Thoughts/Readings 2017 Week 10

Not many articles this week, for two reasons:

  1. I’ve been reading mostly books, Jude the Obscure for fiction and The Second Machine Age for non-fiction.
  2. I’m trying to fall behind on news, only reading things that are about two or three weeks old. I’ve found that it helps me focus because I can edit out any articles that I saved in the past but turned out to be irrelevant or less interesting because of later developments.

Photo of the Week:

News:

  1. Getting Human Resources Right from AVC. Good advice in the Uber scandal era.
  2. Camera production graph (1933-2016) compared to smartphones from Photo Rumors. The best graph I’ve seen in a while, which immediately makes it clear why both millions more people are regularly taking photos even if camera sales are down.
  3. In Defense of Pretentiousness by Dan Fox. Basically, someone’s gotta do it.
  4. Apocalypse Then, the Economist review of The Great Leveller: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century By Walter Scheidel
  5. AI is going to change the 80/20 Rule from HBR. How more thorough analysis will let companies hone in on the best customers/clients/whatever.
  6. Facebook is trying to hire a brain-computer interface engineer. #thefutureisnow

Podcasts:

  1. I’m still finishing up The History of the World in 100 Objects. Object 95, Suffragette Defaced Penny, is an incredibly clever and fascinating subversion of the powers that be to fight for change.
  2. Jeffrey Sachs on Masters In Business with Barry Ritholtz. A friendly, easy to understand conversation about where the American economy could go.
  3. An interview with Jason Kunesh on Tech in Chicago, which doubles as a good overview of the Chicago tech scene.