Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Hotels love to complain about OTAs. But here’s what I see… Most of them have done nothing to earn independence. Every week I hear the same things: – “OTAs take too much commission.” – “They control our pricing.” – “They make the rules.” And yet… – The website hasn’t been meaningfully improved in years -…

My First Hotel Job High school was ending, and my father encouraged me to find a summer job. I was 15 years old. I took the bus downtown. My journey ended at the Quality Inn. The employment office was located on a lower level. The HR Manager was Marcel. Weighing 300+. Wearing a shiny suit,…

Google just introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (#UCP), a new open-source framework designed to let #AIagents handle the entire #shopping journey — built alongside major retailers like Shopify, Walmart, Target, and Etsy. The details: UCP creates shared infrastructure for AI systems to manage product discovery, checkout, and post-purchase support across different platforms and agents. Google…

The Invisible Platform I began the pre-CES hype with the headline that CES has everything to do with Hospitality & Travel. The week ends with that statement being every bit true, and even more relevant. The lights have dimmed in Las Vegas. The 4,000+ exhibitors are packing up 2.6 million square feet of booth space.…