This might sound counterintuitive, and isn’t good advice in every situation, but: The case for spending less time convincing people to change their minds, and more on trying to get people to «naturally nod their head in agreement». In Jason Fried’s example, it’s about selling a novel email service, but I’m sure you can think of a similar situation in your own professional life.
Numbers! Who doesn’t love numbers! A thoughtful essay, based on two newly published books, on why it matters so much what and how we count, and don’t count. Key quote: «The trouble arises whenever we use numerical proxies for the thing we care about.
After going deep on Amazon and Netflix, season 3 of the Land of the Giants podcast is all about Google. Learn how Google became an arbiter of human knowledge and arguably the most powerful tech giant of all, from its academic beginnings to the latest controversies
A great piece in its own right, but also an excellent pairing with this week’s recommendation #1 above. When it comes to addressing the climate crisis, we have a tendency to put our hopes on promising technological solutions in the future rather than going for the obvious fixes that work right now (hence the reference to Occam’s Razor).
Imagine a world where, for decades, everything—housing, education, food, clothing, etc.—became half as expensive every two years.» There are (a lot of) good reasons to be wary of a future powered by artificial intelligence (remember that Facebook piece from last week?). Every now and then, I’ll allow some techno-utopianism. Especially if it’s not about what artificial intelligence will and won’t do, but how it might change the entire fabric of society. So maybe all we need for a great future are AI, and taxes?
Several European countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine, due to fears that it might cause a specific type of blood clot. The New Statesman provides the necessary context. Read it. (Related: I just finished reading the author’s 2020 book «Science Fictions
Even if you’re not interested in football, this is an fascinating question to ponder: How come that Lionel Messi, one of the best players of all times, is so average when it comes to one of the easier tasks on the pitch, scoring from the penalty spot?
Around 10% of all people on earth live in what the UN considers «extreme poverty». And while that number is still too high, it falling to today’s point is one of humanity’s big success stories over the past decades. What, though, changes, if we don’t just look at people in «extreme poverty», but «moderate poverty»? Take a guess how many people this applies to. The case for a higher poverty line
What year will the 2˚C climate threshold be crossed? Which African leader will leave office next? Will Roger Federer win another Grand Slam? A newly launched platform aggregates predictions from a dozen forecasting platforms. Bring along a grain of salt and:
This story helped me understand Facebook on a deeper level. It focuses on the man how oversees artificial intelligence at Facebook, a driving force behind Facebook’s success and a symbol for its inability to fix its problems. A tale of what happens when you put resources and some of the brightest minds behind tackling complex problems — but let it all come down to the same bottom line: Does it help or hinder Facebook’s growth?