This week’s highlights:  Humanities vs. Technology, Active Management, and the Physics of Pizza

Fifteen on Friday – 08/10/18 – Issue 296

Food for Thought:

1. NYT – Oh, the Humanities! New data on college majors confirms an old trend. Technocracy is crushing the life out of humanism.
2. TheGuardian – What would you do if your teenager became an overnight Instagram sensation?  After photographs go viral, your child becomes a social-media influencer and a celebrity on Instagram. Should you step in? Parents reveal the contrasting conflicts of instant fame
3. NYT – Make Your Daughter Practice Math. She’ll Thank You Later.  The way we teach math in America hurts all students, but it may be hurting girls the most.
4. BusinessWeek – To Sue Goldman Sachs, You Have to Be Willing to Hang On—For a Long, Long Time  Cristina Chen-Oster’s fight against sex discrimination began in 2005. She just got her big break.
5. TheAtlantic – Hollywood Doesn’t Make Movies Like The Fugitive Anymore.  The Harrison Ford–starring thriller represents the best of a genre that has faded: the character-driven action movie for adults.

Business/Economics:

1. Bloomberg – The Active Money Manager Model Is No Longer Viable Successful investors will be defined by highly idiosyncratic and concentrated portfolios.
2. TW – The secretive mega-companies behind your glasses – Credit TP –
3. Forbes – The ‘Backsies’ Billionaire: Texan Builds Second Fortune From Wreckage Of Real Estate Empire He’d Sold
4. Bloomberg – Tesla Does Some Going-Private Stuff  “What will happen here? One possibility is that Musk has $80 billion in committed financing that he has kept secret for Reasons, and he will eventually reveal who is providing it, and everyone will be like “oh right that guy, of course,” and then this will proceed to be just a very weird and interesting management buyout negotiation. Another possibility is that he was just kidding, just trying to troll short sellers on Twitter, and then this will proceed to be just a very weird and interesting securities-fraud investigation.”
5. CNBC – After almost a decade and billions in outside investment, Magic Leap’s first product is finally on sale for $2,295. Here’s what it’s like.

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. NPR – Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake The Perfect Italian-Style Pie
2. NYT – Kaboom! Cody! Rudi! Young Flippers Embrace Gtramp, a New Sport for the Instagram Set.  The trampoline offshoot blends the countercultural aspect of skateboarding with the raw daring of parkour and freestyle snowboarding, all of it fueled by social media.
3. Bloomberg – The $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life With Diabetes  DIYers used a security flaw to bypass the $8.3 billion insulin delivery business with a cobbled-together artificial pancreas.
4. RIL – The 2018 Barkley Marathons – Confidence Through Failure – Want to know what running the Barkley is really like?
5. Medium – How to Fall Asleep in 120 Seconds.  Trouble sleeping? Here’s a military-tested trick for guaranteed slumber