Barbaros Ozturk | Performance Marketing Leader

Let Them Steal Your IP: Why GenAI Fan Art is the Ultimate Growth Hack

January 10, 2026

Artificial Intelligence,Performance Marketing,Social Media Marketing / January 10, 2026 / By : Barbaros Let Them Steal Your IP: Why GenAI Fan Art is the Ultimate Growth Hack The copyright wars are over. The remix wars have begun. Smart brands aren't suing creators; they are hiring them. Inspiration: Scrolling Facebook and seeing a fan-made Batman poster that looked better than the official one, and realizing I wanted to see that movie more.When GenAI first dropped, legal teams panicked.They saw copyright infringement. They saw brand dilution. They saw chaos.They sent lawyers. They tried to ban keywords. They acted like Nintendo in the 90s—protective, rigid, and scared.But the smartest brands are reversing course.Disney is partnering with OpenAI. Coca-Cola is running contests for AI art. They realized a simple truth: You can't stop the tsunami, so you might as well surf it. Free R&D and The "Crowdsource" EngineFan art isn't just pretty pictures; it’s Market Research.Imagine a fan generates a dark, gritty version of a Star Wars character using Midjourney. It goes viral. It gets 100k likes.Disney just learned—for free—that their audience craves a darker tone. They didn't need a focus group. They didn't need a consultant. The market validated the concept before the...

D2C

Lululemon Should Acquire Halfdays to Fix Its “Outdoors” Problem

January 10, 2026

D2C,Halfdays,Lululemon,Markets / January 10, 2026 / By : Barbaros Lululemon Should Acquire Halfdays to Fix Its “Outdoors” Problem Forget MIRROR. This is the acquisition that actually fits the DNA. Lululemon owns the studio; it’s time to own the slopes. Inspiration: Seeing a sea of Halfdays suits in Aspen and realizing Lululemon is completely missing the "Après" demographic.Lululemon is a beast, but they have a $500M scar: MIRROR.They tried to become a tech hardware company. They bought a treadmill/screen company during a pandemic hype cycle. It failed because it wasn't their DNA.Lululemon is an apparel and community company. They should acquire brands that do that.And right now, there is a rocket ship sitting in plain sight: Halfdays. The Halfdays PhenomenonHalfdays isn't just a ski brand. They identified a massive gap: Ski wear was either "shrink it and pink it" (bad fit) or incredibly ugly.They made technical gear that looks good on Instagram.But more importantly, they are giving a masterclass in Retention and Community.They don't just sell jackets; they host ski meetups. They created a "safe space" for women in a male-dominated sport. They built a cult following based on inclusivity and style.Does that sound familiar? It is exactly what Lululemon did...

Autonomous Driving

Autonomous Driving: It’s Not About the Car. It’s About the Kid in the Back Seat.

January 10, 2026

Autonomous Driving,Technology / January 10, 2026 / By : Barbaros Autonomous Driving: It’s Not About the Car. It’s About the Kid in the Back Seat. We are obsessing over the technology. Parents are obsessing over the peace of mind. That is the premium that scales the industry. Inspiration: Reading The Anxious Generation and realizing that for a parent, the "killer app" isn't speed; it's the ability to track the taxi.Waymo is no longer a science project. It is logging millions of miles in major cities.But the analysts are missing the real value proposition. They think it's about "not driving."It’s actually about The Safety Premium. The Parent TrapIn The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt discusses how modern parents feel safer when they can track their kids.The biggest market for AVs isn't the tech-bro going to a meeting. It is the parent sending their teenager to soccer practice.A robot driver doesn't get drunk. It doesn't get tired. It doesn't look at its phone. It doesn't harass passengers. It follows the speed limit.Parents will pay a massive premium for a "Waymo Teen" account. Peace of mind is price-inelastic. The "Chauffeur" LifestyleIn Asia, apps like Grab have a feature where a driver comes to drive...

Artificial Intelligence

Before We Get AGI, We Need “The Face”

January 9, 2026

Artificial Intelligence,Technology / January 9, 2026 / By : Barbaros Before We Get AGI, We Need “The Face” Text is efficient. Voice is convenient. But humans are biologically wired to trust only one interface: A Face. Inspiration: Watching my friends ignore a perfect ChatGPT answer, only to watch a 15-minute YouTube video of a guy saying the exact same thing because they trusted his face.Tech people love text. Most people love faces.Despite how accessible LLMs are, most people resist "chatting" with a machine. It feels lonely. It feels like work.They prefer YouTube. Why? Because a human explaining something—with eye contact, micro-expressions, and tone—builds trust. Information without emotion is just data; information with emotion is knowledge. The "Clippy" Lesson (We Crave Humanization)Remember Clippy? He was annoying, sure. But he was famous because he was a character. He had eyes. He looked at you.Humans are biologically wired to project agency onto things with eyes (pareidolia). We don't want a "tool"; we want a "helper."Right now, ChatGPT is a blank void. It has no soul. To reach the next billion users, AI needs to stop being a command line and start being a companion. The Strategy: Templates, Not MascotsBrands shouldn't create one avatar...

Defence

Why YouTubers Predict Wars Faster Than CNN

January 9, 2026

Defence,Google,Markets,Technology / January 9, 2026 / By : Barbaros Why YouTubers Predict Wars Faster Than CNN The "Official Narrative" waits for the missile to land. The "Analyst Narrative" watches the fuel truck leave the depot. Inspiration: Watching a YouTuber analyze fuel logistics on Google Earth and predicting an invasion three weeks before the "Breaking News" banner appeared on TV.Mainstream news is built on "Events." They report when the missile lands. They report when the press secretary speaks.YouTube analysts operate on "Asynchronicity."They don't need a cameraman on the ground. They aggregate data points—satellite images, social media leaks, flight radars—to build a picture of what is about to happen.While CNN is waiting for legal clearance and fact-checkers to confirm a "rumor," creators are publishing a 20-minute deep dive on why the mathematical buildup makes war undeniable. The Rise of the "Ex-Mil" CreatorWe aren't listening to journalists who have never held a rifle. We are listening to veterans.Channels like Task & Purpose (when Chris Cappy was a part of it) bring the infantryman's perspective. They understand that "100,000 troops" means nothing without "100,000 MREs" and fuel.Channels like Warographics focus on macro-geography. They show why a piece of land is valuable before the first...

Markets

Geography is Strategy: Why Where You Build Matters More Than What You Build

January 5, 2026

Markets,Personal / January 5, 2026 / By : Barbaros Geography is Strategy: Why Where You Build Matters More Than What You Build We love to talk about the "Idea." But a mediocre seed in fertile soil will always beat a perfect seed in concrete. Inspiration: Watching founders struggle to raise $50k in Europe, while a "Uber for Dog Walking" raised $10M in San Francisco.We are sold a lie: "If you build it, they will come." "Good ideas rise to the top."The reality? Success is not just Idea + Hard Work. It is (Idea + Hard Work) x Environment.If your environment multiplier is zero (bad laws, no capital, small market), your output is zero. The Mathematics of TAM (Total Addressable Market)Let's look at the math. TAM is the size of the pie.Scenario A (Europe/Middle East): You solve a problem for a country of 80 million people. You speak one language. You have average purchasing power. Your ceiling is low. To expand, you need to translate your app into 5 languages, hire lawyers in 4 jurisdictions, and navigate 3 different currencies. The friction is massive.Scenario B (USA): You solve the same problem. You instantly have access to 330 million high-income consumers who...

Artificial Intelligence

Voice is for Chatting. Text is for Thinking.

January 5, 2026

Artificial Intelligence,Technology / January 5, 2026 / By : Barbaros Voice is for Chatting. Text is for Thinking. Everyone wants to talk to "Jarvis." But if you want to actually build something, the keyboard is still the highest-bandwidth interface we have. Inspiration: Realizing that I can’t "speak" a semicolon, and that sometimes, a single comma changes the entire meaning of a thought.The world is obsessing over Voice Mode.We all watched the movie Her. We all want to talk to our computers like they are sitting in the room with us.And for mass adoption, Voice and Video will win. My mom will use Voice Mode. It is effortless. It removes the barrier of typing.But for the rest of us—the builders, the strategists, the thinkers—Text will always be the superior interface.Voice is for chatting. Text is for thinking. The Architecture of Nuance (The Comma Argument)Humans are bad speakers. We ramble. We use "um" and "ah." We don't know how to use intentional silence.Writing is architecture.When you write, you can use (brackets) to add a quiet layer of context without breaking the flow of the sentence. You can use "quotes" to signal sarcasm or specificity. You can use commas and em-dashes to control...

Artificial Intelligence

AI Won’t Give You Purpose. It Will Force You to Find It.

January 4, 2026

Artificial Intelligence,Personal,Technology / January 4, 2026 / By : Barbaros AI Won’t Give You Purpose. It Will Force You to Find It. We are entering the age of "Cognitive Surplus." You can spend it on dopamine, or you can spend it on the questions you were too busy to ask. Inspiration: The "hole within" described in The Anxious Generation, and realizing that for the first time in history, the machine is waiting for us to ask a better question.Jonathan Haidt argues in The Anxious Generation that we moved from a "Play-Based Childhood" to a "Phone-Based Childhood."We lost agency. We filled the void with scrolling.But AI is about to break that loop.By taking over the mundane—scheduling, coding, writing emails, organizing data—AI hands us back our most valuable asset: Time.This creates a vacuum. And vacuums are terrifying.If you don't have a purpose, that extra time is a curse. You will fill it with more entertainment (the WALL-E future). But for the curious, it is the ultimate unlock. The "Better Question" IncentiveLook at how Google has changed.The Old Google: We searched for keywords. "Best running shoes." We were robots querying a database. The New Google (AI Mode): The interface incentivizes dialogue.Query: "I feel...

Meta’s $100B Opportunity: Why It Must Kill Salesforce

January 3, 2026

Meta,Technology / January 3, 2026 / By : Barbaros Meta’s $100B Opportunity: Why It Must Kill Salesforce They own the conversation. Now they need to own the transaction. WhatsApp isn't just a chat app; it's the operating system of global business. Inspiration: Watching a $50k deal close entirely on WhatsApp, then imagining the sales rep manually type the data into Salesforce like it's 1999.Meta owns the two most valuable parts of the business funnel:Discovery: Instagram/Facebook Ads (finding the customer).Connection: WhatsApp/Messenger (talking to the customer).But they hand off the most lucrative part—the Relationship Management—to Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zendesk.Meta is tired of being the "Lead Gen" for Salesforce. They are building the infrastructure to be the Salesforce. WhatsApp: The "System of Action"Salesforce is a "System of Record." It is a passive database. You have to manually update it. It is friction.WhatsApp is a "System of Action."In markets like Brazil, India, and Southeast Asia, business happens on WhatsApp. It’s not just for chatting; it’s for payments, catalogs, and support.If Meta builds a native CRM layer on top of WhatsApp Business, they instantly have the world's largest B2B network. No implementation, no training. Everyone already knows how to use it. Business AI: The Trojan...

Defence

The Death of Shadows: How Palantir, Anduril, and BlackSky Killed the Element of Surprise

January 3, 2026

Defence,Technology / January 3, 2026 / By : Barbaros The Death of Shadows: How Palantir, Anduril, and BlackSky Killed the Element of Surprise We are building a "Kill Web" that compresses the decision loop from days to seconds. You can’t fight an enemy that sees everything, knows everything, and never sleeps. Inspiration: Realizing that Palantir didn't just invest in BlackSky for returns; they invested to build the backend of a global Panopticon.Traditional defense contractors (Lockheed, Raytheon) build big, slow hardware. They sell tanks and planes.The new guard builds software-defined warfare.We are witnessing the birth of a "Planetary Immune System." A network so tight and fast that it renders the traditional advantage of terrorists—hiding in the shadows—obsolete. The New Defense TrinityTo understand the machine, you have to understand the parts.1. BlackSky (The Eyes): Most people know Planet Labs. They scan the earth once a day like a document scanner. It’s a map. BlackSky provides dynamic monitoring. They have high-frequency revisit rates. They don't just show you a map; they show you movement. They tell you a convoy moved at 10:00 AM, stopped at 10:45 AM, and offloaded cargo at 11:30 AM.2. Anduril (The Hands): They build the autonomous hardware. From Ghost...

Leadership

Idols Series: Jim Rohn (The Mentor I Didn’t Know I Knew)

December 16, 2025

Leadership,Personal / December 16, 2025 / By : Barbaros Idols Series: Jim Rohn (The Mentor I Didn’t Know I Knew) I’ve read hundreds of self-help books. It turns out, I was just reading footnotes to Jim Rohn. I care about personal growth. A lot.If you saw my Audible library or my bookshelf, you’d see the usual suspects: Atomic Habits, The 5 AM Club, Deep Work. I have spent hundreds of hours listening to the modern titans of self-help.But recently, I stumbled upon the source code.I found Jim Rohn. And I realized that for the last five years, I haven't been learning new things. I’ve just been learning echoes of what Jim Rohn said 40 years ago. Who is Jim Rohn?He wasn't a tech CEO or a Navy SEAL. He was a simple guy from Idaho who became a millionaire by age 31 and spent the rest of his life teaching others how to do it. He was the mentor to Tony Robbins.He didn't scream. He didn't hype. He just told the truth, usually in a suit, with a voice that sounded like your grandfather giving you the most important advice of your life. The Frameworks (The Source Code)Rohn didn't give...

Markets

Prediction Markets: Insider Traders Providing More Transparency

December 15, 2025

Markets / December 15, 2025 / By : Barbaros Prediction Markets: Insider Traders Providing More Transparency The "news" is slow. The betting markets are instant. And the reason they are so accurate is the one thing we aren't supposed to talk about: Insider Trading. Inspiration: Coffeezilla’s breakdown of how prediction markets are basically unregulated casinos, and watching the GPT-5.2 release date leak on Polymarket before the press release.We have a weird relationship with Insider Trading.In the stock market, it’s a crime. If a CEO tells his brother to buy stock before a merger, they go to jail (in theory).But in Prediction Markets, it’s a feature. The GPT-5.2 Leak (The Proof)Look at what just happened with OpenAI. The rumors of GPT-5.2 were swirling. The tech press was guessing "late December."But if you looked at Polymarket or Kalshi, the money was telling a different story. The odds for a December 9th release spiked days before any official confirmation.Why? Because someone knew. And unlike the stock market, where trading on that knowledge is illegal, betting on it in a prediction market is... grey.The market didn't just predict the news; it leaked the news. Bypassing the NDAThis is the dirty secret of the prediction...

Apple

Meta Made Wearables Socially Acceptable. Who Wins the Industry?

December 15, 2025

Apple,Artificial Intelligence,Google,Meta,Technology / December 15, 2025 / By : Barbaros Meta Made Wearables Socially Acceptable. Who Wins the Industry? Google failed because they built a computer for your face. Meta succeeded because they built sunglasses that happen to have AI. Inspiration: Seeing a cool person wearing Ray-Bans and realizing they were recording me, and realizing I didn't hate it.Remember Google Glass?It was a technological marvel and a social disaster. It failed because it looked like tech. It screamed, "I am recording you." It created the term "Glasshole." The world wasn't ready for a camera on your face.The lesson? You cannot brute-force social norms with specs. You have to seduce them with style. The Ray-Ban Trojan HorseMeta didn't try to build "Meta Glasses." They partnered with EssilorLuxottica (Ray-Ban).They took the Wayfarer—the most iconic, socially acceptable frame in history—and hid a computer inside it.It broke the stigma. People wear them because they look cool, not just because they are smart. It’s the "Trojan Horse" of hardware: fashion on the outside, AI on the inside. The Social Loop (Why Meta Won the Culture War)Google Glass was for "information" (notifications). Ray-Ban Meta is for "connection" (Instagram Stories).It is the ultimate POV capture device. Hands-free...

Artificial Intelligence

To Win Consumer AI, Meta Should Focus on Language

December 15, 2025

Artificial Intelligence,Meta / December 15, 2025 / By : Barbaros To Win Consumer AI, Meta Should Focus on Language Google organizes the world's information. Meta connects the world's people. In the AI era, the killer app isn't a chatbot; it's a universal translator. Inspiration: Trying to use Google Translate in Southeast Asia and realizing that while it knows the words, it doesn't know the context.Most AI companies (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) are obsessed with English benchmarks. They are fighting for the US enterprise market.But the next billion users aren't in San Francisco. They are in Jakarta, Lagos, and Mumbai.My recent trip to Southeast Asia proved this. Google Translate is "functional," but it’s awkward. It feels like a robot reading a dictionary. It misses the slang, the tone, and the speed of real conversation. It adds friction, not connection. Meta's Unfair Advantage: The World's Conversation DataEveryone scrapes the web (Wikipedia, Reddit). But only Meta has WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram DMs.They have the largest dataset of informal, human, multi-lingual conversation in history. They know how people actually talk to each other, not just how they write formal documents.Meta has already quietly built the best translation models in the world (NLLB - No Language...

Markets

Cryptocurrencies (Stablecoins): The Promise of Decentralization, Only to Boost More Control

December 10, 2025

Markets / December 10, 2025 / By : Barbaros Cryptocurrencies (Stablecoins): The Promise of Decentralization, Only to Boost More Control Cypherpunks wanted to kill the Fed. Instead, they built the infrastructure for the ultimate surveillance state. Inspiration: Realizing that "freedom money" (Tether) is actually the most trackable asset in human history.Ten years ago, crypto was a rebellion.It was run by cypherpunks and libertarians. The goal was simple: Separate money from the state. Create a financial system that no government could censor, track, or control.That dream is dead.The technology that was promised to liberate us is now being architected to monitor us. The Sentiment Shift: From Bitcoin to "Digital Dollars"The market has spoken. People don't want volatile "freedom money" (Bitcoin) for daily transactions. They want Stablecoins (USDT, USDC).They want the stability of the US Dollar with the speed of the internet.But here is the catch: Stablecoins are not decentralized. Tether and Circle (USDC) are centralized entities. They can—and do—freeze wallets at the request of the US government.We didn't destroy the banking system. We just upgraded it to be faster, cheaper, and more transparent to the authorities. The Government's Dream: Total VisibilityGovernments used to fear crypto. Now, they love it. Why? Because...

Markets

Best (Anecdotal) Investments I Had? Following the Money

December 9, 2025

Markets / December 9, 2025 / By : Barbaros Best (Anecdotal) Investments I Had? Following the Money I used to read balance sheets. Now, I read the guest lists of private dinners. Inspiration: A throwaway line on the Prof G Podcast about "following the capital, not the earnings," and realizing that valuations are just feelings with math. Disclaimer: None of this is financial advice. I am a marketer, not a wealth manager. Do your own research. I started investing during the COVID era. Like everyone else, I got sucked in by the GameStop saga. I saw lines going up, and I wanted in. But I’m a nerd. I didn't want to just gamble; I wanted to understand why. So, I went deep. I read every book I could find. My favorite was Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor. I became obsessed with valuations, P/E ratios, and "margin of safety." I tried to be a "Value Investor." I avoided crypto because I couldn't value it. I tried to find undervalued companies. And I got burned. I put a little money into Cathie Wood’s ARK funds early on. I thought I was investing in "innovation." I learned the hard way that "innovation" without...

Gaming

The Game That Guessed the Drone War: Command & Conquer: Generals

December 8, 2025

Gaming / December 8, 2025 / By : Barbaros The Game That Guessed the Drone War: Command & Conquer: Generals In 2003, we thought it was just a game. In 2025, it looks like a documentary. Inspiration: Watching a news clip about drone swarms and realizing I played this exact scenario 20 years ago as the USA faction.Command & Conquer: Generals was released in 2003.Unlike its predecessors (Red Alert, Tiberian Sun), which were sci-fi or campy, Generals was gritty. It felt like CNN.It was so close to reality (Global Liberation Army vs. Superpowers) that it was banned in China and heavily censored in Germany. It wasn't predicting lasers; it was predicting insurgency. The "USA" Faction: The Prophet of DronesThe USA faction wasn't just about tanks. It was about unmanned superiority.You could build a "Spy Drone" for map vision.You could upgrade tanks with "Targeting Drones" to increase range.You could deploy "Hunter-Killer Drones" for perimeter defense.This is exactly how the US military evolved. We moved from "boots on the ground" to "eyes in the sky." The game predicted that the ultimate luxury in war isn't firepower; it's information and safety.Losing a drone costs money. Losing a pilot costs political capital. The Asymmetric...

Leadership

Nuclear War: The Risk That Is Ignored

December 8, 2025

Leadership,Markets / December 8, 2025 / By : Barbaros Nuclear War: The Risk That Is Ignored We talk about climate change, AI safety, and pandemics. But we ignore the only risk that can end civilization in 30 minutes. Inspiration: Reading H.R. McMaster’s At War with Ourselves and realizing that "Strategic Ambiguity" is just a fancy word for gambling.We have a blind spot.We obsess over climate change (a slow-motion disaster). We panic about AI safety (a theoretical disaster). We prepare for pandemics (a biological disaster).But we completely ignore the only risk that can end human civilization in 30 minutes. The "MAD" Doctrine (A Recap)For decades, we relied on Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The logic was simple: If you shoot, I shoot, and we both die. Therefore, no one shoots.But MAD assumes rationality. It assumes a bipolar world (US vs. USSR).We don't live in that world anymore. We live in a multipolar world. US, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, India, Pakistan.The game theory of 2 players is stable. The game theory of 7 players is chaos.We think nuclear weapons were a "one-time" event in 1945. We forget the close calls: the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1983 Petrov incident. We survived by luck,...

Leadership

Dan Wang & Alice Han: Finally, Some Reliable Experts on China

December 8, 2025

Leadership,Markets / December 8, 2025 / By : Barbaros Dan Wang & Alice Han: Finally, Some Reliable Experts on China In a world of geopolitical noise, these two voices cut through the propaganda with something rare: actual insight. Inspiration: Realizing that 99% of "China Analysis" I read is either Washington hawks selling fear or Beijing bureaucrats selling fantasy.Trying to understand China today is like trying to watch a movie through a kaleidoscope.The US Angle: It’s all "National Security," "Spy Balloons," and "Collapse." The narrative is often driven by defense contractors pitching fear to secure budgets.The China Angle: It’s "Common Prosperity" and GDP targets that never seem to miss. The data is smoothed, the struggles are hidden, and the narrative is heavily curated by the state.We are missing the middle ground—the practical, on-the-ground reality of business, technology, and people.That is where Dan Wang and Alice Han come in. Dan Wang: The Philosopher of ManufacturingDan Wang isn't a "Hawk" or a "Panda Hugger." He is an observer of process.A technology analyst (formerly with Gavekal Dragonomics) who actually lived in China during the zero-COVID years, he offers a perspective you can't get from a think tank in DC.His analysis of China's "Process Knowledge"...

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Could Save OpenAI (But They Won’t)

December 8, 2025

Artificial Intelligence,Markets,Microsoft,OpenAI / December 8, 2025 / By : Barbaros Microsoft Could Save OpenAI (But They Won’t) It looks like a partnership. It acts like a dependency. In reality, it is a slow-motion acquisition. Inspiration: Satya Nadella's calm demeanor during the OpenAI coup, and the old Microsoft playbook: "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish."November 2023. The Board fires Sam Altman. Chaos ensues.Satya Nadella didn't panic. He didn't issue a press release condemning the board. He simply offered to hire everyone.In that moment, the curtain fell. The world realized OpenAI wasn't an independent company. It was a vassal state of Microsoft.Without Azure credits, OpenAI effectively ceases to exist in weeks. Sam came back, but the power dynamic shifted forever. Microsoft isn't just an investor; they are the landlord, and OpenAI is behind on rent. The "Gemini 3" Code RedGoogle just dropped Gemini 3. It’s faster, cheaper, and native.Reports indicate a "Code Red" at OpenAI. Their moat—being the smartest model in the room—is gone.But look at the integration gap.Google: Gemini is seamlessly integrated into Workspace. It feels like one product. You open Docs, and the agent is there.Microsoft: OpenAI is not seamlessly integrated into Office. Microsoft built Copilot—a separate brand, wrapping OpenAI's models but keeping...

Leadership

Vietnam: The Upcoming Star of the Next Century

December 8, 2025

Leadership,Markets,Personal / December 8, 2025 / By : Barbaros Vietnam: The Upcoming Star of the Next Century While its neighbors are fighting stagnation, tourism traps, or demographic collapse, Vietnam is quietly becoming the factory—and the code—of the future. Inspiration: My recent trip to Vietnam, seeing young developers coding in cafes while Thai streets were packed with tourists.Walking through Ho Chi Minh City feels different than Bangkok.In Thailand, the energy is directed at service: massage parlors, hotels, street food. It’s a "hospitality" economy.In Vietnam, the energy is directed at production. You see young people studying code, engineering blueprints on tables, and a hustle culture that feels like Silicon Valley in 1999.Thailand is stuck in the "Tourism Trap." They are fighting a "Tourism War" (aiming for 40M visitors) while their industrial base stagnates.Vietnam is playing a different game: they are building the "China Plus One" supply chain. The Cultural Superpower: Pragmatism (The "Nguyen" Factor)Let’s talk about Japan for a second. Japan is a "Museum Economy."99% of businesses are SMEs, and they are dying because of a "Succession Crisis." Owners would rather close a profitable business than sell it to an "outsider" or tarnish the family lineage. It is Honor over Profit.Now, look...

Apple

The Future of iPhones Depends on Google

December 7, 2025

Apple,Artificial Intelligence,Google,Technology / December 7, 2025 / By : Barbaros The Future of iPhones Depends on Google Apple Intelligence is good at privacy, but bad at thinking. To save the iPhone upgrade cycle, Apple just outsourced its brain to Google. Inspiration: Realizing that "Siri" is still dumb after 14 years, and my iPhone 13 Pro feels exactly the same as the iPhone 16.Apple sells "Privacy." That is their moat. "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone."But privacy is expensive for AI.To build a world-class model (like GPT-4 or Gemini 3), you need mass surveillance data. You need to crawl the open web, read billions of emails, and track user behavior at scale.Apple can't do that. Their brand promise prevents them from training the best models. As a result, native Apple Intelligence is objectively inferior to the competition. It’s great at summarizing notifications, but terrible at reasoning. The Business Win-Win (The "Frenemies" Model)Google's Win: They keep the $20 billion/year "Default Search" revenue. They get instant distribution to 2 billion active Apple devices. And crucially, they get a new revenue stream: Upselling Gemini Advanced on iOS.Apple's Win: They solve their AI incompetence overnight without breaking their privacy promise. "We handle...

Markets

Affinity: Final Nail on the Adobe Coffin

December 7, 2025

Markets,Technology / December 7, 2025 / By : Barbaros Affinity: Final Nail on the Adobe Coffin Canva just made professional design free. Adobe is buying SEO tools to survive. The king is dead. Inspiration: The growth of Figma in the recent years. How easy it was to transition from Photoshop to Affinity. The acquisition of SEMRush.For decades, Adobe wasn't just a software company. It was a tax.If you were a creative, you paid the "Creative Cloud" rent. You didn't own your tools; you leased them. And if you stopped paying, you lost your ability to work.That era ended this month. The "Free" BombshellWe knew Canva acquired Affinity (Serif) to challenge Adobe. We thought they would bundle it.We were wrong. They did something much more dangerous. They released it to the public for free.Let that sink in. The only legitimate competitor to Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign—a suite that professionals actually respect—is now $0.Canva just demonetized Adobe's core product. They are playing a different game. Canva makes money on the "ecosystem" (enterprise seats, stock assets, print-on-demand). They don't need to charge you for the pencil. The AI Disruption (Why "Tools" Matter Less)Why would Canva do this? Because AI has already commoditized the...

Artificial Intelligence

Understanding (and Perhaps Fixing) Climate Change with AI: Google WeatherNext 2

December 7, 2025

Artificial Intelligence,Google,Technology / December 7, 2025 / By : Barbaros Understanding (and Perhaps Fixing) Climate Change with AI: Google WeatherNext 2 We finally have a tool that can simulate the planet faster than the planet can change. This isn't just a weather forecast; it's a survival engine. Inspiration: Watching the Google WeatherNext 2 announcement and realizing it was tagged "Climate Change" for a reason.We usually talk about the weather when we have nothing else to say. "Nice day, isn't it?"Google just dropped WeatherNext 2. And while they marketed it as a better forecast, the implications are much, much bigger.Under the hood, this is a planetary simulator.Traditional models (Numerical Weather Prediction) solve complex physics equations on massive supercomputers. It takes hours.WeatherNext 2 uses AI to predict patterns based on historical data. It generates a 10-day forecast in one minute.Crucially, it doesn't just predict one outcome; it predicts thousands of probabilities instantly. Why I Am Excited (The Use Case for Survival)The announcement video was ironically tagged "Climate Change" on YouTube. That wasn't an accident.You can't fix what you can't model.If we can simulate the atmosphere instantly, we can run millions of "What If" scenarios.What if we plant a trillion trees here?What if...

Artificial Intelligence

Ad Personalization Will Improve: Born In The Internet Era

December 3, 2025

Artificial Intelligence,Google,Meta,Performance Marketing,Social Media Marketing,Technology / December 3, 2025 / By : Barbaros Ad Personalization Will Improve: Born In The Internet Era The cookie is dead. Long live the conversation. Why the next generation of ads won't just know what you clicked—they'll know who you are. Inspiration: Realizing that AI assistant knows more about your son's development milestones than his pediatrician does.For the last 20 years, ad personalization has been a cat-and-mouse game.First, we had Cookies. We tracked clicks. It was clumsy. You bought a toaster, and we showed you toaster ads for a month.Then, we had Social. We tracked behavior. Facebook knew you liked "hiking" because you joined a hiking group. Better, but still inferred.We are now entering Era 3 (The AI Native).We aren't inferring data anymore. We are being told data. The next generation isn't just leaving a digital footprint; they are having a continuous, lifelong conversation with an intelligence layer. Born in the LLM Era (The "Truman Show" Effect)Gen Alpha is the first generation to be "indexed" by AI from birth.Before the kid can even speak, the parents are feeding the model. "My 2-year-old isn't sleeping, what should I do?" "Generate a birthday invite for a dinosaur...

Markets

Throwing Money at a Problem vs. Innovating: Why Saudi Arabia Refuses to Follow the U.S. Model

December 3, 2025

Markets,Technology / December 3, 2025 / By : Barbaros Throwing Money at a Problem vs. Innovating: Why Saudi Arabia Refuses to Follow the U.S. Model You can buy Nvidia H100s, but you can't buy a culture of innovation. The "Giga-Projects" are beautiful, expensive distractions from the real work. Inspiration: The news that NEOM is being scaled back (after burning billions) and the realization that "Humain" is a venture capital firm disguised as an AI lab.There is a fundamental misunderstanding in Riyadh: they believe innovation is a product you can buy off the shelf.But innovation is a process, not a purchase.Look at NEOM. The pitch was a sci-fi dream: a 170km linear city with no cars, powered by flying taxis and green hydrogen.The reality? Recent reports indicate The Line has been scaled back from 170km to... 2.4km.The lesson is brutal but necessary: You can throw $500 billion at the desert, but you can't terraform reality without the underlying engineering talent and economic necessity to support it. It’s a "glamour project," not a functional economy. The "Humain" Illusion (CapEx vs. Product)Look at Humain, the Kingdom's flagship AI initiative. They are positioned as a leading AI lab.But what have they shipped?They announce investments....

Gaming

Steam Machine: Windows is in Trouble

November 30, 2025

Gaming,Technology / November 30, 2025 / By : Barbaros Steam Machine: Windows is in Trouble The OS war isn't over; it just changed battlefields. Valve is doing what Microsoft refused to do: building a console that is actually a PC. Inspiration: The realization that my "gaming PC" is just a glorified console that forces me to deal with Windows updates.We thought it was a 2026 rumor. We were wrong. Valve just quietly updated their store.The Steam Machine is real, and it's not just another "Steam Link."The copy literally says, "Hide it under a banana." It’s a ~6-inch cube. It’s tiny. But the specs are a bomb:"Six times the horsepower of Steam Deck."Discrete AMD Desktop Class GPU.4K 60FPS.This isn't a competitor to the Switch; it's a competitor to the RTX 4070 desktop. The "Just Works" OS (SteamOS's Victory)The biggest barrier to PC gaming was always Windows. Drivers, updates, launchers, "DLL missing" errors.With the new "Steam Machine Verified" program, Valve is bringing the console promise (it just works) to the PC library. It boots straight into Big Picture mode. No "Activating Windows." No "McAfee trials." Just games. Why Windows is in Immediate TroubleFor the last 20 years, if you wanted high-end gaming,...

Markets

Prediction Markets: Retail Investors Will Switch to Gambling

November 30, 2025

Markets,Technology / November 30, 2025 / By : Barbaros Prediction Markets: Retail Investors Will Switch to Gambling The stock market is boring. The new casino is pricing "Truth," and it's about to eat the world. Inspiration: Watching the Polymarket chart during the election and realizing it was more accurate (and addictive) than CNN.While everyone was busy watching Nvidia stock charts, a quiet revolution happened in the corner of the internet.Polymarket, a niche crypto betting platform, exploded to process $3.5 billion in volume in November 2024 alone.Kalshi, the regulated US player, raised $300M and is integrating directly into brokerage apps.Robinhood just launched election betting.The dam has broken. This isn't "investing." It's the financialization of everything. You can now bet on interest rates, Taylor Swift's engagement, the Oscars, and the weather. The "Wisdom of the Gambler"We are taught to trust "experts." But prediction markets are proving that money talks louder than pundits.Look at the 2024 election. Polymarket odds consistently predicted state-level outcomes faster and more accurately than traditional polling, which lagged by days. When Joe Biden dropped out, the markets priced it in weeks before the official announcement.Why? Because participants have "skin in the game." An expert can be wrong on TV...

Artificial Intelligence

AI Will Change Recruiting (But Not How You Think)

November 30, 2025

Artificial Intelligence,Markets,Technology / November 30, 2025 / By : Barbaros AI Will Change Recruiting (But Not How You Think) The resume is dead. The future of hiring is your AI agent talking to their AI agent while you sleep. Inspiration: Seeing brilliant friends stuck in mediocre jobs simply because they are bad at "self-marketing," and realizing that the best candidates are rarely the ones actively applying.The current recruiting system is broken. It is a low-fidelity signal problem.Recruiters use primitive filters: "Must have 5 years of Python." "Must live in Toronto." Candidates use primitive signals: A static PDF resume that lists titles, not truth.The result? Massive friction.It relies on active seeking. You have to be "looking" to be found. The best talent is often "passive"—happily employed, busy, or just bad at writing resumes. They are invisible to the current system.Buckle up, because you are about to read how one of the most Human fields (resources) is about to get disrupted with AI. The New Paradigm: The "Open for Business" ToggleImagine a simple toggle in your Personal AI settings: Allow recruiters to query my anonymized profile.This isn't a job board. It's an API.Your AI doesn't just send your LinkedIn PDF. It builds a...

Artificial Intelligence

Using AI for Personal Growth: Let It Get to Know You

November 30, 2025

Artificial Intelligence,Personal,Technology / November 30, 2025 / By : Barbaros Using AI for Personal Growth: Let It Get to Know You Stop treating AI like a search engine. Start treating it like a mirror that remembers everything you forget. Inspiration: The moment I asked my AI to roast my life choices, and it gave better advice than my therapist.For years, my relationship with AI was transactional."Hi, I'm Barbaros." "Hello Barbaros, how can I help?"It was Groundhog Day. Every chat was a blank slate.That changed this year. The "Memory" feature on personal AI assistants (like Gemini and ChatGPT) unlocked a new level of utility. It stopped being a search engine and started being a mirror.So, I did something radical. I didn't just let it learn passively. I fed it.I uploaded my "Earth Ring" daily journals (my Miyamoto Musashi practice). I told it about my specific health goals (cognitive sharpness, stress management). I explained my business constraints (scalable, minimal domestic exposure). I essentially uploaded a "User Manual for Barbaros." The "Blind Spot" ExperimentThen, I asked a simple, terrifying question:"You know quite a bit about me already. What do you think are some things I could be wrong on? Perhaps views I can question?...

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Flywheel Digital Inc.

Paid Growth Strategist

2025 - PRESENT

Timebomb Trading Inc.

Performance Marketing Manager

2021 - PRESENT

Quandatum

Advisor (Marketing, Product, Fundraising)

2023 - PRESENT​

The Status Bureau (Agency)

Performance Marketing Manager

2023 - 2024

Mayker Capital

Advisor (Marketing)

2022 - 2024

Omnifilm Entertainment

Digital Marketing Strategist

2022 - 2023

Blink. Digital Creative (Agency)

Digital Marketing Manager

2020- 2021

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2019 - 2020

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JULY 24, 2024
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JULY 25, 2022
Director of Distribution at Omnifilm

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