John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged strategy · everything

www.nytimes.com

How Churners Earn Money By Regularly Signing Up for Credit Cards

David Wignall profiles [[Matthew Palm]], a 57-year-old freelance television producer in [[Illinois]] whose side hustle is opening and managing an array of [[credit cards]]—about 50 at last count—to harvest signup bonuses and rewards. The article explains the mechanics of card-churning strategies, the allure of sign-up points and travel perks, and how disciplined spending, calendar vigilance and an understanding of issuer rules can make the practice lucrative for some while posing risks to others: potential credit-score impacts, fees, and complex record-keeping. Wignall situates churning within broader consumer-finance choices, interviews experts and participants, and notes industry responses and policy considerations, concluding that while churning can pay off for experienced, organized individuals it is rarely advisable as a casual side income. Appeared in [[The New York Times]].

Permalink travelstrategybusinesscredit cards

Business Insider

A stock trader who made $8 million in 2 years shares how he's betting on AI stocks and the strategy he's using to trade hot themes this year

Stock trader Jack Kellogg applies a thematic trading strategy to capitalize on sector-wide momentum, identifying a "head" stock (like C3.ai for AI) and then trading related "sympathy plays" that tend to follow its price movements. He combines crowd-sourced research from Twitter and Google with technical analysis using support/resistance levels and volume indicators, entering positions gradually when stocks decline and exiting when they break support or the lead stock falters. Despite trading AI stocks successfully in early 2023 with estimated $1.4 million in gains by February, he remains cautious about shorting the sector, waiting for signs of irrational euphoria—like mainstream adoption—before betting against it.

Permalink strategypersonal finance

App Store

Strategery App - App Store

Strategery is a turn-based strategy game where players roll dice to conquer neighboring blobs on a map, with the goal of dominating the entire world in one color. Originally launched in 2008 and praised by early App Store reviewers, the game has been revived by Lex Friedman (one of those original reviewers) and now offers solo play against AI, online multiplayer with friends, and local pass-and-play modes, along with a "Chaos" variant that adds unpredictable consequences. It's a casualty-free conquest game playable on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision.

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www.managementexchange.com

The Art of Impossibility | Management Innovation eXchange

The author argues that most organizations waste energy defending the status quo rather than pursuing genuinely transformative goals, using RIM's dismissal of the iPhone as a cautionary example of how companies become mentally paralyzed by threats to their established beliefs. He contends that only about 5% of organizational effort goes toward pursuing the truly impossible, while the rest gets absorbed debating incremental improvements within the realm of the "possible"—a timidity that guarantees stagnation in a world hungry for discontinuous innovation. His prescription: treat any goal the status quo considers feasible as insufficiently ambitious, and instead empower the creative renegades already inside most organizations to pursue what competitors consider impossible.

Permalink leadershipstrategyadvicebusiness

innovateonpurpose.blogspot.com

Innovate on Purpose: Innovation does not start with idea generation

The author argues that innovation does not begin with idea generation, as commonly claimed, but rather requires three prerequisites: understanding organizational strategy and goals, anticipating future trends and market conditions, and identifying genuine customer needs. Only when these three factors converge—what the author calls "ideating in context"—can brainstorming and idea generation produce valuable, relevant ideas aligned with both business capability and market opportunity. The widespread overemphasis on idea generation itself reflects that it's the easiest phase to organize, when the real innovation work lies in the strategic thinking and customer research that should precede it.

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www.usabilitypost.com

Why Nobody Uses Opera

Opera's negligible market share despite superior features and innovation stems from poor brand positioning rather than technical deficiency. While Chrome successfully positioned itself as the fastest and simplest browser, and Firefox as the most customizable option, Opera tried to market itself on everything at once—speed, security, and innovation—which made it stand out to no one. In a crowded market, consumers gravitate toward products with clear, quantifiable identity within a specific category, and Opera's failure to own a single distinctive position left it invisible to mainstream users despite genuine technical leadership.

Permalink strategybusinessmarketingbrowser

Opensource.com

Does your organization need a "no policy" policy? | opensource.com

Daniel Pink's Telegraph piece examines Netflix's unlimited vacation policy, where salaried employees can take time off whenever they want without tracking days, arguing that removing such policies actually increases accountability rather than creating chaos. The article contends that excessive corporate rules stifle innovation and that freedom and responsibility work together effectively, a principle the author witnessed firsthand during ten years at Red Hat, where greater employee freedom consistently correlated with stronger personal accountability. The author's company, New Kind, has adopted a similar no-vacation-policy approach and is considering extending this philosophy to other areas of operations.

Permalink cultureleadershipstrategybusiness

www.agilean.com

kongregate.com

Kongregate: Play Castlewars

Castlewars is a turn-based card strategy game where players compete to either build their castle to 100 storeys or destroy their opponent's castle first. Players play cards from their hand each turn to construct their own structure, generate resources, or attack and defend, with different card types serving different strategic purposes. The game offers both single-player and multiplayer modes and was developed as a clone of an earlier game called Ants.

Permalink strategy