Curated Commons // Edition 36
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the Thirty-Sixth edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in.
Do we glorify overwork?
Whichever side of the debate you are, this is worth a read.
But millions of us overwork because somehow we think it’s exciting – a status symbol that puts us on the path to success, whether we define that by wealth or an Instagram post that makes it seem like we're living a dream life with a dream job. Romanticisation of work seems to be an especially common practise among "knowledge workers" in the middle and upper classes. In 2014, the New Yorker called this devotion to overwork "a cult".
Also worth reading this NYT story on how long work hours are leading to premature death.
The Big are getting seriously Big
The pandemic has been a huge boost for big companies. Good set of charts.
There’s always a market
America now has a “subscription law enforcement service”. It is apparently an “on-demand private security service”. Make what you will.
“The Newest Status Symbol for High-Net Worth Homeowners: Trophy Trees. In search of the perfect garden, the super rich are paying upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring in huge old trees by helicopter, barge and flatbed truck”
What if you can ‘monetize’ every decision you have to make?
Meet the new app that describes itself as - “"a human stock market where you buy shares in the lives of real people, in order to control their decisions and watch the outcome".
Tech is great. Well almost.
Google released a brand new app for that diagnoses skin conditions based on photos. One hitch - it did not have enough, well barely any, data from those with brown or black skin.
On a related note, refreshing to see Twitter being honest about the risks of automated cropping in pictures on the timeline.
We considered the tradeoffs between the speed and consistency of automated cropping with the potential risks we saw in this research. One of our conclusions is that not everything on Twitter is a good candidate for an algorithm, and in this case, how to crop an image is a decision best made by people.
Social media and penny stocks
Very good read on how some ‘cultish’ social media accounts make money by encouraging trading in penny stocks.
Should you work at an early stage startup?
Interesting read…Not for all, definitely.
2021 is weird!
Tesla and ‘self-driving’ cars
Tesla’s confusing communication on its “self-driving” cars is dangerous. For humans simply cannot be trusted.
Aerosols or droplets?
Fab read on how failure to listen to the right people about the airborne nature of COVID-19, inspite of people getting sick everywhere, enabled the pandemic to kill so many more. We went into sanitization overdrive, when we should have gone into ventilation overdrive. Still very important.
The Wirecard saga has a desi twist!
This is a movie in the making! Wirecard’s downfall came because of the mother of the whistleblower who reached out to FT!
How much sharing is too much?
Very thoughtful read on the consequences of too much sharing on social media.
You can be a champion at anything. Therefore, you must be a champion at something.
…
The truth is, we’re advocating for a giant scoreboard—something clear and definitive to measure our worth. Who is up? Who is down? We want the score to always tick higher, more, more, more. We want qualitative proof of recognition and connection and fame. We want to be champions.
The rise, and fall, of an industry based on missed calls
Missed calls gave rise to an industry that grew rapidly. And then declined, even more rapidly. Good read.
Password sharing for video services in the crosshairs
The online video streaming industry is beginning to think of cutting down, or making it inconvenient, password sharing.
You can SPAC a SPAC
Says something about financialization for sure! Not sure what!
Kids and questions beat guns
Don’t @ me, but it sure does appear that kids in kindergarten in America sure know how to deescalate situations much better than American cops!
More interesting links:
How a village in India reached 100% vaccination in the face of misinformation and hesitancy - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-a-village-in-india-reached-100-vaccination-in-the-face-of-misinformation-and-hesitancy
Nvidia to have two sets of GPUs, one optimized for graphics and another for mining. https://theverge.com/2021/5/18/22441847/nvidia-rtx-3080-3070-ethereum-mining-drivers-limit-cryptocurrency
Amazon Said to Make $9 Billion Offer for MGM - https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/amazon-mgm-acquisition-talks-9-billion-1234975168/
A Tl;dr version of everything Google announced at Google I/O 2021 in 9 minutes.
Mobs heed no reason, online or IRL. As Nietzsche said, Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one - "What happens when virtue-signalling enters corporate life" - https://www.ft.com/content/a01eed6c-966d-4e99-9700-f15d4c022617
How Amazon uses its dominance in one business to strong-arm its partners in another business - https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-strong-arms-partners-across-multiple-businesses-11618410439
The pandemic has been a shot in the arm for automation. With many long-term implications - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/19/automation-labor-economy/
“In the nineties, a frustrated artist in Berlin went on a crime spree—building bombs, extorting high-end stores, and styling his persona after Scrooge McDuck. He soon became a German folk hero.” - https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-strange-story-of-dagobert-the-ducktales-bandit
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