I’ve had the pleasure in my career of sitting in tons of different board rooms talking with executives and getting a rundown on different charts and graphs they care most deeply about. As expected, “number chart go up” is always the desired outcome. Number chart go up is good because it makes other number charts go up, specifically stock ticker number.

Dave Rupert

A personal essay by Dave Rupert reflecting on how businesses obsess over incremental growth metrics and how consumers can use that knowledge to support small, local, or ethical businesses. The piece encourages readers to double their patronage of businesses they value, spread word-of-mouth recommendations, and reduce spending with large tech companies and platforms they find harmful. It also touches on European efforts to promote local tech alternatives to dominant US platforms.

Before I go: Double your business with companies you like