Wendy Knowler

There's a physicist at Stanford named Safi Bahcall who modeled this exact principle and the math is wild. He calls it "phase transitions in human networks." When you're stationary, your probability of a lucky event is limited to your existing surface area: the people you already know, the places you already go, the ideas you've already been exposed to. Your opportunity window is fixed. When you move, your collision rate with new nodes in a network increases nonlinearly. Double your movement (new conversations, new cities, new projects) and your probability of a serendipitous encounter doesn't double. It roughly quadruples. Because each new node connects you to their entire network, not just to them. Richard Wiseman ran a 10-year study at the University of Hertfordshire tracking self-described "lucky" and "unlucky" people. The single biggest differentiator wasn't IQ, education, or family money. Lucky people scored significantly higher on one trait: openness to experience. They talked to strangers more, varied their routines more, and said yes to invitations at nearly twice the rate. The "unlucky" group followed the same routes, ate at the same restaurants, and talked to the same 5 people. Their networks were closed loops. No new inputs, no new collisions. Luck isn't random. Luck is surface area. And surface area is a function of movement. The lobster emoji is doing more work than most people realize. Lobsters grow by shedding their shell when it gets too tight. The growth requires a period of total vulnerability. No protection, no armor, soft body exposed to the ocean. That's the cost of movement nobody posts about. You have to be uncomfortable first. The new shell only hardens after you've already moved.

@CarolineReaper @Markosonke1 Please email me about this 🙏

@wendyknowler @Markosonke1 @Fly_Airlink My husband has 4 forenames, known by the 4th as 'preferred'. Airlink takes the booking & pmnt. Only at the airport, despite 1) passport; 2) ID; 3) driver's license; & 4) credit card used for tkts, will still refuse boarding until pays fee for his initials to be loaded again!

✈️ Dear @Fly_Airlink THIS IS DAYLIGHT ROBBERY😕😡 🚨 I’m writing this to publicly expose what I experienced with your airline, because this cannot be normal or acceptable. I booked my flight 2 months in advance, everything paid, everything confirmed. I arrive at the airport thinking it’s a smooth check-in… only to be told there’s an "issue" with my name on your system apparently it only showed my initials and surname instead of my full names. Now here’s the shocking part… Instead of simply verifying my identity (which I had FULL proof of ID AND passport in hand), your staff decided the solution was to charge me R790 just to "edit" my name on your own system error. Let that sink in… 👉 YOUR system error 👉 MY money And I say that because I booked with my full names and your staff said maybe it's because my names are long.. I even escalated the matter to the supervisor on duty, expecting some level of professionalism or assistance… but instead, she showed zero willingness to help and proceeded to enforce this ridiculous charge like it’s normal practice. How do you justify charging a customer R790 for something that and paying huge sums of rands to book my flights, something that • Was NOT my fault • Could be verified instantly with official documents • Took literally seconds to fix This is not customer service, this is exploitation, in fact u stealing from us. We are already paying high ticket prices, and now we must budget extra for your internal mistakes too? 😭 I am formally demanding a full refund of R790 back into my account within 24 hours. You cannot continue taking people’s hard-earned money under the guise of "policies" when the fault lies entirely with your own system. If this is not resolved urgently, I will have no choice but to escalate this matter further through the relevant consumer protection channels and publicly pursue accountability. Do the right thing. Also check your Emails because this same tweet is on your emails Mxm📍

My contact at Airlink has responded to my query to ask me to “please share the passenger’s email address for me to check the email. “I also require her booking reference or ticket number to check how the names were booked”. @Markosonke1 please email me those details asap: consumer@knowler.co.za

@Markosonke1 @Fly_Airlink Not FlySafair, Airlink 🙈🙈

@Markosonke1 @Fly_Airlink Please email me (see address in my bio) so that I can investigate this with FlySafair. The “long name” issue could affect many other South Africans.

@pasekamodise @Markosonke1 @Fly_Airlink Once I hear from her with the full details, I’ll def take up the case with the airline.

@Markosonke1 @Fly_Airlink @wendyknowler please come to the rescue here, surely this can't be justified by the airline.

@FaithMasilela2 @BuildersSA @Radio702 I was still on leave then - I will check

@wendyknowler @BuildersSA @Radio702 Yes Ma'am, I did on March 30th. Email subject: Builders Warehouse nightmare 🙏🏿

Leather experts: this sofa is 11 months old. The manufacturer claims it’s “corrected leather” and markets it as “100% genuine leather”. What say you? 🤔

@FaithMasilela2 @BuildersSA @Radio702 Have you emailed be about this? (I was on leave for 2 weeks.) If not, please do so: consumer@knowler.co.za

@BuildersSA But i will still blast you on the radio on Thursday You want to scam me R12k @wendyknowler @Radio702

@MetHarry2016 Yes. Bad placement of that price “ticket” and an unfortunate kink in the paper. Deliberate? That depends largely on where the polony was.

@wendyknowler please havea look at this. Would you assume the price is for the viennas?

She did that and was given the wrong address. So 🤷🏻‍♀️

@SingaporeAir I need to apply for a refund for hotel accommodation I had to pay for on a long haul trip. I’ve used an email address supplied by my travel agent (for Singapore Air in South Africa) as well by the airline’s head office in SA. Both bounced. So how do I make this application?

RECALL - Recently sold Land Rover Defenders Jaguar is recalling 2026 model-year Land Rover Defenders which went on sale in SA between 3 November 2025 and 21 February 2026 at authorised dealerships. 60 Defenders are affected. The third-row lower seat belt anchorage bracket may contain a weld stud of insufficient strength due to material contamination during manufacturing, Jaguar said. This defect could prevent the seatbelt from working correctly in a crash, increasing the risk of injury to occupants. Owners of the affected vehicles are urged to take their vehicles to the nearest authorised Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships for repairs. The necessary repair work will be carried out at no cost to the consumer.

This one I didn’t know about. Thanks for sharing!

The diamond engagement ring was invented by an ad agency in 1947. Before that, only 1 in 10 American brides got one. The company behind it, De Beers, was worth $9.2 billion three years ago. Today that number is $2.3 billion, and its owner is trying to find a buyer. In 1940, diamonds were a luxury for the rich. Nobody proposed with one unless they had serious money. De Beers had a warehouse full of diamonds and no customers, so they hired NW Ayer, an ad firm out of Philadelphia. A copywriter named Frances Gerety came up with four words: “A Diamond is Forever.” NW Ayer paid Hollywood studios to write diamond proposals into movie scripts. They planted stories in gossip columns about which rock some actress just got. They invented the “two months’ salary” rule, the idea that a man should spend two months of income on a ring. None of that existed before. It was all marketing. By the 1990s, 8 out of 10 American brides wore diamond engagement rings. Then De Beers did it again in Japan, going from 5% to 60% in 14 years. Advertising Age called it the greatest advertising slogan of the 20th century. They were right. The whole business ran on one trick: make diamonds seem rare. De Beers controlled most of the world’s supply but only released a small amount each year. That artificial shortage kept prices sky-high. And the “forever” in the slogan had a second job: if nobody resells their diamond, supply stays tight and prices stay up. Lab-grown diamonds blew that apart. You can now grow a diamond in a lab that is the same thing, atom for atom, as one pulled out of the ground. Costs 80–85% less. In 2019, only 6% of engagement rings in America had a lab-grown stone. By 2025, that number was 61%. That’s from The Knot’s annual survey of 10,000+ newlywed couples. People are buying bigger rings (1.9 carats on average, compared to 1.6 for mined) and keeping the savings. De Beers saw this coming. In 2018, they launched their own lab-grown jewelry brand called Lightbox, priced at $800 per carat. The idea was to make lab-grown look like cheap costume jewelry so people would still pay a premium for “real” diamonds. Prices tanked 90% anyway. By 2025, American grocery stores were selling lab-grown diamond rings for $200. De Beers shut Lightbox down last May. Since 2023, De Beers has lost nearly $7 billion in value. It lost over $500 million in 2025 alone and has about $2 billion in diamonds sitting in storage that nobody is buying. Its parent company, Anglo American, is now in what they’re calling “advanced discussions” to sell off the whole thing. A 137-year-old company, dumped. The greatest ad campaign ever made convinced a planet that a common carbon crystal was worth two months of your salary. The product that’s killing it just proved you can grow the same crystal in a factory for pocket change.

A total of 58,060 new vehicles were sold in SA in March 2026 - the best March figures since 2007. 8,560  -  17,3% - more vehicles were sold than in March 2025. Of those >58K sales, 88,7% were sold to dealers, 5,5% to the car rental industry, 3,2% to government sales, and 2,6% to industry corporate fleets. Looking just at the passenger market, 39,370 cars were sold; an increase of 18,2% on new passenger cars sold in March last year. On the downside, export sales dropped to 37,388 units - a loss of 5,3% compared to the 39,499 vehicles exported in March 2025. Top 5 OEM in terms of total sales, March 2026: Toyota - 12 929 VW Group - 5 519 Suzuki - 5 047 Isuzu - 3 142 Hyundai - 3 230

During Our Property Inspections we come across some interesting Geyser Installations. Sad thing is, many would not even know as they trusted the company who installed it 😔 Who can tell us what the issues are here 🤷🏽‍♂️ Contact us to View4You 😀 South Africa’s #1 Trusted Vehicle & Property Inspection Company 🔗 view4you.co.za 📱 087 822 1140 📍 Nationwide | Mon–Fri | 08:00–17:00 #View4You ☑ We Inspect. You Decide.

Most companies focus a lot more on getting new business than looking after existing customers - sadly, this is not likely to change

April's fuel hike: how to protect your budget... The table by Naked Insurance below illustrates how future increases could affect your monthly petrol costs, assuming fuel efficiency of 15 km per litre. Quick tips to cut costs: Plan your travel: Combine errands into one journey and work from home when possible to reduce weekly mileage. Share the load: Carpool with colleagues to split costs, or consider if your household could transition to a single-car use setup to save. Refine your driving: Avoid hard acceleration and braking and travel outside peak hours to avoid fuel-heavy stop-start traffic.

Some days you can’t love social media enough. This is one of those days. It began like this. Someone stole 12 tons of KitKats. And then the replies started coming in. Scroll down.