Power lies not in control, but in connection

April 8, 2026April 8, 2026 Carl Setzer1 Comment

In today’s world, so many in power are about controlling and manipulating others in order to get solely what they want. The powerful exploit, and the masses lose. Exploitation is not sustainable. One-sided economic growth is not sustainable. This leads, eventually, to collapse. I’ve long believed there’s another way.

Create a sustainable system, one that does not rely upon exploitation and the poverty of many. One that builds others up, that helps people grow. One that’s creative, not extractive. I’ve often simply called this “long-term focus”.

Leadership within this system would understand how people are motivated and how to use that knowledge to help them be the best people they can be. That’s how I see it, at least.

My hope is found in like-minded people, working towards these goals. And there’s great power in hope, don’t you think?

Considering “Amazon Dethrones Walmart as World’s Biggest Company by Sales”

February 19, 2026February 19, 2026 Carl Setzer

Bloomberg posted an interesting economic update: “Amazon Dethrones Walmart as World’s Biggest Company by Sales“. I saw a few of the comments on this post about how this news spells the end of brick-and-mortar retail. But this is not quite “apples to apples” (Amazon vs Walmart). When we factor out AWS sales from the overall revenue, Walmart eclipses Amazon by $125.2 billion (Walmart = $713.2, Amazon at $588 billion in retail sales). So, I think the jury’s still out on the notion that Amazon is going to completely displace brick-and-mortar retail.

The more important story, from a business sense, is that Amazon, with its wider business model, is more resilient to economic shocks. In the end, I think the real story is which business is more resilient. And I see that lead going to Amazon.

The Destructive Power In The Drive To Monopolization

December 30, 2025December 30, 2025 Carl Setzer2 Comments

monopoly board game on brown wooden table

I came across this article this morning on LinkedIn: My 2-year-old gave up his seat on an American Airlines flight. Where’s my refund! It’s a perplexing and bewildering series of responses by American Airlines’ customer service team. TLDR: John Bailey paid for a separate seat for his 2-year-old grandson, as required a federal law. An American flight attendant had the child give up their PURCHASED seat in order to accommodate another passenger’s comfort, with the airline then refusing to refund the purchase with a bewildering series of nonsensical responses. (Side note: I’m quite confident that these responses were AI Slop.) Resolution finally happened when the purchaser filed a complaint regarding the illegal request for the child to sit in the grandparent’s lap (federal law REQUIRES children over 2 to have their own seat. Something the airline kept overlooking…or not caring.

I see this as a classic case of Cory Doctorow’s “enshittification“. As airlines slide towards monopolies and competition collapses, they have no incentive to provide quality service. The monopolization and concentration of power is exploitive and destructive, as this case highlights.

Enshittification is, supposedly, more of an internet-based phenomenon. Monopolization has a wider impact, though. And both need to be addressed to move us towards a just and equitable future.

An example of my advice to NOT depend on a single social media platform

July 21, 2025July 21, 2025 Carl Setzer

A webcomic I follow recently ran afoul of Instagram’s TOS. Their 100k+ followers evaporated instantly. They appealed, Meta denied the appeal. So, their option is to rebuild or quit. Now, one way to rebuild is to launch under a slightly different handle, but really, the damage is done. Regaining that many followers will be hard. They are now launching a website to rebuild their connections.

Now, for years I’ve advised folks who do business online to NOT depend on a single platform, not Meta, not YouTube, not Twitch…no, not any of them. The main thing is that you are dependent on whatever decisions they opt to make. We, as customers, have no real influence over the business. Perhaps, if we have enough followers, we can force an action (ie: Linus Tech Tips and YouTube). But keep in mind that Linus has other channels to engage and enrage his followers.

So, the main gist of my recommended social strategy is to drive people to your website. Have them subscribe to the site or an email list. Then you are decently insulated from any capricious decisions by those companies.

I can hear some of my good friends saying “the 90s called and they want their technology back”. Or, even better, “yo, web dev, not everything is solved with a website”. However, I stand by my strategy and, as time goes by, I recommend it even more boldly.

Check out more of what I have to say about Social Media here. And if you like what I have to say, please consider liking and subscribing.

Some Thoughts On TikTok

January 14, 2025January 14, 2025 Carl Setzer

The Law of Unintended Consequences again applies as the US Government is preparing to ban TikTok for data privacy and security concerns. I expect the expectation was for all those TikTok folks to just bop over to Instagram, Facebook, Threads, or X, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least, it’s not as simple as that. It looks like many Tiktokers are migrating to “RedNote”, the Chinese answer to TikTok. So now we’re playing a game of whack-a-mole. Fun.

As wiser people than me have pointed out, a TikTok ban will not do much of anything in terms of security and data privacy (here’s a good piece on that). These sorts of things happen when legislation is crafted by people who don’t understand the technology they’re trying to regulate. Anyway, I understand there’s the possibility that the Supreme Court will weigh in on this, so I guess there is a slight possibility that this ban be halted, but I’m not holding my breath. So, it’ll be interesting to see how the policy implications shake out. I doubt anyone has a solid grasp on how this will ripple out.

With this, I know some folks whose businesses are highly dependent on TikTok who are scrambling to work their way through this. As I’ve written before, you should NOT set your business up highly dependent upon a single platform you can’t control, or have little to no influence with. I always recommend driving people to a website that you are in control of, and then having them sign up for a newsletter. Email lists are very portable, as are website signups. If you can email even 70% of your followers, something like a TikTok ban becomes less life-threatening to your business. Keeping the risks your business faces in mind is crucial for sustainability.

2025 is shaping up to be a very dynamic year for business in the digital realm.

Being Strategic With Social Media

January 11, 2023January 11, 2023 Carl Setzer

I’ve known people whose business is dependent completely upon a single platform. YouTube is a huge one, but I also see people 100% dependent on Instagram, TikTok, or even Facebook, for their business. I’ve been thinking a lot about that recently.

A friend of mine, due to the LastPass hack, lost access to his YouTube channel. Then there’s the drama over at Twitter, with people being banned from the platform on the whim of Mr. Musk, and I can continue. So, I hope you’ll understand that I highly recommend that you DO NOT rely 100% upon a single platform where you have no control.

Social media sites are great tools for connection, but they’re best for directing people to a website. One you own, you control. Encourage folks to subscribe to a newsletter, or the website. Then, by combining your website with blog posts and newsletters, and you have a very powerful tool to stay connected with your audience even if you’re blocked from a key social channel. Also, if you have a website connected to your social platforms, your audience has a way to find and reconnect with you if you lose access to YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, whatever.

I particularly like sites built on WordPress, as it’s extremely portable. Wix, Squarespace, and the like are tied to a single provider, too. With WordPress, I can port my website to another hosting company with relative ease (related: make sure you back up your files somewhere other than on the hosting platform).

Be strategic with your digital portfolio. Be prepared for various calamities, as well as for the eventual falling out of whatever must-use platform the people abandon next. Technologies evolve. Audiences evolve. Platforms evolve. Business sustainability requires you to be thoughtful and strategic.

What is SEO?

March 9, 2021March 9, 2021 Carl Setzer

This quarter I studied SEO techniques, mainly working off of Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”. Let’s take a look at some of my main takeaways. Today, let’s start with the basics: What Is SEO?

SEO is otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, this is a technique to strategize your website’s content to place better in the search results of Google and Bing. This requires deeply understanding your target demographics, what they are interested in, what sorts of things they search for, how they search, and the way they structure their searches. Also, you need to understand how search engines work. They crawl the internet, creating indexes of the content they find. Ultimately, SEO is about creating better organic search results, as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. SEO has 20 times more traffic opportunities than PPC (via both mobile and desktop). SEO also pays off over a longer time.

Edit: corrected the link to Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”.

Seth Godin: I Hate This Restaurant

October 20, 2020 Carl Setzer

I always appreciate Mr. Godin’s insights. Today’s blog post reminds me of something I’ve long thought about: understanding what you, and your business, offer the world. If you try to please all people, well, you aim for the middle and become a commodity. That only seems profitable by the large, mega-brands that can operate on huge scale. Most of us need to focus on the niche, on being unique. This requires creativity and insight. Those that master this space impress and inspire me.

Seth Godin: I Hate This Restaurant

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