====== Reading notes for 2023-W38 ======

===== Monetizing happy people =====

Source: [[https://www.wired.com/story/god-did-us-a-favor-by-destroying-twitter/|God Did the World a Favor by Destroying Twitter]]

This is a text often quoted on Fediverse, but usually in the form of a screenshot of a quote instead of text, which makes it harder for visually-impaired to access it.

The popular quote:

> How will these smaller groups of happier people be monetized? This is a tough question for the billionaires. Happy people, the kind who eat sandwiches together, are boring. They don’t buy much. Their smartphones are six versions behind and have badly cracked screens. They fix bicycles, then they talk about fixing bicycles, then they show their friend, who just came over for no reason, how they fixed their bicycle, and their friend says, “Wow, good job,” and they make tea. That doesn’t seem like enough to build a town square on.

===== Shrinkflation =====

Sources:
  * [[https://boingboing.net/2023/09/15/shrinkflation-database-tracks-diminishing-size-of-food-products.html|Shrinkflation database tracks diminishing size of food products]] (from [[https://researchbuzz.masto.host/@researchbuzz/111079590565963822|@researchbuzz]])
  * [[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/14/carrefour-puts-shrinkflation-price-warnings-on-food-to-shame-brands|Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands]]

[[https://www.shrinkflation.io|Shrinkflation Tracker]] is a database of products that shrink (are sold in smaller amounts) without the price going down. It's a well known mechanism and finally someone's exposing it. Another approach is degrading the quality of products (called "skimpflation").

The Guardian reports that Carrefour is warning its customers about shrinked products.