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Top Articles This Week – 02/15/19 Edition

Feb 15, 2019 | Fifteen on Friday

This week’s highlights:  Confidence vs. Competence at School, JPMorgan’s Crypto Play, Quitting the Tech Giants.

priscilla-du-preez-607170-unsplash

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Fifteen on Friday – Issue 320

Happy Friday,

David


Food for Thought:

Top Read of the Week:  NYT – Why Girls Beat Boys at School and Lose to Them at the Office

Why It Matters:  “Hard work and discipline help girls outperform boys in class, but that advantage disappears in the work force. Is school the problem? We need to ask: What if school is a confidence factory for our sons, but only a competence factory for our daughters?”

Consider as well:

  1. WSJ – Preparing for a Good End of Life – Credit TP – The best way to achieve a peaceful death is by planning ahead and enlisting the help of loved ones
  2. Vox – The Tinder algorithm, explained  Some math-based advice for those still swiping this Valentine’s Day.
  3. Bloomberg – Things I Never Knew About Skiing Until I Was a Private Instructor in Aspen   Slopeside shenanigans, gallons of sprayed Champagne, celebrities behaving badly, and… ski gangs? It’s all in a day’s work at Aspen.
  4. INC – Public Speaking Is No Longer a ‘Soft Skill.’ It’s Your Key to Success in Any Field – Credit PB – Great persuaders have a competitive edge in the age of ideas.

 


Business/Economics:

Top Read of the Week:  NYT – JPMorgan Chase Moves to Be First Big U.S. Bank With Its Own Cryptocurrency

Why It Matters:   I have long been of the view that Blockchain was the “killer app,” not Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.  In concurrence with that thesis, this week JPMorgan announces a new proprietary coin, pegged to the USD, that can be used for the instant settlement of large money movements – on a platform that moves trillions of dollars around the globe each day.

Consider as well:

  1. Economist – A new law decrees French supermarkets must get greedier  The agriculture ministry is forcing retailers to raise the price of staple foods
  2. Stratechery – Spotify’s Podcast Aggregation Play
  3. BoF – Digital Media: What Went Wrong  The digital publishing industry took a big hit in recent days, when more than 1,000 employees were laid off at BuzzFeed, AOL, Yahoo and HuffPost.
  4. BBC – Finland basic income trial left people ‘happier but jobless’

Culture/Tech/Science:

Top Read of the Week: Gizmodo – I Cut the ‘Big Five’ Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell

Why It Matters:   Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple control the modern digital life.  What is fascinating about this article is while there are obvious ways we all interface with these companies, but when you incorporate their cloud services (AWS, Azure, etc) a huge portion of the apps we rely on are tied into their ecosystems.

Consider as well:

  1. Hodinkee – Twelve Mistakes New Watch Guys Make, And How To Avoid Them (From Someone Who’s Been There)
  2. ESPN – The ugly — and, yes, slightly gross — truth of stadium bathrooms
  3. Forbes – This Dutch Startup Converts Heat Into Cold Via A Stirling Engine, And Could Just Save The Planet
  4. Engadget – Sonar drone discovers long-lost WWII aircraft carrier USS Hornet  The late Paul Allen’s expedition has found the famous ship 77 years later.

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