This week’s highlights: The Challenge of Free Speech, Discovery Shopping, Batteries and E-Waste
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Fifteen on Friday – Issue 325
Happy Friday,
David
Food for Thought:
Top Read(s) of the Week: VanityFair – “Men Are Scum”: Inside Facebook’s War On Hate Speech
Why It Matters: This was eye opening in seeing the complexity behind managing speech on the world’s largest media platform. “The company blew it on privacy and fake news. Can it do better against trolls and racists? An exclusive embed with Facebook’s shadow government.”
Consider as well:
- DA – Negative Space “The tension between abundance and scarcity is probably the definitive issue of the uncomfortable zeitgeist we’re all currently living through.”
- BusinessWeek – What If Instead of Taking the SAT You Got to Play a Video Game? L.A.-based startup Imbellus plans to upset the SAT and ACT’s monopoly with a test it says accurately gauges critical thinking.
- NYT – Our Chess Champion Has a Home The 8-year-old refugee who last week was thrilled to have a trophy suddenly has so much more. A heart-warming follow-up to This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You Smile.
- TheAtlantic – How The Very Hungry Caterpillar Became a Classic Eric Carle’s colorful story about metamorphosis remains a staple of baby showers and classroom bookshelves 50 years after its release.
Business/Economics:
Top Read of the Week: Recode – Instagram just took advantage of Amazon’s biggest weakness
Why It Matters: Amazon’s failure in “discovery shopping” is Instagram’s opportunity, as its users can now shop inside the app.
Consider as well:
- Economist – Why big tech should fear Europe To understand the future of Silicon Valley, cross the Atlantic
- NYT – ‘We Know Them. We Trust Them.’ Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave.
- TheDrive – Inside Toyota’s Takaoka #2 Line: The Most Flexible Line In The World Lessons from the last downturn lead the world’s foremost auto manufacturer to reinvent the production line.
- Redef – Nine Reasons Why Disney+ Will Succeed (And Why Four Criticisms are Overhyped) Disney may be entering the SVOD market late and without much of its best content, but Disney+ is going to thrive. And while some of the reasons are evident, most remain overlooked or misunderstood.
Culture/Tech/Science:
Top Read of the Week: The Atlantic – Your AirPods Will Die Soon
Why It Matters: While technology continues to advance by leaps and bounds, battery tech continues to lag behind. As designs become smaller and more integrated, replacement batteries are less of an option. This raises a number of questions regarding cost, value, and the scourge of e-waste.
Consider as well:
- NYT – ‘10 Things I Hate About You’: When Heath Ledger Was Just Breaking Through – For the Millenial subscribers, 10 Things celebrates its 20th anniversary.
- Hodinkee – Talking Watches 2 With John Mayer Five years after the video that launched this series, we revisit Mr. John Mayer. And this time he brought the good stuff.
- Guardian – How to move a masterpiece: the secret business of shipping priceless artworks
- NYP – The architecture snobs got Hudson Yards all wrong