Transcripts are a life-saver. I keep hoping for an actual...

Transcripts are a life-saver.

I keep hoping for an actual change, but we'll see.

Every year and every quarter there's a shell game of various tricks, whether its "let's tell everyone about late revenue that should have been this Q" (but of course this will be forgotten next Q) or the old favourite "let's lean on whichever of AUD/USD looks better". Then there are 20 pages of fine-grain metrics showing that FLN is Doing Really Well, based on some charts (usually without labels on the y axis) showing that contest revenue in the Middle East or mobile engagement in Uzbekistan is way, way up. Half of these charts will be cumulative measures to make sure that they show reassuring climbing lines. We will get a detailed explanation of the mysterious effects that COVID had on FLN, that don't square with the effects COVID has had on any other business in this sector like UPWK and FVRR.

Then there's the bit about how some grimly necessary change has drastically cut short-term revenue but increased the quality of the user base and laid the groundwork for improved revenue in future quarters.

There will be a glossy picture of something related to NASA, with the same announcement from the past 5 quarters dressed up as a New Thing.

We'll close on a bunch of important metrics on subsidiaries like "how many trips the the moon all the Freightlancer trucks would have done if you glued the distances they all travelled together" (but of course not disclosing revenue).

The timidity is depressing. Matt's a genius, but he's let himself get colonized by a crew of semi-experienced yes-men.