Jasper Kuria’s Post

Wow, woke up to 25,000 followers here on LinkedIn! Wow, I am humbled! As I've been here for a little while, and since I have gained quite a following these past few months, I thought I'd re-introduce myself here… 🎮 Who am I? → I'm Director of Live Operations at the amazing People Can Fly Studio → My day-to-day involves all aspects of LiveOps, working on some truly amazing projects right now. → Outside of work I am a proud dad of a 3 1/2 year old whirlwind → Fun fact: I love making pizza! I have 4 different pizza base recipes which I've tried to perfect over the years! 🎮 Things you might not know about me: 1. I am from Germany, but have been living in the UK since 2001. 2. I originally studied Graphic Design, but Data and Live Operations is what truly excited me and got me into software development. 3. I love Basketball, though I am not great at it personally 4. I once managed to achieve both the slowest AND the fastest lap in one go-karting race! 🎮 Things I like to talk about: → Supporting the games industry → Game Data and latest news → Job opportunities, advice and tips → Portable gaming (I own a SteamDeck a PS Portal and a few Switches) I am actually off on holiday this week, my first proper holiday in a VERY long time! What else would you like to know? (big thanks to my friend Harry Phokou for the template)

Filling forms is a way to boring process but sometimes when the recruiting team decides to be creative, this loathsome process 🤦🏻 turns out into an interesting experience. 🤩 Today while applying for a #job at The Experience Co. through #googleforms there was a Very Interesting Question. It was “What are your Superpowers?” and this instantly kicked in my alter-ego of comic nerd and creative writter. I even came up with an answer that seemed fair enough according to me 😂. It was : “I can think and execute counter-measures and contingency plans for any unforeseen circumstances as well as think of things that can strengthen my influence and reach on masses. I am flexible to function at day or night and I am good at multitasking in silence and shadows. A skilled Operations Manager looking for an opportunity to dawn on his cape again and help a league of driven superheroes like you to reach out and serve and help the masses. Basically, I am Batman 🦇” That being said, there were many more such interesting questions that turned this feeling of “gosh, a form, again, uugghh 😫” into “damn they are good at what they are doing, this is interesting”. There’s something we all can learn from this. Our intial impression tells a lot about us and our place. The more interesting and fascinating we can make it, we can attract and retain more like-mided people around us. 🌟 Kudos to the team for the suppeerr interesting and good work they are doing. 🙏🏻🤩

This took me a bit to write, so bear with me while I sort through feelings on where media is at right now. I've watched two tech websites I've written for announce they were shutting down in the past couple months. First was Reviewed, part of the USA TODAY Network, which gave me my first job out of college. It wasn't a great experience for me overall due to a number of factors on the Gannett side and just weirdness in the job itself, but it was eye-opening as my first leap into tech publishing. They had a great message about the importance of accurate testing through to the end, and I still think about it when I see publications that have writers that clearly haven't been hands-on with the products they're recommending; an unfortunate system of the crunch Google and SEO competition has forced upon almost everybody. Then iMore announced last night that it will be ceasing publication. I was an editor for Mobile Nations before it was bought my Future, and so while I wasn't an iMore staffer, I was deeply acquainted with the team, its work, and its vast expertise on Apple. I learned a lot from them and wrote some fun articles while I wasn't checking each of their posts for stray commas. https://lnkd.in/eabrsB2F I have a personal attachment to both websites, so I'm coming at this from a biased perspective, but I think most people in media and publishing can see the sadness of shutting down veteran technology websites for undefined reasons. This also happened to Aandtech and TouchArcade over the past couple of months, and that's not taking into account layoffs at Gamurs Network and I'm sure others I'm forgetting from just this summer/fall alone. I was laid off from Future two years ago now, and it was immediately followed by dozens — maybe hundreds, I didn't count — of games journalism and general media layoffs. This was then followed by mass tech and video game layoffs, and it hasn't stopped. Being in this industry means you're constantly have to fight others for scraps, but it also means horrible things for mental health, your sense of security, and the comfort knowing that the information that people need to know that sites like these conveyed is still out there. It's bad for readers and bad for journalists all around. I have to wonder what the future of tech journalism looks like. It's been fundamentally broken for a number of years (the reliance of affiliate marketing isn't sustainable, articles aren't properly skeptical, we've been chasing SEO, etc), but shutting down the sites that did things right or laying off people to continue falling back on bad habits shouldn't be the way to go. Not sure what the point of all of this is but to note that these layoffs and shutdowns affect real people. They're not just numbers of a spreadsheet, and they're not things to be toyed with. Also I'm still looking for work byeee 👋

I am getting an influx of new followers from recent posts so I thought it was worth reemphasizing this. What I write isn't for everyone, and that's ok. I believe that just because you earn a lot of money doesn’t mean you know what to do with it. A high income doesn’t mean you don’t still have financial problems or questions. This is why I started https://lnkd.in/gxZzD9p3. It is hyper-focused on high earners in tech and the unique problems we face. You definitely don't need to be in FAANG, but those in tech will resonate the most with what I write. There are a tremendous number of financial education resources in the world for earners at all levels. I am not writing for everyone. I am writing about what I know and what I have personally lived through. My posts will frequently feature examples using families with household incomes in excess of $500k, sometimes rather flippantly. This does not mean I do not understand the incredible fortune we have. It doesn’t mean I am blind to the extreme wealth disparity that exists (even across roles within tech). But I am going to continue writing the content I wish I had. The content that I am personally interested in. The topics that I want to cover. If you are unhappy with that, you are more than welcome to follow the thousands of other writers on the topic. I am even happy to point you in the direction of a few if you let me know what you are looking for. I am not writing for everyone. And that’s perfectly fine.

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Software companies are good at using open-source code, but less at releasing their code under open-source license. Why is Meta releasing its LLM as open-source after investing billions in it? How do investors react to this decision? Here are a few quotes from a good article (link in comment 👇 ) with my takeaway: 👉 "it’s giving Llama away for free to thousands of companies, including giants like Goldman Sachs, AT&T, and Accenture" => it sounds counter intuitive to give away some valuable software, yet software vendors use a lot of open-source code   👉 "Some investors are struggling to understand where and when, exactly, Meta’s revenue would start to justify the eye-watering spend" => is every spend leading to a direct return, or is there spend that becomes a strategic investment?   👉 "Facebook, and now Meta, have so often seen their services and products constrained by rules imposed by Apple and Google—the rival giants whose app stores are Meta’s primary points of distribution in the mobile device era" => what is a digital company ready to invest to have a better access to distribution, in this case the LLM becomes the new search platform?   👉 "We must ensure that we always have access to the best technology, and that we’re not locking into a competitor’s closed ecosystem where they can restrict what we build." => closed ecosystems drive value for the owner of the ecosystem, while competitors don't want to be locked in   👉 "With Llama, Meta and Zuckerberg have the chance to set a new industry standard. “I think we’re going to look back at Llama 3.1 as an inflection point in the industry, where open-source AI started to become the industry standard, just like Linux is” => the reference for open-source is Linux, will Llama become the next one and reassure investors? #opensourcesoftware #digitaltransformation #LLM

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Google Ads wasn't my planned destination. I started learning Google Ads while studying to become a developer. Back in 2016, development seemed perfect: - High salaries - Job security - Global opportunities The IT market was thriving, with companies offering incredible benefits. Yet I missed one critical factor: I found no joy in coding. My first attempt at Google Ads failed completely: - No portfolio - Zero clients - No revenue I almost gave up and returned to development. But something drew me back for a second try—and everything changed. Looking at today's market: - Rising demand for marketers - IT salaries dropping - Mass layoffs in tech Sometimes the "risky" choice becomes the smartest decision you'll ever make. I didn't just find a career—I found my calling. And that's worth more than any "safe" option could ever offer.

How do we manage the challenge of content platforms? If "checkers" is not the solution will the community be any better? I would suggest not but am not sure there is an easy solution here.