the answer here is about the competitive space that he's in and whether his competitor is buying brand terms around his area. if not, he's probably fine and he can use his organic strength to stay tops.
PJ O'Rourke was my first into to a feeling that I've become more familiar with over the years - "liberal cringe"
I still count myself as a liberal (more classical than modern) these days but I can't help but view a lot of standard progressive empty promises through an O'Rourke-ian lens.
1. Having Data
2. Using it to Predict
3. Using it to Manipulate
There are major, major leaps from collection to then even having effective prediction models. Prediction is hard, especially when it comes to longer term behaviors.
Manipulation is extremely hard especially when the content space is so crowded.
My fear of TikTok is far more mundane. It just dulls us into the most passive form of entertainment the world has ever known making us a basically disengaged, lifeless people. Its the modal opposite in life to 'touching grass'.
Hasnt the economic story of 2020-2022 so far has not been "lets see what happens when we open up" but rather "lets see what happens when we close down"?
How does 2022 so far imply to you negative evidence of "here's what happens when you open economies?" I am sincerely curious.
counterpoint: nothing has happened to us as a society.
we have always had pressures to monitize things and do things for money, but of course money isnt everything and there have always been happy generous people who are happy to make things for free.
In fact, the proliferation of freely released, happy things in to the world has probably gone up over time.
the article's whole point is that this conclusion ("covid made us crazy") is the "official explanation" but that there is better alternative explanation in road design and traffic density changes
my read of the diabetes tie is that it is unlikely that covid causes diabetes but rather that the causality could be both ways, with obesity or other medical confounders making Covid experiences more severe.
this doesn't diminish the importance of the tie, but rather should just reveal that what we've always known about covid remains true - its a serious disease and having other underlying medical issues makes it significantly worse.
i would bet against any conclusion however that having covid makes kids more likely to develop diabetes.
i think you see this rarely discussed because its an issue that is rapidly declining in importance over time.
The trade off of either-this-US-kid-gets-it-or-that-Indian-adult-gets-it becomes less severe when availability of vaccines is going up everywhere rapidly.
Where vaccine availability is low, its not due to US hoarding but rather due to regional government policy constraints that wouldn't be alleviated if this-US-kid gave up their dose.
so, scarcity is certainly the case sometimes (like right now for Paxlovid) but not for general availability vaccines worldwide.
I dont think the concern for what our neighbors are doing has gone up so much as our ability to make noise about it. Dealing with conflicts between neighbors is ancient.
in the past, local voices did not have power to organize or constrict local development. its a form of social technology that has enabled this around the world over the past 80 years.
when people look at urban sprawl they see the culprit as cars, which is maybe true, but the real cause is democracy.