|
BUSINESS & AFFAIRS
Who Can Still Detect the Bullshit in the Tech World?
Do you really know which AI, VR headset or cloud platform is truly going to prevail in a competitive and crowded marketplace? Tech is getting more complicated and less accessible, even to the journalists who cover the competitive landscape of tech innovation. Jessica Lessin, founder of tech publication The Information, asks, “Who is there to check them when the technology doesn’t do what it says it does?”
How to Participate in Our Culture of Experimentation
As we wrote in December in the intro to our Zeitguide 2016 (still available to purchase here): “We see 2016 as ‘The Year of Experimentation.’ The markets, the tools, the talents are there and now is the time to give it a shot. Whatever it is.” This week, VC Fred Wilson (co-founder of Union Square Ventures) continues this sentiment. “ We are returning to a time when anyone can be an inventor and innovator,” he writes. “An open, permission-less world of innovation that everyone can participate in is utopia in so many ways. The good that will come of it will massively outweigh any bad. But bad there will be. I can assure you of that.”
How to Manage a Workplace That Never Shuts Down?
The current “always available” work culture amplifies problems and dysfunction. With constant emails from superiors throughout the night, last minute requests for additional work and just plain overload, workers feel compelled to stay late and be glued to their smartphones throughout the night. Those who don’t, get penalized. This piece in HBR encourages leaders to redefine the “ideal” worker: “By valuing all aspects of people’s identities, rewarding work output instead of work time, and taking steps to protect employees’ personal lives... that will enhance employees’ resilience, their creativity, and their satisfaction on the job.”
Blockchain: The Technology That Will Most Change the Next Decade of Business?
That’s according to Don and Alex Tapscott in Harvard Business Review. In the same way that the internet was the first native digital medium for information, blockchain is the first digital medium for value, where anything, whether money, information, titles, deeds, music, art, scientific discoveries and even votes, can be securely and privately moved and stored without the need for powerful intermediaries like banks, governments and tech companies. And it just might make the internet truly open, collaborative and democratic.
Why Sharks Are Vital to the World
As the summer unofficially kicks off this weekend and people flock back to the beaches, we can expect plenty of coverage on shark sightings and attacks. But with an estimated 100 million sharks killed each year by humans, they have much more reason to fear us than we do them. Here in National Geographic, a breakdown on shark species to know, as well as one perspective on the crucial role they play in maintaining ocean ecosystems.
CULTURE & TRENDS
The New Food Label
We’ll have new food nutrition labels debuting in 2018, which will include info on how much of the sugar in your food is added, versus the sugar that is there naturally. And speaking of “natural,” the next challenge for the FDA may be determining what foods should be allowed to carry a “natural” label.
Green Fashion
We wrote in ZEITGUIDE 2015 that, “Fashion has been the embodiment of a disposable economy, in which the perfectly good is thrown out for style’s sake.” But some brands are making progress when it comes to promoting sustainability in the industry. Here from Huffington Post is one example we read from Nike, who now uses the waste from its manufacturing in 71% of its shoes.
CALENDAR
Venice Architecture Biennale 2016
The world’s largest architectural exhibition will kick off on Saturday. Here, Dezeen previews several topics of note, from new construction innovation in robotics and 3D printing, to how architecture may play a role in easing issues of human migration and the global housing crisis.
The Indianapolis 500
Did you know that the seatbelt and the rearview mirror trace their roots back to this race? This Sunday will mark the 100th running of the event. How might auto safety change in the time before the 200th Indy 500?
REWIND
Body Odor Through the Ages
Everybody (well, mostly everybody) is smelling pretty good these days, what with our running water and tea tree oil infused body washes. Here from Collectors Weekly, an overview of humanity’s historical efforts to ward off body odor, from ancient Egyptian concoctions of ostrich eggs and tortoise shell, to pockets of posies to keep away the smell of death in the time of the bubonic plague.
ICYMI
Last week’s premium newsletter for ZEITGUIDE members only, ZEITGUIDE TO THE POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, examined the possible political peril facing the recently signed Paris climate accord.
Keep learning,
Team ZEITGUIDE
|
