u/narkaputra

I remember how world was in arms when Apple removed headphone jacks and USB ports and now look where we are today. Same applies to streaming of movies and music. I do not need to carry a box full of vhs tapes whenever I travel back home. I can just login into my Netflix account.

The core crux of technology is to move forward and its inefficient to maintain multiple systems of distribution such as printing, packaging, storing, shipping and stocking discs. It is like expecting Governments to support cheap postal networks for letters and postcards in this day and age. There is a reason why Governments all around world are encouraging going digital, even for currency. And that is a strong benefit to customers as now they don't need to stand in queue whole day and can get things done from an app say pay bills, renew license, sign rentals etc.

Now coming back to gaming. I have owned a disc version PS5 for 2 years now played over 60+ AAA titles, but never needed a disc.

The first reason "ownership" and Sony can delete or delist a game any day is simple paranoia. If Sony goes down, a lot of things will and can go down say CDNs, Azure/AWS servers, payments gateways, Banks.. so if you want to be paranoid.. I got some news for you. Though there can be 1-2 games here and there for who publisher license runs out, but they are rare.

The second argument which is the actual reason is of sharing game is counterintuitive. Sony is responsible to its shareholders and why shan't it maximize its revenues or have a trail for all revenue/sales and transactions? If you want to play, games, simple pay the right price or wait for discounts. Or simply get PS Extra.. hundreds of games there. Digital games are way cheaper.

PCs haven't had discs for a decades now. Why same expectations from Consoles? Ok you won't be able to showcase on Instagram your games collection, but they are important to yo and not others.

Thankfully our some of our ancestors didn't have such anti-technology attitude otherwise we will still be commuting in bullock carts.

I remember how world was in arms when Apple removed headphone jacks and USB ports and now look where we are today.
The core crux of technology is to move forward and its inefficient to maintain multiple systems of distribution such as printing, packaging, storing, shipping and stocking discs. It is like expecting Governments to support cheap postal networks for letters and postcards in this day and age. There is a reason why Governments all around world are encouraging going digital, even for currency. And that is a strong benefit to customers as now they don't need to stand in queue whole day and can get things done from an app say pay bills, renew license, sign rentals etc.

Now coming back to gaming. I have owned a disc version PS5 for 2 years now played over 60+ AAA titles, but never needed a disc.

The first reason "ownership" and Sony can delete or delist a game any day is simple paranoia. If Sony goes down, a lot of things will and can go down say CDNs, Azure/AWS servers, payments gateways, Banks.. so if you want to be paranoid.. I got some news for you. Though there can be 1-2 games here and there for who publisher license runs out, but they are rare.

The second argument which is the actual reason is of sharing game is counterintuitive. Sony is responsible to its shareholders and why shan't it maximize its revenues or have a trail for all revenue/sales and transactions? If you want to play, games, simple pay the right price or wait for discounts. Or simply get PS Extra.. hundreds of games there. Digital games are way cheaper.

PCs haven't had discs for a decades now. Why same expectations from Consoles? Ok you won't be able to showcase on Instagram your games collection, but they are important to yo and not others.

Thankfully our some of our ancestors didn't have such anti-technology attitude otherwise we will still be commuting in bullock carts.

Time for Lesson 3:

I have seen enough posts and actually exhausted of correcting people.

NO ACTOR WORKS FOR FREE, even if they are son of producer or are producers themselves.

There is an air here where movies are being declared hits when the budget do not factor lead actor renumeration(who may be producer to going with profit share model). This doesn't mean you don't account for that.

First of all, do not assume they worked for "FREE". Most of the time salaries are exchanged. That is how compliance works otherwise IT department is not that a fool. Founders do pay themselves salaries, same way Producers pay "salaries: to actors even if they are family. Even the family members working in a registered corporation are paid salaries which is documented in expenses, 16A etc for compliance. Studios are registered entities not your local saree shop.

Secondly, when it comes to profit sharing model where actor lets go of their fee, it doesn't mean it was FREE. There is an "opportunity cost". Google it. On the other hand for producers, deferred fee is still a fee. If Akshay takes 72% of profits so it is not "FREE". Profit sharing protects from losses, however the 72% part is eventually subtracted in the books. It does impact recovery. And if WTJ doesn't come to green, then Akshay loses money(Opportunity cost). Somebody does lose.

Third, if actor let go of their salary and or put their own money such as Ranveer Singh for Dhurandhar, it doesn't mean that salary and money is not be considered in overall budget. The salary part is recovered from profits, if any and the infused money as expenses.

So please stop being naive and doing maths basis the lowest number you see sans the actor fee.

PS:
Lesson 1: Theatrical in India is what matters for verdict, not OTT/Music/Digital recovery. Foreign the sharing is terrible. In China it is actually 1/10th types.
Lesson 2: It has to be around 2x+ of reported budget to be considered break even

If you open LinkedIn jobs, from entry level to Director/VP level, 90% of Jobs demands direct experience(to various extent as per role) in either building->deploying "Agentic AI" or owning P&L for such charters.

If I go by the JDs(particularly B2B SaaS), there are no takers for non-AI experience such as product managers working on platform, CRM, ERP plumbing, APIs/Integrations, connectors, data lakes, orchestration, governance, compliance, and products that do not need or use AI directly ie the AI layer sits above them or adjacent to them. The list is long and you folks understand. These are table-stakes products or solution which don't exactly filled with and sound fascinating with the "AI buzzwords."

And No, using AI tools to write PRDs, triage Jiras, generate documentation, respond to support tickets, reply to emails, do market research and competitive analysis, build gtm slides, analyze UX surveys etc is not exactly what recruiters are looking for. Even marketing/HR interns are using Copilot/Claude on day to day basis. It neither counts as a skill nor experience. Pinning all those $4000 Agentic AI training course certificates is of no use when you aren't putting them into practical or commercial use. There is a huge difference in understanding the technicals vs deploying agents across an Airline client workflows creating tangible business impact. Yes one can upskill and learn these tools, frameworks, concepts etc but end of the day if you do not own the SDLC or P&L of such AI native products, your resume is de-ranked to bottom of the stack, or not even picked up.

So are you worried about your employability in this market? Has anyone from Non-AI experience/team has recent experience in switching/finding jobs at higher positions(10+ exp)?

Any Senior/veterans here who have seen such waves, who can share an opinions here on how the PM hiring market will shape up in coming days.

PS: The post may look like FOMO but this is the reality. Product Managers not directly owning AI P&L charters are secondary citizens in every org and even worse in the hiring market.

Caution: This post is not about which faction is right or wrong.

The purpose of Movies is simple:

1. Entertain the audience(or provide them some emotional benefits)
2. Make money for the distributors/producers/stakeholders(pays for salaries, fund next projects, shareholder value etc.)

There are two big movie manufacturing machines in Hollywood with one the most prominent and universally known IPs. You guessed it right, Disney and WB. Disney owns MCU, Star Wars and other huge IPs such as Pixar's while WB owns the DC characters and then some.

Post the 2020 wave, somehow these two decided to "fix the world" or perhaps "make it a better place". Lets again go back to our premise of purpose of movies. Ok now back.

Disney burned it hands where Star Wars is such a flop that the IP is simply buried for now. Maybe Ryan Gosling can save it next year. On the other hand the phases post End game were so bad, the characters and actors so uncharismatic, that they had to delete everything and call in the OGs from retirement. Eternals they changed the characters. The Marvels was a slop. I won't even go those Pixar bombs such as Buzz Lightyear, Elo etc that happened in past five years and now they are back to Toy Story and heavily neutralized any agenda.

WB case is even worse. They had Joker.. a completely unique and appreciated take in a crowded market which they culled and ruined to "own the chuds".. what?? why?? I mean imagine KFC wakes up one day to sell vegan burgers to "own the non vegetarians"... wait they happen to be your core audience.

Now with Supergirl. They spent $175M to create a product for which there is no audience. Women watch Wuthering Heights and Barbie. Men watch it for Gal Gadot & Scarjo. Simple biology. You can't launch Starbucks quick Cappuccino mix in Italy and expect it to make money. Birds of Prey, The Marvels, Ballerina, Madam Webb, now Supergirl. The writing is cler on the wall.

Marvel has course corrected hard. It is is time WB and rest Hollywood studios do to. Leave the art cinema hungry for standing ovations at Cannes to fix the world. Disney/WB shall prioritize taste and liking of the core audience. Simple.

A lot of chatter this world cup around compositions of teams from what is expected with what is reality. The defense says "they were born in the nation"... "or they were naturalized" or "they are attached to roots". or "this is the new world"... Ok fine. We all agree.

But then why don't you have problem with FIFA's allocation of WC spots by region which is the core problem where talent doesn't get opportunity.

The current unfair allocation has to be the most obvious exampled of dreaded r word.

Confederation (Region)	Total Countries (FIFA Members)	Direct Slots (2026)	Regional Success Rate (%)
UEFA (Europe)	55	16	29.09%
CAF (Africa)	54	9	16.67%
AFC(Asia)	45	7	15.56%
CONMEBOL (South America)	10	6	60.00%
CONCACAF (North & Central America)	35	6	17.14%
OFC(Ocenia)	12	2	16.67%
Total / Overall	211	46*	21.80%

For people not good with stats, the above table implies ASIA and AFRICA got the worst deal. If we go by population, it will be far far worse and unfair.

Everyone shall reflect how wrong FIFA is.
Why does LATAM have 6 spots for 10 nations while Asia has same count for 45 nations?

Curacao has 0/26 who are natives. Since 26 Dutch decided to switch flags so that they get to play WorldCup. Now this is unfair to Asian/African countries who have so limited slots. While thanks to above colonial era mindset of FIFA, NA/SA have ample spots that even such teams get free ticket to FIFA. All they need to do is turn up while African/Asian teams need to grind against 50 for 4-6 spots

The actual fair allocation ne below inclusive of host nations:

• Africa: 12 seats for 54 nations
• Asia: 10 seats for 45 nations
• Europe and all those islands colonies: 13 seats for 55 nations
• North America, South America, Aus/NZ/Oceania and everybody else: 13 seats of remaining 57 nations

If one stands against the critics of compositions of squad, one should also stand against the unfair representation. How come the "business reasons" become suddenly more important than representation?

No way you are telling me that a Ecuadorian deserves representation more than a Thai.

India's luck was written with charcoal on a piece of cheap paper you find in discount bins at D-mart.
Literally, every high HDI nation has either or all of these below:

1. Oil/Natural Gas (USA, Norway etc)
2. Iron Ore( USA, China, Western EU)
3. Gold (google the list)
4. Uranium(Australia)
5. Lithium/Heavy Metals(the future Gold)

and not to forget WW2 Gold, and plundered money from colonies. While others have golden goose cashflows machine thanks to Canals, Airport Hubs, Port hubs and even Straits which are perpetual free money. Yes some $$ is spend on infra but that not something ultra amazing.

India has NONE. Some sporadic minerals which cannot be mined. Literally every other high HDI nation is running on these GIFTs from Fate while India has empty mines and low grade coal. The iron ore production is dwarfed against that of our big Neighbor.

Even Mother Nature is not kind. We have extremes of weather. Extreme dry spells followed by floods. Extreme heatwave that melts roads and blows up transformers followed by extreme chill weather which consumes tonnes of energy resources to keep things running. Literally every season is a battle for our already depleting "war" chest. I mean Fate upstairs in their daily scrum meeting plan "Oh Bihar hasn't had flood in past 2 years.. lets rain havoc there and destroy all development". No sir, you forgot its Mumbai's turn this year... Oh Brilliant.. we need more Leaders like you. Room fills with applause. Dude who had Idea about Keralam floods is sulking in background.

For all the corruption and poor sense, we are doing quite fine due to our sheer perseverance and grinding. Be thankful for the "Middle class mentality" which has mass produced white collar workers actually matching our exports(in services $$) to that of Gifted nations(actual free resources). Humans(Indians) can only solve problems to some extent but not all. Ok we can build dams and pipelines to solve for water led problems, but you can't literally change our geographical location and thus climate. Literally a 4 year old In Norway or Belgium needs to do nothing and have a great life while Indian 4 year old now needs to know how to deploy local LLMs. The "Free Money" can actually fund nations while their people sunbathe on weekdays while we Indians need to grind on weekends 90 hours a week to keep the light bulbs running.

From neighbours perspective, India is placed worst surrounded be far weaker and broken economies. Look at Canada, and Mexico how they free rode on USA growth in past 7 decades. Even EU nations can mint millions of Euros by scratching each other backs. While India has to spend billions of $$ on defense & security even when we are never the aggressor, EU nations enjoy free support of NATO where the bill so foot by Uncle Sam. Not to forget all the FREE TOURISM DOLLARS where people from Asia pay $30 to just view shutdown salt mines while same crib about $1 to spend on tickets to spotsIn India. Literally they make money from WW2 travesties.

Don't bring in SGP. Firstly, cities like Bengaluru or Mumbai are itself is 100x more complicated and heterogeneous than pretty much every other nation on planet. India has population & complexity of Europe & Africa combined yet resources of Vanuatu. Secondly, the Law & Order system, half of you won't be able to live and complaint for "freedom". Japan & South Korea can be two exception but on paper they are still more gifted than us, extremely homogeneous: even if you take Japan and Korea together they be like Coke Zero mixed with Coke Light while even a modest Tier 2 city in India is a byproduct syrup of some Frankenstein Cannizzaro reaction. These two too have gained massively due to their past as well.

Lets pat on our backs we have survived and to some extent thrived even after colonial rule and the Leader upstairs against us. We have nothing going for us in next 30 years. Our import bills will keep rising. All we can do is work harder. All the problems are cyclical and there is no way to reach bottom of it to solve unless the whole nation has a reboot or we actually discover some good "FREE STUFF".

Even with new pandemics, or Wars, it is always some countries who 'gain'. But India & Indians always lose. always!. There is no Lottery for us. Look at AI boom or recent Geo Political events.

Yes, I have visited 40 countries and have seen far better infra and sense among people, but every time I double click I can see some free gift from God like Oil or Gold which has helped these economies to sustain all these years.

My point being, let us all be considerate and self-aware about ourselves. We were born with a life at Hard mode and we have done amazing. Kudos to us & Cheers.