these reports on their methodology. Read my twitter article and 🧵
https://t.co/jrZFDbCHZ2

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

Absolute bombshell. Data reveals someone made a massive 580 MILLION dollar trade on oil exactly 15 minutes BEFORE Donald Trump posted his tweet about pausing the Iran war. Someone on the inside just made a life changing fortune. The corruption is blatant.

[Harsha Bhogle @bhogleharsha]

And @RCBTweets has finalised a sale with a valuation of 1.78 billion USD to a consortium that includes the Birlas, Times of India, Blitzer and Blackstone.

It isn't too far above what @rajasthanroyals got but then this is a peculiar ecosystem where the income and expenses of a franchise are almost identical. So, in the space of a few hours, the #IPL has seen deals worth 3.4 billion USD.

The #IPL is among the big leagues of the world and the Indian cricket fan is among the most important entities in world sport

[Lav Agrawal @lav0id]

About time ! Can't wait

[Acquired Podcast @AcquiredFM]

Starting up our engines for this season...

[Lav Agrawal @lav0id]

werd

[Shiv Aroor @ShivAroor]

While the Judiciary roars at NCERT schoolbook chapter on ‘corruption in judiciary’, the Justice Yashwant Varma cash scandal is about to quietly mark its 1st anniversary.

And Justice Varma remains in his robes.

Nobody offended by that?

My take:

[Lav Agrawal @lav0id]

@HarryStebbings @TheKenWeb feels like the TwobyTwo podcast sometimes. P.S. I'm a paying customer

[Lav Agrawal @lav0id]

I'm this close to terminating our contract.. Good riddance, as some of our residents and staff would say.

[Lav Agrawal @lav0id]

@shajai_jacob @ApnaComplex are you running a business or a joke? After months of discussions , your team enabled collection gateway account for our society in Bengaluru and now has sent a notice to disable this payment option in next 24 hrs! 😡

[Lav Agrawal @lav0id]

On top of this, the fees for your payment gateway options in your App are some of the highest in industry (net banking costs 2%) with no support for international cards (half our residents are NRIs)

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

This timelapse of Alex Honnold’s 1 hour 35 minute free solo climb of Taipei 101 is unreal.

He said the main challenge was “not getting complacent up the bamboo boxes, because it’s 64 of the same sequence over and over.”

His music playlist (mostly Tool) helped because each bamboo box took about the length of a song and he could keep pace.

Honnold wants to climb other mega skyscrapers if allowed.

Thinks Taipei 101 was the ideal challenge, though: “This one is so perfect for climbing. There are some buildings that are almost too easy for climbing. Like, ones that have a window washing track on the outside, where you’re just hand over handing on some track the whole way. You can climb it, but it’s not a challenge. The thing about Taipei 101 is it’s perfectly in the sweet spot for me, where it’s possible, and it’s not too insanely hard.”

***

Post-climb intervie with Variety: https://t.co/ZNKU40k27P

Timelapse: https://t.co/pSd9VbRUqu

[Kiran Bedi @thekiranbedi]

On the Fire Issue of Goa I was interviewed by @NDTV and @IndiaToday
I told them please name the elected MLA of the Area, the IAS District Collector, SSP and the Sarpanch of the Area.
Nothing is possible without their complicity / protection / indifference/ They can plead ignorance and then prove it.
Please name them if you have the courage to do.
Unless we fix these key positions of local adm we will not have honest compliances.

[Meru @MeruOnX]

One of the most openly racist accounts towards Indians posing as an American is actually run from Bangladesh.