Curated Commons // Edition 82
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 82nd edition of Curated Commons. Happy reading, and do pass on the newsletter and share it on your social networks if you find it interesting!
Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
What happens to decommissioned satellites?
They move to graveyard orbit. And then apparently, they are game for hackers! - Read here
Rethinking last-mile delivery
Trucks/bikes alone can’t be what we rely on for last-mile delivery. What are the other options? Drones/robots? - Read here ($)
The future of streaming
Good interview with Jason Kilar, outgoing CEO of WarnerMedia on the future of streaming. - Read here
Can you eat ‘prestige’?
Something that happens with interns/freelancers a lot - where they are expected to take ‘exposure’ as compensation for their time and efforts - is something that happens a lot in the academic world apparently. Asking PhDs with several years of experience to work for…prestige and not money! - Read here ($)
Why do we love disagreeing on social media?
Do you argue a lot without convincing anyone? Welcome to nearly all social media. - Read here ($)
The privacy-loving billionaire woman who wants to give it all away
Scott MacKenzie has given away more than $12 billion away so far. And she’s doing it silently. Respect! - Read here
In the 20 months since Scott publicly announced her first donations, she has not given an interview, or participated in any of the many stories written about her
AI is getting better
Check OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 and wonder what it means for illustrators in the future. All of us will have to constantly keep redefining what our value-add over an algorithm is in the future - Read here
See some amazing examples in this Twitter thread.
When automation sets benchmarks
Amazon is brutally efficient in logistics. But that efficiency also hides how it can be brutal with workers in expecting productivity. - Read here ($)
Spreadsheets are the new disruption playground
Some startups are now paying attention to that all-powerful grand tool of the intelligentsia - spreadsheets. - Read here
Can computers learn common sense?
Yes, but not any time soon. Good read. (While at it, let’s first make common sense universal in humans.) - Read here ($)
The future of the car is…dummy buttons trying to upsell OTA features
If the car is an iPhone on wheels, then we sure should start to expect to see more dummy button placement in cars. Buttons which only work when you buy something additional. - Read here
The future is already littered all around the web. We just need to know where to look.
Someone from Theranos wrote this ten years ago. - Read here
Crypto, biometrics, UBI, a device called ‘orb’, and big-name backers!
This one’s got one too many things going for/against it. Apparently a startup that promised people free crypto if they scanned their eyeballs. A part of a grander experiment of universal basic income. And the device used is apparently called an “orb”. - Read here
Matt Levine on Musk
No better person to write on the weirdest development of the year - one that might very well end up with Musk being CEO of Twitter soon! - Read here ($)
Ahoy, Aliens!
Researchers have put together a new message for extraterrestrials. - Read here
More Interesting Reads:
A history of Commodore-64, from 1985 - Read here
Epic games and Lego are coming together in the metaverse for kids. - Read here
Bring home the supply chains, says chief of Levi’s - Read here
Will Smith’s slap became a memecoin - Read here ($)
More progress in sequencing the human genome sequence - Read here
Can A.I.-driven voice analysis help identify mental disorders? - Read here ($)
Can a concoction of seven different fungi help Delhi to solve its pollution challenges? - Read here
Every tech has a side-effect not foreseen, or ignored, by designers and product managers. The case of airtags and how they are being used to stalk women - Read here
Great thread from Venkatesh. Do read.
Does a four-day work week work? - Thread
Can we speed-grow corals? Over half of them have been wiped out since 1950 - Read here
The pandemic is not done yet. Lockdowns in China are impacting industry after industry. This one on the box office - Read here
What exactly happens at the instant we die - life apparently flashes before our eyes, says a new study - Read here
A subreddit as an open canvas where millions collaborate together - Read here ($)
“This ‘initiative’ is greenwash, topped with more greenwash, garnished with blockchain” - Read here
And finally, just in case you missed this A+ content marketing video
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, thank you, and maybe consider sharing it? My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.