The hottest Scale Substack posts right now

More colleges will close or merge in 2024 due to financial instability.
Online learning will face increased competition based on convenience, access, and price.
Big colleges and universities like Western Governors University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Arizona State University will continue to grow.

Understand how visual elements influence perception to guide user attention on a page or screen
Connect design to natural elements to add symbolic significance and meaning to everyday objects
Design reflects and sometimes challenges social norms and class distinctions, so be mindful of the societal impact

Instacart offers different products like an online grocery marketplace, an enterprise platform, and advertising services.
The US grocery market has significant online growth potential, and Instacart is a major player in capturing that online market share.
Instacart operates as a three-sided marketplace connecting retailers, customers, and shoppers, along with indirect involvement from CPG brands.

Working for a large consulting company like MBB gives you more project options. This means you can explore different types of work and find what you really enjoy.
MBB has a reputation for high quality because of the top talent they hire. This means you'll be working with smart people and on exciting projects, which can lead to unique experiences.
Having MBB on your resume opens doors for future opportunities. Whether you stay in consulting or move on to another career, the experience and connections you gain at MBB will help you succeed.

Baking is a continuous learning process without a fixed endpoint, allowing for ongoing growth and development in the craft.
The evolution in baking has led to the United States excelling in various traditional bread types, while also exploring new creative avenues, like working with ancient grains.
The relationship between bakers and flour has shifted towards more local milling and distribution, creating connections between farmers, bakers, and consumers, while highlighting the challenges faced by small bakeries in dealing with market fluctuations.

Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Marketplaces often require heavy upfront investments but generate healthy cash flow once at scale
The competitive advantage of a marketplace comes from a combination of brand, items, data, and functionality
Symbiotic relationships between the marketplace, producers, and consumers are crucial for success

Keep business systems simple until reaching a large scale like Intercom.
Start with one person handling multiple tasks in the early stages of a business.
Avoid adding new systems until they are essential.

Delegating tasks is essential because time is limited and you can't do everything yourself.
Delegate tasks that are specified, within your control, and align with your expectations.
Delegation is key to scaling a company and achieving growth.

Human timelines should be represented on a log scale to reflect exponential population growth and changing human experiences over time.
Our intuition about historical events can be misleading, and measuring time in person-years can be awkward and imprecise.
Plotting time on a log scale can help visualize history more accurately and prepare us for potential challenges in the future, like understanding time in different relativistic reference frames.