This week’s highlights: Alternative Milk, Furniture Design and Cars, A New View on Alzheimers.
Fifteen on Friday – 02/08/19 – Issue 319
Food for Thought:
Top Read of the Week: TheGuardian – White gold: the unstoppable rise of alternative milks
Why It Matters: When did the milk cooler become like shopping the toothpaste aisle? A staggering amount of new choices have invaded this once staid part of the grocery store. “How wellness upstarts spoiled milk’s healthy reputation – and built a billion-dollar industry from juicing oats and nuts.”
Consider as well:
- Vox – No online shopping company can figure out how to quit this one plastic bag Polybags touch almost everything you order online.
- HBR – Treat Your Weekend Like A Vacation Take a moment to recall how you felt at work on a recent Monday. Were you happy and satisfied? Or stressed and worried?
- NYT – Let Children Get Bored Again Boredom teaches us that life isn’t a parade of amusements. More important, it spawns creativity and self-sufficiency.
- VF – Secrets of the Chateau Marmont As the ultimate movie-colony clubhouse turns 90, Mark Rozzo prowls among the bungalows and crannies off Sunset Boulevard where mega-stars and ne’er-do-wells, from Garbo and Harlow to Lindsay and Britney, have whiled away nearly a century of enchanted evenings.
Business/Economics:
Top Read of the Week: TheAtlantic – Why Ford Hired a Furniture Maker as CEO
Why It Matters: The rest of the world seems to be catching up to what Steve Jobs and boutique consultant Ipreo (known for designing the computer mouse amongst other things) have known for decades, design thinking can dramatically influence how successful a company is. Just this past fall, McKinsey published a lengthy thought piece on the Business Value of Design. Bill Ford seems to be acutely aware of this judging by who now sits in the CEO chair at the Ford Motor Company.
Consider as well:
- NYT – How a ‘Monster’ Texas Oil Field Made the U.S. a Star in the World Market Innovation, investment and inviting geology have given new life to an oil patch that once seemed spent. The oil field is now the world’s second most productive.
- Bloomberg – The Golden Age of Hollywood Tax Avoidance Do you really think Bing Crosby and Bob Hope paid 90 percent of their income to the taxman?
- YCombinator – A Standard and Clean Series A Term Sheet While working with companies in YC’s Series A program, we’ve noticed a common problem: founders don’t know what “good” looks like in a term sheet.
- NYT – Does Facebook Really Know How Many Fake Accounts It Has? The social network has disclosed an estimate for years, but a closer look raises lots of questions.
Culture/Tech/Science:
Top Read of the Week: Fortune – Could This Radical New Approach to Alzheimer’s Lead to a Breakthrough?
Why It Matters: What does a little known amino acid and a Samoan tribe known for eating bats have to offer in the on-going hunt for signs of progress in battling neuro-degenerative disease? “Big Pharma has spent billions and gotten nowhere. Here’s what we could learn from a new theory.”
Consider as well:
- Vulture – Neo’s Stunt Guy Chad Stahelski on How The Matrix Changed Movie Action Forever
- Marketwatch – Why NASCAR will be slowing its cars down in future races Attendance and TV ratings have plunged, so new chairman Jim France has instituted changes
- Mel – The Lonely Life of a Yacht Influencer Alex Jimenez (aka TheYachtGuy) might look like he’s comfortably residing in the lap of luxury on Instagram, but the truth is, he’s kinda lost at sea
- Engadget – Mastering Jenga taught this robot real-world physics