Note

Staff composition is an important driver

Median pay of S&P500 companies

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on median pay of S&P 500 companies which contains a few of the tech giants.

Focusing on the human side of business

Jeff Bezos interview

Excellent interview of Jeff Bezos by Axel Springer talking about how to deal with criticism, regulatory scrutiny, work-life balance and philanthropy.

Do not disturb

I came across this article dumber phone and it expresses well how I feel about my computing devices today: "Smartphones are useful, but they are also incredibly addictive, and that addiction is at the epicenter of Silicon Valley’s effort to grab an ever increasing percentage of our minds. In that a substance or behavior controls us, it becomes our master, and that just won’t do."

The Kamprad Test and Moravec’s Paradox

It took a pair of robots, pre-programmed by humans, more than 20 minutes to assemble a chair that a person could knock together in a fraction of the time. Moravec's paradox is at play here.

11% of US households have cut the cable

I cut the cable 5 years and have not looked back since, but I am still in the minority. Only 11% of the households in the US have cut the cable and went exclusively to streaming.

Mere Potential Can Be More Important Than Achievement

In a series of experiments set in different contexts, we found that high potential can be more appealing than equally high achievement.

Self-Destructive Behavior of Entrepreneurs

The article Why do entrepreneurs engage in self-sabotage? tells something about human nature which in general applies to everyone, but gets super-exposed when starting a company.

How to write engaging stories

Pixar Story Rules (one version) [2012]

This is from 2012 and has been written about many times on the internet, but I came across it recently for the first time. As someone who likes to write but has no particular talent in that, I do find it fascinating how writers think and write. Here’s a summary of the rules of story telling by Emma Coats (Story Artist at Pixar at the time, now at Google)

​Social Media Use in 2018 – PEW Research

PEW Research issued a report on social media use by Americans.Nothing really new under the sun this report, usage is same for the major players and up for the runner ups. They didn't research anything about usage in this report, but I bet the usage has changed significantly over the last few years. I think people create less and more passively consume. In line with we stopped referring to them as social networks but social media - something to passively consume, created by a select group of actors.

Why Blockchain Matters

It's an excellent introductory talk by Muneeb Ali into blockchain and why blockchain matters. He uses very concise arguments, stays away from technology and - more importantly - cryptocurrencies. Even though there's nothing new (for me) in this talk, I found it very inspiring.