I wonder at what point does a massive series of rocket engines power up and fly the magic kingdom to a market with a viable customer base.

I was referencing digital price labels that retailers are installing.

This technology is being touted by the companies putting them in place to be a cost saving measure as staff no longer need to print new labels and manually replace them for products on the shelf. This is true in that it is a benefit of digital labelling, however there are many other usage options that could be implemented after installation.

• alter prices around lunch hour for ready meals and snacks at retailers in walking distance to secondary schools
• automatic increases for products being purchased more rapidly than historical averages to capitalize on a yet unknown trend
• increases simply as stock begins running low

Imagine in a few years when this technology is combined with network snooping of phone identification, loyalty rewards card purchase histories, and automatic buying of customer information from data brokers, all to create a profile that predicts when a person would be likely to be menstruating and the moment they walk in the store, the hygienic products they buy every month raise in price by 30%.

It’s a bleak future I’m afraid.

Difficult list to look at for a few reasons. Some of these ventures plowed the way forward in their respective field.

Even after the ‘innovation plateau’ of a few of these ventures, at least the engineers and other experts that actually did the innovating would be able to go work for the competition. At least in theory.

It must be stressful to be in a position doing work you are skilled at - and might even enjoy - while your company’s leadership is publicly committed to causes that go against your belief systems.

Though I suppose that’s not a problem unique to organisations beneath Musk.

2026: Major grocers found using customer heart rate to personalise prices - higher the pulse, higher the price