thinking

Amazon Web Services is such a profitable business that its CEO is already thinking about something more ambitious: competing with NVIDIA

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Andy Jassy is the CEO of Amazon and an advocate of artificial intelligence to the point that he expects AI to transform the company’s workforce in the coming years. It makes sense that he is the captain of a liner that has turned to the AI ​​business, since before succeeding Bezos, he came from leading Amazon Web Services. And in his last letter annual to shareholders, Jassy leaves several notes that give us clues about the future of the company. It plans to compete against NVIDIA and SpaceX. And they have 200 billion dollars to invest. The photo. The company is going like a rocket. amazon hill 2025 at 717,000 million dollars, exceeding by 12% the 638,000 million of the previous year. Operating income increased by 17% to 80,000 million and, for its part, AWS cloud business it also worked well, achieving 24% year-on-year in the last quarter. They have done so, according to Jassy, ​​without being able to meet the demands of some clients due to the current situation of the data centers, but even so, they are more than happy. Burning pasta. And those good vibes are going to reach Amazon to invest some 200,000 million dollars in the coming months. The CEO has commented that “they are not going to invest that amount in 2026 following a hunch,” also pointing out that they are not going to be conservative in their bets and that what they are looking for is to lead the artificial intelligence business. HE wait that 50,000 of those millions will end up in the pockets of an OpenAI that will need a boost after the NVIDIA “sit-in”he Sora’s closure and Disney’s withdrawal of investment. Those 200 billion will be concentrated on AI infrastructure, a bet on the future that can add pressure to margins in the short term, but from which they expect a lot.or when the business starts operating. For its part, OpenAI is going to invest 100 billion in AWS over the next eight years. The chickens that enter by those that leave, like almost everything in this AI market. business engine. What business? Well… the one with the chips. Amazon is one of the companies (like Goal, tesla or one’s own OpenAI) that buys from NVIDIA, but that also you are developing your own solution. There are three proper names: Graviton, Trainium and Nitro, training and inference chips (depending on the case) whose business is growing at triple digits year-on-year. Specifically Trainium, which is the chip used to train some of the company’s models, can “save tens of billions of dollars a year.” But it’s not just about saving money by having the chip made at home and do not depend on NVIDIA prices and market competition: it is about not depend on NVIDIA itself at all. The NVIDIA Garden. We have already explained on more than one occasion how NVIDIA is the engine of the artificial intelligence business. Not only do they have the hardware that powers the data centers of the main AI players, but they have the money to invest in both established companies and, above all, in the startups that can define the future of the sector. And Jassy aims, directly, to become a hardware rival, one that competes with NVIDIA, AMD and even with the reborn Intel. According to the CEO, if Amazon were to sell its chip on the open market, it could represent a market of about $50 billion annually, more than double its current chip market. It would still be well below some of its rivals, but it could sell its hardware in conjunction with its AWS software. It would be by selling that “complete AI package” where Amazon would be strong against its rivals. Amazon’s Starlink. Wanting to step on the hose of the strong hardware trio is not the only field in which Jassy wants to play. We already know that Bezos, founder of Amazon, has its space businessbut in parallel, the own Amazon is deploying its Kuiper project. It is its own constellation of satellites in low orbit for broadband Internet that aims to be direct competition to SpaceX and Elon Musk’s Starlink. The deployment began in 2025 with a modest 27 satellites, but this 2026 They want to launch another 3,200. In the end, as all mega-companies want, Amazon seeks to be ubiquitous and permeate absolutely every millimeter of the business. Now, although its capacity in AWS is indisputable, competing against NVIDIA is a big deal. Jensen Huang’s company is TSMC’s first customer -the great global factory-, has deployed very aggressively and intelligently in the AI ​​segment, creating a network that is difficult to replicate and, in addition, has ensured itself to be the main customer of Samsung and SK Hynixthe companies leading high bandwidth memory without which AI cannot take off. Image | Amazon (edited) In Xataka | If you think the internet was much better before AI, congratulations: they have created an extension for you

Many people hide behind anonymous accounts thinking that no one can discover them. AI has bad news for them

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Accounts without a profile photo or real name plague social networks; perhaps even you, who read these lines, are the owner of one. We do not judge, there are many reasons not to show your face on networks and, in fact, anonymity is the pillar on which the internet has been built. However, if you thought that calling yourself ‘user84721’ and having a landscape photo protected you, researchers have just shown that accounts can be deanonymized in minutes with AI (of course). The study. A team of researchers has published a study called “Large-scale deanonymization online with large language models” which is echoed Guardian. In it, they demonstrate how an LLM-based agent is able to compromise anonymous social media accounts with astonishing efficiency. The process consists of three steps: the LLM extracts identifying data (age, location, interests…), looks for possible matches in other users and finally reasons which are the best candidates, verifying the matches and eliminating false positives. Minutes. This is how long it took to identify users on sites like Reddit, Hacker News, and Anthropic Interviewer Dataset participants with this method. In the image you can see how, based on a few pieces of information such as where the student studies, the approximate age, the city and the name of the dog, they achieve a match with the user’s real profile. This is a fictitious case, but in the experiment they managed to identify real users by cross-referencing information with Linkedin profiles and other platforms. According to the researchers, LLMs allow for large-scale deanonymization of accounts, far exceeding the speed and efficiency of classical methods. They also highlight that there is not always enough information to reach a match, so everything depends on the online footprint of each user. Consequences. Researchers warn that this use of AI could be used for problematic purposes, such as governments that want to identify activists or cybercriminals seeking to launch highly personalized attacks. In addition, it must be taken into account that the system is not infallible and there may be false positives. Speaking to The Guardian, Peter Bentley, professor of computer science at UCL, warns that “People are going to be accused of things they haven’t done.” The end of anonymity. As we said at the beginning, the Internet has been built on the anonymity of its users, but we are experiencing a regulatory shift that pursues precisely put an end to it. We see it with the ban on social networks or the blocking of pornographic websites for minors promoted by countries such as United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark and now also Spain. These initiatives require the identification of users to be able to access certain content through video selfies, electronic ID, verification systems with AI… There are many options, What is not clear is its effectiveness. Image | Own preparation on a background of Google DeepMind In Xataka | There was no need to invent a “pajaport”, Google already includes it in Android. The real challenge is in Europe

Samsung is already thinking about a future with OLED screens everywhere. Included in a collar or foldable console

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One of the most entertaining activities you can do at the Mobile World Congress is to walk around the Samsung Display stand. This is Samsung’s division, one of the many it has, in charge of research and development of panels. If today we have the TriFold in the market is because, years ago, We saw its prototype displayed here. That’s why taking a look around their stand is so entertaining, because it lets you see what developments the company has in the works. Whether they see the light or not is another story, but the proposal is nice. OLED panels everywhere. Samsung is, along with LG and BOE, one of the few companies capable of produce OLED panels. That’s why it makes sense that the company wants to put them everywhere. Not only on premium mobile phones, where they are already practically omnipresent, or on televisions, but on every possible gadget, be it a controller, a console or a virtual assistant with AI. This is how Samsung makes money: the secret is in the IPHONE This smartphone unrolls and allows the diagonal of the screen to be increased | Image: Xataka From tiny to conventional size. One of the prototypes we have seen is a vertically rollable phone. The device has a motor that unfolds the screen upwards and hides it downwards, as if it were a blind, and allows you to have a compact phone and, if you want to play or read, a more elongated panel. Very interesting, although with some flaws. The main one is that, rolled up, what in another context would be an aluminum edge would, on this occasion, be a screen, one that is also very exposed to all kinds of misfortunes in the pocket, dirt, knocks, etc. It is striking as a concept, but perhaps it makes more sense on a laptop where, in fact, we are already starting to see them. This tablet unrolls to the side | Image: Xataka Here we can see the unwinding system | Image: Xataka What’s more, Samsung is in it. We have also seen this same roll-up panel technology in a type of tablet and a laptop. The latter is very reminiscent of the Lenovo proposal and unroll the screen to go from 13 to 17 inches. This format, still in its infancy, has a lot of potential if we think of a device that combines productivity and versatility. Samsung Rollable Laptop Concept | Image: Xataka On the tablet, which could also be understood as a portable external monitor, the panel goes from a panoramic format to a 4:3 format that is practically 1:1, something that can be somewhat useful when having several applications open and in office tasks. Without a doubt, where the roll-up format is going to shine is in medium/large panels. Whether we see them on the street or not… only time will tell. Laptop with vertical folding screen | Image: Xataka Laptop with vertical folding screen | Image: Xataka From big to bigger. One of the most curious prototypes has been this trilaptop. Unlike the TriFold, which has three screens, the two folds of this device come in the form of a keyboard and foldable screen. By default, it is a normal laptop, but if we unfold the screen it is like putting another 13-inch panel on top. Useful, very useful, especially for programming. In addition, the unfolded screen is not excessively thick, so the laptop, at least in theory, should not weigh more than necessary, although it will be heavier than normal. Folding console prototype | Image: Xataka So far the normal. Now let’s go with the most peculiar concepts. The first is a folding console. This device, which is clearly reminiscent of a Nintendo Switch, has a Fold-type folding panel that, at least in theory, seeks to make a portable console even more portable. The concept is interesting and I can imagine a console like this in a few years, although perhaps the price would be higher than the 400-550 euros that we are used to seeing. Console controller with integrated screen | Image: Xataka The second is a controller with a central screen. Central touch panels are not new, see Sony’s DualShock and DualSense, but adding a screen opens up a whole range of possibilities. That screen could be part of the HUD, offer actions, provide contextual information or serve to interact with the game in some way through gestures or quick touches. Very curious, it is one of those ideas that I wouldn’t be surprised to see implemented sooner rather than later. Necklace with OLED screen | Image: Xataka Nice necklace. But the concept that takes the cake is the necklace. It is, like everything else, a concept, but the idea is curious. What if, in the same way that you can change the watchface of your necklace, you could change the image of your necklace? The device is big, huge, something that is normal if we want the screen to have some prominence. In a few years will we see a diamond necklace with a GIF of a diamond spinning around? I have no proof, but I have no doubt either. Flexible Micro-LED Panels | Image: Xataka Space for Micro-LED. Samsung has also taken the opportunity to show some advances in Micro-LED, a technology called to be the Holy Grail of panels: OLED blacks, LCD brightness, without degradation or bloombing. The problem is that they are very expensive because their manufacturing is extremely complex. At the moment, we have only seen them on televisions whose prices exceed an average Spanish salary, but Samsung already seems to be working on bringing them to smaller formats. The key, of course, is the excellent color reproduction and brightness, which, in this case, amounts to 7,000 nits. Micro-RGB panel example | Image: Xataka Be that as it may, what is clear is that we are heading to a world full of screens where there were previously printed canvases. Samsung wants … Read more

the main social video networks to go to if you are thinking of changing

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We are going to tell you which are the main ones alternative social networks to TikTok. We are going to focus on those that have a similar function and purpose, that of sharing short videos. Thus, in case you want a change of scenery you will know the best places to go. Let’s try to make the list varied. We will start with the heavyweights within the alternatives, other large platforms. But we will also mention other more independent and less known ones, which are gaining or have recently gained weight. Instagram and Facebook Reels If you want to stop using TikTok because you are concerned about privacy, Instagram or Facebook It will never be the best option with your Reels. However, we are going to start with them for audience reasons, because they are still two of the most popular and most used social networks in the world. The Reels become a copy of TikTokwhich Meta launched on its networks when the Asian social network began to gain importance. Therefore, its operation and options are basically the same, with the addition of being able to share the content in stories on these networks. YouTube Shorts YouTube also has its own system of shorter vertical videos with maximum duration of 3 minutes. It was also created after TikTok began to gain traction, and its main advantage is being accessible to the hundreds of thousands of users who already use YouTube. Loops If you are looking a social network where privacy prevailsit is inevitable to talk about Pixelfed. It is a decentralized alternative to Instagram, where users can create their own instances based on ActivityPuband its content is accessible from other social networks in the fediverse that use this protocol, such as Mastodon. Since 2024 Pixelfed has a parallel social network of alternative videos to TikTok called Loops. In essence it is the same, a decentralized social network of vertical videos. It is still in beta and does not have such a powerful user base, but it is there for anyone who wants to bet on it. Among the most indie alternatives we find UpScrolled. It is a network that claims to have arrived promising that all voices will be treated equallywithout algorithms that hide content, shadowbans, or favoritism for those who pay. This social network claims to be politically impartial, and that its algorithms are fair. It allows you to create videos, upload stories and chat with your contacts. It has a hashtag system, no space limits, and an interface clearly inspired by Instagram. snapchat Snapchat was once a powerful emerging social network, until Instagram overlapped it by copying its stories. Now it remains in the second row in terms of popularity, but still pretty solid with hundreds of thousands of users using it around the world. Although its main function is stories, it also has Spotlight, its TikTok-style vertical video feed, with filters, augmented reality, and many creation options. skylight One of the “indie” alternatives that is gaining the most traction at the beginning of 2026 is Skylight. It is an American social network which uses AT Protocolthe social media protocol of Bluesky. This means that you can use it with your Bluesky account, or create a new one in Skylight and make the content accessible from the paired social network. Skylight is not open source, but it is a public benefit corporation. These are companies that balance profits with purpose, and legally committed to creating positive social impact. The downside is that it can be a bit confusing when mixed with Bluesky, and that It is not yet available in Spainalthough you can view the content from Bluesky. RedNote RedNote It is a Chinese social network that is basically a clone of TikTok, and that in the past has positioned itself as an alternative that many were trying to switch to. However, It is not the best option in terms of privacy either.since like many massive social networks they collect a lot of sensitive personal data. And we end with another social network to take into account for the future. diVine is a social network supported by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, to resurrect the Vine platform of short six-second videos. Its applications are still in closed beta phase, but you can now play around with its web version. This network promises to adopt a decentralized concept similar to Bluesky, being able to have more control over moderation and algorithms. Its registry uses the Nostro decentralized protocol. Has positioned itself strongly against AIwith detection and blocking systems for this content to only have what is created by humans. In Xataka Basics | Your Bluesky account on Mastodon: how to create a bridge for your publications to reach the world

In 1844 there were already people playing chess online, although not in the way you are thinking

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On November 18, 1844, the Washington Chess Club challenged their Baltimore counterparts to a game. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for one detail: the Baltimore players were still in Baltimore, and the Washington players remained in their city, separated by a distance of about 60 kilometers. The feat was achieved thanks to the Internet of the time: the electric telegraph. And just six months after Samuel Morse inaugurated the first telegraph line in the United States with the message “What has God wrought?” The origin of an idea. Just like relates IEEE Spectrum, it all started days before with a game of checkers. On November 15, Alfred Vail, Morse’s associate in Washington, proposed to Henry Rogers in Baltimore to play by telegraph. Rogers devised a system of numbered squares to communicate positions, and the idea soon evolved into chess, at which time both clubs challenged each other from their respective cities. An ingenious system for transmitting plays. Vail and Rogers assigned a unique number to each of the 64 squares on the board. In this way, each shift was summarized in transmitting two numbers by telegraph. In this sense, chess was ideal for a test with said device, since it requires little information per move and does not need a complex communication channel. During the games, 686 moves were transmitted with almost no errors, as Vail recorded in his magnetic telegraph journal, which is now It is preserved in the Smithsonian. More than just entertainment. Although it began simply as a test leading to a little private pleasure between two enthusiasts, telegraphic chess soon attracted public and political attention. Orrin S. Wood, a telegraph operator, wrote to his brother-in-law on December 5, 1844, about the “considerable excitement” generated by these items, adding that many congressmen seemed interested. Morse took advantage of the moment, for in his letter to the Secretary of the Treasury to obtain financing and expand the network to New York, he argued that the telegraph could transmit news from Congress or the whereabouts of wanted criminals, but he also noted that several games of chess had been played “with the same ease as if the players were sitting at the same table.” Encrypted information system. The organizers of these games considered that they had devised a pure information system that fit perfectly with the possibilities of the media that were beginning to emerge at the time. And if we think about it, each play was a precise and brief data packet that traveled through copper cables. However, the initiative generated controversy, since on December 5, Rogers warned Vail that they were causing “an unfavorable impression on the religious part of the community”, although it is currently unknown what the complaints were. What is known is that on December 17, 1844, chess was no longer played along those lines. A tradition that lasted. Just like account In the middle, in 1845 a game was played between London and Gosport with the participation of the inventor Charles Wheatstone and the teacher Howard Staunton. Decades later, between 1890 and 1920, confrontations between clubs by telegraph became common. As time went by and new technologies developed, playing chess from two different places became increasingly easier. In 1965, grandmaster Bobby Fischer played from New York against opponents in Havana by teletype, since the State Department prevented him from traveling to Cuba. And if we go even further, in 1999, world champion Garry Kasparov He faced a team that represented “the world” through a Microsoft forum. Chess as proof of inventions. Today, millions of daily games are played online around the world through platforms such as Chess.com. The truth is that chess has become a kind of natural companion for each new means of communication that has emerged throughout history. Despite how difficult it is to master all the legs of this game, the information needed for the games to flow is extremely simple. And perhaps that is why, 181 years after that first game via telegraph, chess continues to endure in the digital age. Cover image | Denis Volkov In Xataka | In 1938 Spain was divided in two. So two “Gordos” were delivered from the Christmas Lottery

from working 120 hours to thinking that in 20 years work will be optional

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Elon Musk gained his reputation as a tireless worker when became public that his days at Tesla stretched beyond 120 hours a week and that he even slept in his office at the Austin gigafactory during the production crisis of Model 3. However, the millionaire seems to have changed his mind upon seeing the evolution of AI and has surprised the world with a futuristic vision about work: “working will be optional,” assured the richest person in the world in a recent speech at an investor forum in Saudi Arabia. From 996 to “working is optional”. Elon Musk, famous for defending 80-hour days to achieve great goals, published a message in November 2018 on his social network wrote the millionaire In an interview on the podcast ‘People by WTF’ by Nikil Kamath, Musk has changed his mind and has come to believe that, in a period of “between 10 and 20 years, work will be optional. Like a hobby” thanks to the increase in productivity promised by the evolution of AI and the progressive arrival of humanoid robots like Optimus that Tesla is developing. In his talk with Kamath, Musk compared working to growing vegetables in your own garden: “You can grow your own vegetables in your garden or you can go to the store to buy them. It’s much harder to grow your own vegetables. But some people like to grow their vegetables, and that’s fine. But it will be optional, that way, is my prediction,” said the Tesla CEO. Its formula: universal income. Musk believes that a universal income It will cover all the basic expenses of the population, eliminating the need for mandatory employment. This would allow people to live in the countryside or the city without depending on a job near an office. The businessman added: “You won’t have to be in a city for a job. If you can think of it, you can have it, that will be the future.” This vision of a population financed by a universal basic income aligns with the experiments with basic income funded by Sam Altman, former founding partner of OpenAI and Musk’s current rival. The future of AI comes together. With this change of heart regarding the workday, Elon Musk aligns himself with figures like Bill Gates, who predict that AI will automate almost everything and lead to three-day work weeks in less than a decade. Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, also pointed out in an interview with The New York Timesto the theory of the three-day week thanks to the increase in productivity. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, it coincided a few days ago with Musk on stage at the Saudi Arabia Investor Forum. There he agreed with the Tesla CEO’s postulate. Huang has long argued that AI will boost the four-day work week, promoting idea generation and projects beyond current capabilities. AI is a concern for Gen Z. While the predictions of technological CEOs come true, the reality is that the evolution of AI has become a serious concern for young people of generation Z who are starting your working career. The first data They already point out that some large companies are reducing hiring in entry-level positions, which were usually occupied by recent graduates. A recent survey from the Deutsche Bank Research Institute revealed that generation Z was “very concerned” about AI stealing job opportunities. As the question moves to older generations, that concern fades away. In Xataka | We still don’t have a four-day week and there are already CEOs dreaming of the next level: working only three days Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore)

In 2015, a man found a rock and kept it thinking it had gold. Ten years later he discovered his true value

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Imagine that one day, while searching for precious metals with a metal detector, you come across a strange reddish rock. You immediately think that it may be hiding gold, so you don’t hesitate to take it home. After numerous attempts to pierce it and discover what’s inside, you give up. It is a practically invulnerable rock, at least with everyday tools, such as grinders. This is what we just described This is what happened to David Hole.an Australian who used to explore Maryborough Regional Park with his detecting equipment in search of precious metals. And yes, he found the rock and tried to open it without success. In the end it turned out to be something much more valuable than any precious metal: a celestial body that had probably traveled to our planet from Mars or Jupiter, in other words, a meteorite. The Maryborough Meteorite The cosmic rock was discovered by Hole in 2015, although the man did not know what it was until 2018. Three years after its discovery he decided to take it to the Victoria Museum of his country in search of answers. Geologists Bill Birch and Dermot Henry They immediately suspected that it was a meteorite. And this was actually a surprise since most of the “meteorites” that people bring to the museum are not actually meteorites. The specialists had a peculiar piece measuring 38.5 cm x 14.5 cm x 14.5 cm. The next step was to photograph it and do a thorough analysis that consisted of making a small cut in order to analyze its composition. After analysis, it was confirmed that it was a meteorite with a high percentage of iron, that is, an ordinary H5 chondrite meteorite, which suggests that its formation could have occurred in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The origin of the Maryborough Meteorite, it should be noted, is a hypothesis, as researchers do not know exactly where it came from or when it may have impacted Earth. However, radiocarbon dating indicates that the rock has remained on Earth between 100 and 1,000 yearsalthough it is believed that it could have crossed our atmosphere in a period of time between 1889 and 1951, that is, in a recent period. If we talk about the value of the meteorite compared to gold, it is difficult to establish a comparative framework, but the museum points out that this is much more valuable. They say that finding gold on Australian soil is more common than finding a meteorite of these characteristics. “This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria,” they point out, adding that they are important scientific elements that “take us back in time” to study our Solar System. Certainly, meteorites contain valuable information about the formation of elements in the universe and give us a unique opportunity to study them closely to analyze their characteristics and chemical composition. A different type of research, but complementary, to the missions that are driven towards space, such as that of James Webb Space Telescope u the ambitious OSIRIS-REx. Images | Museums Victoria In Xataka | Who or what excavated the ravines on Mars? The answer is even stranger than we always thought In Xataka | There is already speculation even with Martian soil: the largest piece of Mars on Earth has just been sold for 5.3 million dollars

The V16 beacons have a SIM with connection for twelve years. We know what you’re thinking

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If you haven’t bought it already, you have two months left to get one V16 beacon to carry in the car. It is a signaling device with a light and is also connected to share your position. How is this done? With an integrated SIM that offers connectivity for at least 12 years and for which you will not have to pay any fee. It is inevitable to think about it: How can I use this for my mobile? “Free” connectivity. It is one of the requirements that the DGT has set for the beacons that we must all carry in the car starting January 1, 2026. Once connected, the beacon transmits our position to the DGT in order to “protect you, spreading the fact that there is an accident vehicle to the rest of the vehicles that approach the accident site.” The beacon must guarantee connectivity for at least 12 years and its cost will be included in the price of the beacon itself. That is, you buy it and that’s it, you have a connection for years without having to pay more. The dismantled beacon. Image: Iván Linares, Xataka Móvil Well I put it on my mobile. For that you will first have to remove it and we already told you that you will not be able to. Our colleague Iván Linares, from Xataka Móvil, has dismantled one of these beacons and has verified that it is not a SIM card like the ones we have in mind, but that it is soldered to the board. The SIM cannot be separated from the beacon. In fact, it doesn’t even have the usual shape, but rather it is an industrial sim-on-chip, integrated into the circuits of the board, so putting it in your mobile or tablet is not possible. Furthermore, accessing this plate has not been easy either and in order to remove the beacon, Iván has had to unsolder two tin points. Limitations. Although we could easily remove it, it is a specific SIM for this device and has technical limitations. The main one is that it does not have access to the internet, but rather connects to a private network that connects only to the DGT 3.0 connected platform. If we managed to install it on a mobile phone, we would not be able to do anything other than connect to that network. There is more. Even if we manage to overcome all the obstacles, there is an insurmountable barrier. The network used by the beacons (NB-IoT) is designed for a specific use: an emergency device that connects sporadically. If it were to suddenly connect constantly, misuse would be detected and it would crash. So no, the twelve years of “free” connectivity does not apply to mobile phones. Image | DGT In Xataka | Madrid had one of the most complex underground labyrinths without GPS. Google and Waze have tamed it with 1,600 Bluetooth beacons

We have been thinking all our lives that prices end in “.99” out of pure psychology. The reason was much more earthly

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The omnipresence of the price ending in .99 (today perceived as a consumer psychology) actually has a very different origin. Before the bias was studied and exploited, the figure was used by a machine to not only shield accounting, but also to found an entire culture of compliance, auditability and commercial discipline. The origin. In business at the end of the 19th century, the problem was not so much convincing the client, but preventing them from the money would disappear before reaching the owner. The cash passed through the hands of waiters and clerks without a trace, and the temptation to “keep some” was structural. The solution was not more human surveillance, but a luck of prosthesis mechanics: a machine that would require each sale to be recorded and that, when opened to make change, will leave an audible signal and a verifiable trail. The price at .99 made it inevitable to open the box to return the cent, forcing registration and eliminating the gap through which the money was lost. Trader with engineering instinct. The seed was born in Dayton from a tavern owner who already came from a family with a vocation to invent. James Rittyfed up with losses in his businesses, saw how a machine counted the revolutions of a propeller and suddenly understood that the same could be done with sales: if something can be counted mechanically, it can be audited. So, he returned to Dayton, worked with his brother John (an experienced mechanic) and built the first sales recorder: keys that represented amounts, a visible dial to check the figure and, later, a drawer with a bell and a scroll that left a physical mark of each transaction. Reproduction of Ritty Dial, an early example of a practical cash register NCR: from machine to industrial culture. Shortly after, when John H. Patterson buys the invention from the brothers and creates the National Cash Registerthe mechanism ceases to be an Ohio bar oddity and becomes a compliance standard in American commerce. The idea thus mutated in the industry. NCR not only manufactured boxes: manufactured method. It introduced a sales school, scripts, discipline, metrics, incentives and exported that corporate DNA via its graduates to other companies such as IBM and General Motors. The cash register It was not just a device: it was a way of governing the organization through material evidence rather than blind trust. National cash register from the late 19th century The .99 changes purpose. Decades later, when the reason anti-corruption was already solved by design, behavioral economics discovers that the .99 deforms the perception of value: anchors in the left figure, suggests a bargain, reduces psychological friction and stimulates impulsive buying. The same accounting gesture was now used for a very different war: it was no longer against theft, but against mental resistance of the buyer. The convention is stabilized because it generates economic margin even when the risk of theft has fallen due to digital processes. The .99 mutates from an anti-fraud technique to persuasion toolmaintaining its validity for a reason radically different from the one for which it was born. The device survives not because of tradition, but because it continues to generate economic advantage under a different paradigm. It survives because it works. The truth is that the .99 has lasted a century and a half because solved two problems different at two different times: first it prevented the seller rob the ownerand then helped the owner persuade the buyer. This double utility explains its persistence. If you will, it is proof of how in commerce what begins as compliance engineering ends as behavioral engineering. And every time today we see 4.99 or 9.99 in sales, we are actually reading (without knowing it) the fingerprint fossil of an invention originally created to close a hole economic before consumer psychologists existed. Codifying discipline. Thus, the box that was invented to catch petty theft It altered the physics of commerce: it introduced traceability, professionalized sales, and bequeathed a pricing convention that still programs how we read money in modern societies. A prosaic problem (a waiter who keeps some coins) inaugurated a causal chain that ended up shaping an entire century of business practice. And in reality, the bell that rang to warn the owner more than a century ago, now also rings, silently, in the consumer’s head every time he sees that .99 and decides that “it is less”…than it really is. Image | Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez, National Cash Register Company, Wmpearl, Biser Todorov In Xataka | The psychology of pricing: a gigantic list of strategies In Xataka | Psychology has explained why it is so difficult for you to leave a job even if it is toxic: the sunk cost fallacy

We have been thinking for years that, after the midlife crisis, old age is synonymous with happiness. This researcher thinks it’s a hoax

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We are happy during adolescence and late youth, but as the years go by we become increasingly sadder, more unhappy, more miserable. At some point, in our late 40s to early 50s, we hit rock bottom. And once there everything tends to improve. “It’s statistics,” we said. What we did not suspect was that the statistics could be ‘trick’. Happiness is U-shaped. “Happiness is a slippery slope until we hit the bottom at some undetermined point in middle age. From there, it climbs back to the levels of youth.” That’s what I said a 2008 study than by Blanchflower and Oswald with data from more than half a million people. Over the following years ( here an example from 2017), studied in some detail how firm this U-shaped trend was; Everything seemed to indicate that this was the case. Until Fabian Kratz and Josef Brüdel from the Ludwig Maximalian University of Munich they realized of a small – possible – problem. Wonkblog A fundamental problem. What if happiness steadily decreases with age and what we see in the aggregate graphs is just a statistical effect? Kratz has been studying for years happiness and, as explained in New Scientistis increasingly convinced that the U simply does not exist. Reviewing the scientific literature, the authors found studies that justify a “stability“in happiness throughout the years; a”increase” or progressive descent; a inverted U; a U normal; and a curve like of waves (promotions, relegations). The problem is “that all studies on age and happiness have incurred biases that have distorted their results.” The other form of happiness. By correcting them, Fabian Kratz and Josef Brüdel came to the conclusion that it is true that happiness shows some stability around the last 50, but it does not rise at any time. Kratz and Brüderl (2021) But why? It is important to keep in mind that this work is essentially methodological. But Kratz’s central idea is that previous studies they didn’t realize that “after a certain age, happiness seems to increase only because unhappy people have already died.” The least happy people they tend to die before, which would cause an overrepresentation of the happiest at older ages (literally, as said our colleague Andrés Mohorte, pure survivor bias). According to this theory, “that old popular story” through which retirement would open a window towards a fuller and more satisfying life is just that, a story: a lie. Or, perhaps, a strategy. Because, in short, “there is a lot of evidence about how humans experience a bassoon psychological in middle age” (Blanchflower and Oswald, 2007; Steptoe, Deaton and Stone, 2015; Graham and Pettinato, 2002), but there is very little about the relationship between that downturn – that unhappiness – and quality of life. As we said quite a few years ago“we’re about to see what happens to the millennials when they become unhappy” and maybe that is behind a part generational battles. But facing the future with the certainty that things are going to improve is not the same as facing the future with the certainty that things are going to get worse. The science of happiness has never been so depressing. Image | Garloncio In Xataka | If the question is “where is the secret to happiness,” an expert believes it is hidden in these 15 statements

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