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The Funny Thing With Smart
When the thermometer was invented, nobody really understood what temperature was. The same is now true of intelligence; we can measure it, but remains a mystery.
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One Hell of a Book
Learning to love yourself in a country where your life can be taken away from you at any moment and there’s nothing you can do about it – learning to love yourself in the middle of all that? Hell, that’s a goddamn miracle.
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Why We Keep Referencing The Past To Feel Good About the Future, or: A Brief History of Skeuomorphism
Why did the disciples of Bauhaus hate Parisian metro stations? And is VR really virtual?
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The Cost of Optimism : Philippe Squarzoni, Climate Change and the Total Perspective Vortex
I recently read two novels about gay men in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. Their reluctance to take the test reminds me of my own feelings with regards to global warming.
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Disruption Disrupted : How Big Tech Keeps Innovative Startups at Bay
Everyone who read Clayton Christensen *knows* that startups will eat incumbents for breakfast. That’s why they call it disruption!
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Preparing For the Next War : Carlota Perez on Why the Future Won’t Look Like the Past
Reading Carlota Perez feels like looking at one of those images doctors use to diagnose colour blindness; where before there was just a jumble of dots, patterns emerge.
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What Doing Looks Like : Why We Struggle with Productivity and How to Fix It
I’d like to be a bit like Mrs. Whiting myself. She knows where she wants to go and she can turn that crystal clear vision into manageable chunks of action.
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Making Sense of the World : the Entangled Perspectives of Camilla Pang and Julia Ravanis
Two of the best science books I’ve come across in a good while: Explaining Humans by Camilla Pang, and Skönheten i Kaos by Julia Ravanis. Reading them back to back created an impression of perfect symmetry.
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The Subtle Art of Giving a F*ck : Kim Scott on Radical Candor
A good boss have to offer very direct feedback. For that not to be brutal, you must invest in the relationship beyond what’s often thought of as professional.
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Culture Encoded : Ellen Ullman’s Life in the Machine
Close to the Machine : Technophilia and its discontents by Ellen Ullman chronicles the dawn of the Internet from the point of view of a freelance programmer. I loved it intensely.
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Girly Stuff : Lessons from Katrine Marçal’s Mother of Invention
The system has always worked hard to hide the fact that women are just as brilliantly ingenious innovators as men are.
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Creative Doesn’t Mean Nice : Striking the Balance in Company Culture
Culture can be a company’s most valuable asset, but creative a good one is hard.
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Product Spells D-E-V-I-C-E + S-E-R-V-I-C-E : Lessons from William H. Davidow on High-Tech Marketing
Segmentation is marketing’s most discussed and least understood concept.