Ghost Mail Weekender

Happy Sunday Voornaam,

Are you a business owner? Specifically, do you have a business that has moved past the point of self-employment and is now on its way to new heights? Your favourite ghost has some big plans for next year for the entrepreneurs of South Africa. In the meantime, the mission is to meet and chat to business owners of interesting, growing businesses. If you would like to potentially be featured on a podcast (or, dare I say it, in a book), then pop an email through to help.me@thefinanceghost.com with just a paragraph or two about your business. I promise that this isn't some underhanded attempt to sell you something (you know me better than that by now), so don't be shy!
Moving on to the Weekender and all the great stuff that Dominique Olivier has prepared for you, we couldn't help but ponder our trajectory as a species this week when we stumbled upon a video of a man who purposely held his finger in the way of a closing Cybertruck trunk door - ostensibly to prove that the approaching door would sense his finger and stop closing. Spoiler alert: it didn’t stop. His finger is now broken.
Here’s the part that really makes us question this gentleman’s smarts: before putting his finger on the line, the man tested his theory with a small stick, which the closing trunk door snapped in two without a moment’s hesitation. After seeing this play out in front of his own eyes, the man then proceeded to do the exact same test with his finger.
We wish we were joking. You can watch this demonstration of extreme intelligence here.
The Tesla community wasted no time in rallying behind the victim. Unfortunately, in their collective minds, the victim here was the prejudiced Cybertruck. The Cult of Musk is an extraordinary thing. According to the man with the crushed finger, a Tesla engineer reached out to him to tell him that he was performing his test incorrectly. Apparently rather than interpreting the man’s furious tapping on the car as a plea for help, the Cybertruck “thought” he wanted the door to close harder. Yes, really.
Elevators have been sensing human limbs in the way of their doors since approximately 1874. At what point do you think the Cybertruck will catch up?
To use one of Dominique's favourite sayings from Reddit threads: ESH (Everybody Sucks Here).
In this week's column, Dominique shows you how companies like Lego and PepsiCo use really clever campaigns to get their fans involved in product design, creating a buzz along the way. Musician James Blunt gave a masterclass in that recently, promising to change his name to Blunty McBluntface (a fan suggestion, duh) if the 20th anniversary edition of his debut album went to number one. In a huge win for the singer, he created renewed interest in his brand, made a lot of money and missed the number 1 spot anyway, so he gets to keep his name. Genius. For other examples of smart marketing, read this piece>>>
If you've ever felt bad about the admin in your business or your life, read on for a story of Google forgetting to renew its domain ownership back in 2015. Yup, that really happened! Dominique finishes off in the Fast Facts with a selection of other tech fails.
Have a lovely day and enjoy what we've brought you!

The Finance Ghost (follow on X) | Dominique Olivier (connect on LinkedIn)

Short Stories v.04: Crowdsourced Creativity

Google made a boo-boo

TL;DR: Ever forget to renew your domain registration? Don’t worry - Google famously did the same thing once.
At 1:20 AM on Tuesday, September 29, 2015, something very unexpected happened to Sanmay Ved. He was casually exploring the Google Domains interface in an effort to learn more about how it worked. Out of curiosity, he typed in one of the most iconic domains in the world - google.com - and clicked the search button.
To his astonishment, Google.com appeared as available for purchase. He couldn’t believe it. Thinking it must be some sort of glitch, he clicked the "add to cart" icon anyway, fully expecting an error to pop up at any moment. But the error never came. Instead, the domain was added to his cart, and a little green checkmark confirmed it. In disbelief, Sanmay went through the entire checkout process, and much to his shock, his credit card was charged. Google.com was now his.
Even more surreal, Google Search Console updated itself to show him as the verified owner of the Google.com domain, which only happens if someone truly owns the domain. He began receiving notifications related to websites powered by Google Sites, and it was clear from the messages that ownership had, indeed, been transferred to him.
Sanmay knew this wouldn’t last long, though. And sure enough, shortly after the purchase, he received an order cancellation email from Google Domains. Unlike the time Microsoft lost control of their Hotmail UK domain in 2003 (which had been picked up by someone else due to a registration lapse), Google had the ability to swiftly cancel the order, since the registration service itself was Google’s own. Although Sanmay didn’t know what caused the domain to be up for grabs in the first place, it was clear that someone, somewhere, had made a mistake.
The process had gone through - his card was charged, confirming that this wasn’t just a pre-authorisation - but Google took back ownership in the blink of an eye. When Sanmay searched for Google.com again after the cancellation, it was, unsurprisingly, listed as unavailable once more.
Looking back, Sanmay couldn't help but laugh about the timing. Just a day before, the Indian Prime Minister had visited Google to promote Digital India. Maybe the stars aligned, Sanmay mused, and in some cosmic way, his own Indian heritage and his deep connection to Google (the company he had worked for and reported vulnerabilities to in the past) granted him ownership of their crown jewel. At least, for a minute.
Sanmay reported the incident to Google Security, and they quickly responded, acknowledging the glitch and beginning an investigation. About a week later, on October 8, Google Security contacted him with an offer for a reward of $6,006.13 - squint and read that number carefully! But for Sanmay, it was never about the money. He requested that the reward be donated to charity, specifically to the Art of Living India Foundation, which runs free schools for children in underserved areas. Google not only agreed but doubled the reward amount, making sure it went toward education programs that help thousands of children in need.
In the end, what started as a strange, late-night adventure ended up becoming a story of good fortune - and goodwill.

Dominique's fast facts: Tech fails

An assortment of facts that will take you only a minute to read.

In 2023, Vanderbilt University's Peabody College got caught using ChatGPT to write a letter to its students about a shooting at Michigan State University. Classy.

Last year, Facebook was forced to apologise to users after a bug caused the social network to send automatic friend requests to viewed profiles. Imagine: one minute you’re stalking your old high school flame, the next you’re sending them a friend request you never intended to. Some users even deactivated their accounts due to embarrassment.

During the World Robot Conference in Beijing this year, animatronics company EX-Robot caused a stir with two incredibly lifelike female androids. Turns out, these were two flesh-and-blood women who were hired to cosplay as robots for the day.

In 2021, Citizen, a startup whose app sends real-time crime alerts, offered a $30,000 reward for help determining who started a Los Angeles wildfire. Tips, including a photo of a man, led police to detain a suspect. There was just one (very big) problem: it turned out he had been identified by mistake. The company had used a new product in its app called OnAir to broadcast the information about the suspect, but said it failed to follow its own verification protocols before circulating the information.