Coffee With Tanya #25

Hello hello,

Spring is here! ☀️ The sun is shining, and there's so much going on with new discoveries that I'm having trouble picking just five topics to write about. But, here I come...

Today I'm going to talk about:

1. History - @ Symbol origin 🐌
2. Culture - Adolescence on Netflix 🎥
3. Tech - McDonald's AI revolution 🍔
4. Innovation - Amazon's future press release 🔮
5. Fashion - Fendi celebrates 100 👜
6. Word bites - Gunnen 🔡
7. March in History - ☎️ 🌐 🧪

Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone, and following one after the other like a flock of sheep. Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Of course it will be a little thing, but do not ignore it. Follow it up, explore all around it; one discovery will lead to another, and before you know it you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the results of thought // Alexander Graham Bell

The Humble @ Symbol's Journey to Digital Popularity

A few days ago, I came across a tweet about the @ symbol and instantly felt curious to learn more. Diving into some excellent online sources, I discovered that this simple yet elegant swirl we use so often in emails and social media has a fascinating history!

The @ symbol – called "snail" by Italians and "monkey tail" by the Dutch was once a rarely used typewriter key before becoming a major key in digital communication.

The symbol's origins remain mysterious. Was it medieval monks creating a shortcut for the Latin "ad" (meaning "toward")? French scribes abbreviating "à"? Or perhaps a clever way to write "each at"?

What we do know is its first documented appearance was in 1536 in a merchant's letter indicating wine containers. Love it when a story leads to wine 🍷

For centuries, @ served commerce as shorthand for "at the rate of." But its modern fame came in 1971 when computer scientist Ray Tomlinson needed something to separate usernames from computer names in the world's first email addresses.

Why @ specifically? Tomlinson told it was simply because "I was mostly looking for a symbol that wasn't used much." 🫣 This practical decision likely saved @ from going "the way of the 'cent' sign on computer keyboards."

Today, the symbol is so significant it's even been inducted into MoMA's permanent collection as an example of "elegance, economy, and intellectual transparency."

Isn't it amazing how the most transformative things often come from the most practical decisions?

Netflix's "Adolescence" Sparks National Conversation

I binged Netflix's fasinating drama "Adolescence" in one sitting last weekend, and I'm not alone in my obsession.

This series has sparked conversations everywhere – from Parliament debates to worried parents at school gates. More details here.

Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, it follows 13-year-old Jamie, whose perfect storm of toxic online influences, family dynamics, and school pressures leads him down a troubling path.

This series is impactful because it infuses real conversations about digital boundaries. Even PM Sir Keir Starmer admitted watching it with his teenage children.

Writer Thorne is advocating for what he calls "radical action" beyond just better role models:

• Smartphone bans in schools
• A digital age of consent (similar to Australia's recent under-16 social media ban)

Despite researching these issues extensively for the show, Thorne admits he's "still processing" how to handle his own 8-year-old son's future technology use – a humbling reminder that even experts struggle with finding the right balance.

Have you watched it yet?

Would you support an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s?

Tech - McDonald's Serves Up an AI Makeover

McDonald's is supersizing its tech game! The fast-food giant is rolling out AI-powered innovations across its 43,000 restaurants worldwide 🤯

43,000 restaurants!

CIO Brian Rice says the goal is simple: make life easier for both customers and those hardworking crew members.

What's on the high-tech menu?

• Internet-connected kitchen equipment that predicts when your McFlurry machine might break (finally!) 🛠️
• AI-enabled drive-throughs that take your order with perfect accuracy 🚗
• "Generative AI virtual managers" to handle admin tasks 👩🏻‍💼

This isn't McDonald's first innovation rodeo, though. The company has been a stealth tech pioneer for decades:

• 1967: Introduced the first modern fast-food POS system
• 1975: Launched the first drive-through window in their Arizona location
• 2003: Pioneered restaurant-wide Wi-Fi before it was cool
• 2015: Created mobile ordering when many competitors were still figuring out smartphone apps

The timing couldn't be better for this digital transformation. With fast-food sales falling industry-wide and McDonald's aiming to grow loyalty members from 175 million to 250 million by 2027, they're betting big that better tech equals better experiences.

My favorite detail? McDonald's plans to use customer data plus weather information to send personalized offers – like a McFlurry discount on a hot summer day.

That's ladies and gentlemen is smart marketing!

Would you trust an AI to take your fast-food order? ✨

​Amazon's "Future Press Release": Begin With the End in Mind

As someone who's constantly buying from Amazon (my packages just keep arriving 🫣), I'm always fascinated by how they keep rolling out new features and capabilities that somehow anticipate exactly what I need.

I recently discovered one of their most powerful innovation secrets while reading this piece, and it's pretty simple: they write the press release before building the product! 🤯

This technique, championed by Jeff Bezos, is called the "Future Press Release backwards." Teams imagine they're already in the future announcing their successful product - essentially working backwards from success.

The magic comes from four simple rules:

1. Write from a future date when success has already happened
2. Focus on customer benefits, not technical features
3. Include specific, measurable results
4. Outline what difficult challenges were overcome

Former Amazon executive John Rossman used this for Amazon Marketplace with one powerful sentence: "A seller, in the middle of the night, can register, list an item, receive an order, and delight a customer as though Amazon the retailer had done it."

I've tried this approach for my own projects, and it's amazing how it creates clarity.

What problem could you solve by starting with the end in mind?

Fendi Turns 100: A Century of Italian Luxury 👜

Did you know one of the favorite fashion powerhouses is celebrating its centennial this year? This one is for fashion lovers, like me!

I'm just in love with the design of each piece. I’m one of the few who went to Paris yet skipped the Louvre, instead visiting fashion galleries and Musee-des-Arts-Decoratifs exploring the fascinating world of Elsa Schiaparelli and others, to see the amazing details crafted with such thought behind each piece.

So back to Fendi. Fendi, the iconic Italian luxury brand, marks 100 years of transforming leather goods into objects of desire.

What began as a small fur and leather shop in Rome in 1925, founded by Adele and Edoardo Fendi, has evolved into a global fashion empire. The brand really found its distinctive voice in the 1960s when Karl Lagerfeld joined and created the now-ubiquitous double-F logo (or "Zucca" pattern) that fashionistas everywhere recognize instantly.

I love it when a brand can reinvent itself while maintaining its identity.

​Remember when their Baguette bag became the "It Bag" of the late '90s thanks to Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City? That wasn't just luck – it was brilliant marketing coupled with flawless craftsmanship.

For their centennial (a new word to my vocabulary), the brand is revisiting its archives while pushing boundaries with new collections. Current creative directors are balancing heritage with innovation.

What's your favorite iconic fashion brand with staying power?

Word Bites! 📚🌟

Today we have... Gunnen 💝

The word "gunnen" is a beautiful Dutch concept with no direct English equivalent. It means "to find joy in someone else's happiness" or "to genuinely wish good things for others."

It's that warm feeling when your friend gets the promotion you were both up for, and you're still genuinely happy for them. It's celebrating others' wins without any trace of jealousy or resentment.

Unlike mere tolerance, gunnen involves actively wanting others to have good fortune. In our competitive world, embracing this concept might be the mental shift we need for healthier relationships and communities.

You should try that 😉

March in History

• March 3, 1847 – Alexander Graham Bell Born 📞 The inventor of the telephone was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, launching a legacy of communication innovation that would eventually lead to the smartphones we can't live without today. Also on March 10, 1876, the first telephone call was made by Bell with his famous words to his assistant: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
• March 6, 1869 – Periodic Table Presented 🧪 Dmitri Mendeleev presented his periodic table of elements to the Russian Chemical Society, revolutionizing our understanding of chemistry and providing a framework still used in every science classroom worldwide.

• March 12, 1989 – World Wide Web Proposed 🌐 Tim Berners-Lee submitted his proposal for what would become the World Wide Web while working at CERN, describing it as "a 'web' of notes with links between them" and forever changing how the information would be shared.
• March 14, 1879 – Albert Einstein Born 🧠 The theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity was born in Ulm, Germany, eventually becoming the most influential scientist of the 20th century and synonymous with genius itself.
• March 19, 1953 – First Academy Awards Televised 🏆 The 25th Academy Awards ceremony became the first to be televised, bringing Hollywood's biggest night into American living rooms and transforming it into the global entertainment spectacle we know today.

That's all for today... Stay tuned for the next coffee with me in April!

You can also find me writing about Product management on LinkedIn, rating movies on IMDB, or making really awesome playlists on Spotify.

You're one of 96 curious humans. If there are topics you want me to explore, send them my way. Ciao!