@bennettmorrison.bsky.social
Today's "Wow. Someone made a Wikipedia page out of it!" is . . . suspicious Russia-related deaths since 2022.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspici...
When I started this account, I didn't realize it would be so boot-focused.
But, then it snowed.
What's interesting is the amount of publicly traded brands that still have family involvement (e.g., Levi's, Gap, Ralph Lauren) and the brands that are generationally owned vs PE-backed brands cashing out.
Fun.
But, what of my other clothing purchases?
To go a step further, I had several AIs make lists for menswear brands.
Here are a few links, from Gemini and Claude:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
How about a founder funded company that is a fourth generation shoe maker. In that timeframe, 13 years is nothing. The capital structure values longevity.
So, what do I do with this boot insight? Obviously, my next pair of boots is coming from a shop owned by a family / founder.
What got me thinking of this is boots.
I have two pair.
I have a pair that is 13 years old, and a pair couldn't last 60 days. The pair that didn't last 60 days, is from a PE-backed brand.
Do you want to guess the capital structure of the 13 year old pair of boots?
If you want to know if a company is directed towards consistent growth, hyper growth, cost management, or longevity, ask about capital structure. Publicly traded, VC-backed, PE-backed, or family/foundation/founder backed.
Different forms of capital value different things.
I bring this up because I have often maintained that an important parameter to any job is capital structure -- right after role/title, direct manager, and leadership.
04.02.2026 18:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Many years ago, a colleague brought his teenage niece to learn about startups at the VC-backed startup we were at.
When we talked, I went into a long diatribe about how capital structure dictates the goals of a company.
She just wanted to confirm that we could wear jeans and snacks were provided.
@martogo.bsky.social asked me if this was about Dr Marten's, and I had totally forgotten about their tale of woe . . . from PE buying out the founders to inflasted IPO to wherever it is now--checkout the headlines.
No, the garbage brand I got my defective boots from is @colehaan.bsky.social
Follow up here:
Support tells me that the company "does not exchange defective merchandise" and gives me a 30% credit, as though I would ever shop their again.
What even is the point of own a brand if you drive it into the ground?
Cost is easy to measure.
And what is measurable, gets bonus-ed.
Cost and a single sale is easier to measure than the value of what could have been a new multi-year customer with a disposable income, but has now become a brand detractor.
. . . oh, what's the capital structure behind this company? Does anyone even care? Is this a cost optimization PE thing? Dammit.
Google the company, and yes . . . PE firm.
My assumption here is that this company has targets to hit on margin per boot. Try to cut costs wherever possible.
Do my new boots suck because of private equity?
Bought new boots. Very well known brand.
1. First -- they shipped wrong boot. I had to go get an exchange.
2. Less than 60 days in, the boots are disintegrating. Grip falling off the sole. What the hell?
I contact support. Then, I think . . .
Also interesting is that 94% of the world's mushrooms come from China.
29.01.2026 04:59 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Fun fact: the Agaricus bisporus is *the* domesticated mushroom.
As a baby mushroom you know it as the cheap white button mushroom, as a kid mushroom it's called a cremini, as an adult it's called a portabella.
Same mushroom.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agaricu...
The information wants to be free, bit it also wants to be expensive.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informa...
Of course, I wouldn't have needed AI if the material I was looking for was available -- if the glasses cases just had information that was processable / filterable (which Google could do) or if the manual to the specific drawers I had was complete. (It wasn't.)
The information is still hidden.
2. Repair advice. Needed to lift off a drawer to get to a leaky pipe. Got advice. Sent photos. Final determination was "just lift it off with a pull." After ripping the drawers off the hardware and sending pictures, AI responded, "unscrew the next drawer so you won't get damage."
Nice. Real nice.
Recent AI losses --
1. Shopping. Needed a specific item -- case for two pairs of my large glasses. Gave very specific instructions, and every AI kept botching it. Gave me options that were too small or widely big or just ignored my instructions.
Googled to find what I needed with far less prompt
Today's bath time question from the 4 yr old: "Why can't babies have knives?"
Had one of those moments where I pictured all the bad things that could happen before answering with an appropriate response.
Organizing the 4-year olds items so she has all her tiaras in the same place as her capes and her wands.
So many tiaras and wands...
After I Googled it, those were the first (and only people) I knew who would be watching.
🐻🏈
I know that bsky is replacing twitter when I am getting several real-time updates about a sporting event that I didn't even know was happening.
19.01.2026 02:45 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Got new glasses (but maybe you can't tell because avatar is the same).
An, for first time in a long time, I'm not happy with them -- considering what I paid. Seems like I was subsidizing a brand.
But, serves me right for buying at a store where NO ONE WAS WEARING GLASSES!
This it the type of decisive leadership that Hasbro needs
14.01.2026 20:43 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0That's because the open internet, as we knew it, is dying. And, it's not just TikTok, it's everything.
The only way to get out of this tailspin is revert back to open standards and protocols.
A man who has brought me much joy.
09.01.2026 03:44 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0“many angry posts should have been naps or little packets of crackers” is deep wisdom and you don’t need to reproduce to embrace it!
31.12.2025 21:47 — 👍 1649 🔁 398 💬 7 📌 5The Second-Order Streisand Effect is a social phenomenon where if a party makes an effort to censor information, discussion and news about the censorship paradoxically leads to an increased awareness of Barbara Streisand, a musician whom most "Zoomers" would probably have otherwise never heard of
29.12.2025 19:27 — 👍 2844 🔁 461 💬 35 📌 4
