#95 - My 2022 tops, my “nice” Christmas present and why you still read this newsletter
Greg Taieb · · 9 min read
Hello,
First of all I wanted to wish you and your loved ones health for this year and success in all your projects. Thank you for taking the time to read me every week for more than 2 years, hoping to bring you even more in 2023:
- Interesting content
- Applications to test
- Useful links
2022 was the 1st year where I sometimes spaced the time between 2 editions of this newsletter without feeling guilty. I still prefer to be regular but like you I have a life and projects on the side and sometimes I deprioritize this email.
Rest assured, I still have plenty of enriching things to share with you and if you have a particular wish for this newsletter in 2023, don't hesitate to share it with me and respond to this email.
On the program for this 1st edition of 2023 :
- 🏆My 2022 tops
- 🎁💣LastPass' catastrophic Christmas present
- 👤How does Madison Square Garden use facial recognition to get rid of its opponents?
- 🧹Why did I clear 10% of my subscribers in 2022 remedy this now by starting with the top content that I published alone or with Remi as part of Encore Un Podcast Tech.
- Top tech
- Top gadget
- Top app/service
- What I advise you not to buy
- There were places left
- I was not in a dispute with them…
- Preventing a person who leaves bad reviews on trip advisor from accessing a hotel or restaurant
- Spotting journalists at the entrance of a place to deny them access
Top newsletter
The newsletter that generated the most engagement is the one that we are talking about in the tech soap opera of the year, namely the takeover by Elon Musk of Twitter. It's true that there was a lot to say and that Remi and I had the opportunity to talk about it in 2 different podcast episodes (here and there).
You can read it again here 👇.
Greg Taieb
Top podcast
On the podcast side, the episode that worked best on the listening platforms was the one dedicated to second brain. I've heard a lot about it and if you missed it, don't hesitate to take a look at the video and test the template Notion which we have made available.
On the other hand, the episode which has been seen the most on YouTube is completely different since it is dedicated to DALL-E: the AI which gives us was amazed in May 2022 and we had absolutely no idea what would follow in terms of uses (notably ChatGPT which I was talking about here).
C’est intéressant car this completely validates the strategy according to which it is not because content works on one platform that it will work elsewhere and it encourages testing different formats.
In this case a Youtube video is much easier to find than a newsletter or a podcast episode and this particular video worked better than any podcast episode published in 2 years.
I also tried to broadcast extracts on Tiktok, in terms of numbers it worked really well market with certain posts which have exceeded 1,000 views, but it takes a lot of time to identify the right song and edit it respecting the codes of the platform.
Top Tech
To find out the rest of my Tops, don't hesitate to listen to the podcast episode that we recorded on the subject. On the program:
🎁💣The Christmas present LastPass disaster
Who spent the last 10 days changing all their passwords?
I've been talking to you for a long time about the benefit of using a password manager (even if passwords are going to become more and more rare) and even longer since I've been using Lastpass (10 years according to my emails).
I have always been convinced that I would be more secure by using a manager (which would manage and generate complex passwords for all the services I use) than by using a simple, shared password for all my services.
So all these years I have blindly trusted LastPassto secure my safe.
Only I was wrong.
I have already slammed one little teeth when I learned a few months ago that pirates had recovered the source code of the application but at the time LastPass wanted to be reassuring even if it was slow to announce the piracy. The message was: People have accessed the source code but not your data.
Only on December 23 while everyone was preparing to celebrate Christmas, LastPass thought it was time to admit that in fact it was a little more than the code that had been stolen but in fact all the safes!
The worst in this story is the attitude of LastPass who had very evasive and late communication throughout this whole story and even when they warn you (on December 23 !!) the email never clearly indicates the extent of the problem (you have to click on a link to get the info on their blog).
Here is the content of the email:
“Earlier today, we published an update on our blog with important information about our ongoing investigation. This update includes details on our findings to date, recommended actions for our customers as well as actions we are currently taking. »
Rather light, no? Instead of telling you clearly "red alert, your passwords are in nature, stop cutting the turkey to change them, the message is hidden in a blog post.
At my level it was one mistake too many and this is how we lose in a few moments a 10-year-old trust.
I immediately switched to another service. For me this does not call into question the interest of a manager but you have to be more careful than ever with the supplier that we choose.
👤How does Madison Square Garden use facial recognition to get rid of its opponents?
A few days ago I had the chance to attend to a basketball game at the legendary Madison Square Garden.
And there are in fact 2 reasons which made this possible:
Why am I telling you about this?
Because a few days before the match in question, a mishap as unpleasant as it was worrying happened to Nicolette Landi who was refused access to MSG.
The reason: She works for a law firm which attacked MSG, the company which manages the stadium. in retaliation and with the help of facial recognition, she was refused entry to the room and she even received a letter explaining the reason.
This use of facial recognition by a private place to arbitrarily block entry to certain people could in fact lead to other excesses in the future:
In short, you will have understood, this type of maneuver is simply unacceptable and creates a dangerous precedent by diverting the use of surveillance cameras with the aim of intimidating.
If the subject interests you I refer you to this excellent article from the NY Times.
By
🧹Why I released 10% of my subscribers in 2022
You didn't know it until now but you are part of an elite. The one of the people I haven't kicked out of my newsletter and I'll explain it for you.
One of the key metrics when you run a newsletter is the number of subscribers. This is what we call a “vanity metric”, that is to say data that pleases the ego.
The more subscribers I have, the more my newsletter appeals, is that logical? Except that the reality is a little more subtle.
I already told you, a newsletter is not easy to discover, so each subscriber gained is precious and yet last year I got rid of 10% of my base (that's almost the total growth of the newsletter over the period).
And then you can ask yourself why? What's the point of getting rid of subscribers that you had so much trouble gaining?
There are several reasons why it is important to regularly clean your mailing list. First of all, this helps you avoid sending emails to people who are no longer interested in the information I share.
Secondly, cleaning your mailing list also helps improve the reputation of this newsletter with email providers. Indeed, if you send emails to people who are not interested or who do not read them, this can lead to a high bounce rate. Emailing providers take this rate into account to assess the quality of emails sent and if it is too high, they can blacklist me and prevent me from sending emails in the future.
Finally, cleaning your mailing list helps optimize the effectiveness of my messages. By targeting only people who are really interested in my content, I increase the opening and click rate of my emails and that is the most important thing.
In short, it's not an easy decision to make because it may seem counterintuitive but unsubscribing people who have never opened an email from me is a service that I provide to them and it's a small extra gesture for the planet.
And there you go that's all for this week!
If this newsletter interested you you can: