It appears that cows prefer robot milkers. Rather than following a human schedule of pre-dawn mornings and late afternoons, the robots respond to what the cows want. Perhaps 5 or 6 times a day, the cows line up in front…
It’s almost like 1-click and the barcode had a child. 1-click diminished the friction of an online purchase. Described in The Everything Store, it let Jeff Bezos increase revenue by making the purchase process easier. And, once Bezos got his…
I must start with my bias. I am a night owl. So too were Winston Churchill and Charles Darwin, James Joyce and Glenn Gould. In one interview, Ann Beattie said, “I really think people’s bodies are on different clocks. I…
Starbucks calls it “transactions per hour” but from our perspective, it’s waiting in line. Researchers say that it takes only 3 minutes in a queue for us to become impatient. Hoping to show their shorter line time and higher sales,…
Worrying that labor saving devices would replace her, Downton Abbey’s cook, Mrs. Patmore, was not pleased with the new electric mixer that arrived in her kitchen in 1922. By contrast, if Edith does move out of Downton Abbey into more…
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