Digital Revolution

Apple Music has been a phenomenal success. The collection is vast, and almost everyone can find familiar music to listen to. However, exploring the entire collection isn't easy. The Music app only offers browsing by specific criteria. There is clearly a navigation problem. Compared with the App Store, Apple Music lacked a Today section that offers descriptive introduction to music. Since most people aren't music historians, they mostly rely on trial and error to discover music, which is terribly inefficient. If Apple Music offered proper introduction to music, rather than simply advertising, the music discovery process would be much more enlightening. The current status is like a outsider jumping into Renaissance art without art history training. The entire context, meaning, and symbolism are inaccessible. There is a need for proper guidance. Although everyone knows Taylor Swift is great, it would be much more informative if some context can be given. Perhaps thoroughly underst...

Digital technology makes finding matches in markets much easier. The proliferation of freelancing is a example. The picture is not all bright, however, as total supply far exceeds total demand, and customers are in trouble of finding competent freelancers to do the job. Nonetheless, doing business with freelancers remains a interesting experience, for it brings a lot of freshness and new ideas. Often, students without much access to market try to improve their own status by freelancing. It's not hard to find a bargain and novelty. There are several types of freelancers to avoid. Some are totally dishonest and lazy that the reason they are freelancing is incompetence. Some don't respect customers' time and money. Some try to charge outrageous prices with low ability. Fortunately, traces of inappropriate freelancers are often transparent in communication, though they waste time. Free freelancing web sites underperform paid ones in Taiwan, which is a puzzle. Markets with highe...

Yesterday, Twitter showed me a phrase that's trending: YOU LOST. Naturally, it grabbed my attention and I clicked on the phrase to find out. What actually happens is a bunch of incoherent tweets that contain the phrase, case insensitive. It's like searching for "we can" or "I will". Clearly, the mechanism Twitter employs to determine what's trending is broken. Any commonly used phrase can be classified as trending, which is absurd. If we dig deeper, the problem is serious, for if it's a manipulated insult, then Twitter is a political hack, else if it's a algorithm, then Twitter is utterly incompetent. As a result, there is no surprise that Twitter can be turned into a propaganda machine that serves dubious political purposes, and eventually requires regulation to maintain sanity. Tech regulation is dangerous, because it potentially undermines free speech. Yet Twitter seems content with the push to the absurd that risks everybody's right to sp...