What I see in different shades of gray, from behind my reading glasses
I needed to clear my head so walked down to the beach mid-morning. Something I can agree with the local vandal, for sure.
The thoughts in my head were reflected in the choppy waves – and both, I think, needed a change of environment to calm down.
I’ve shared this band before – a long time ago here and here. Kenneth & Joey do this thing with cleverly written lyrics, beautiful harmonies & superb guitar playing. This concert at Lincoln Theater is a great listen, and has some hilarious dead-pan narrative by Joey about the ampersand (I learnt a thing or two :))
If all those questions are so frequently asked, why aren’t they addressed in the primary communication itself? Why do you need a separate section that is longer than the copy? Does anyone responsible for this “communication” or “website” ever ask the question what’s the FAQ section for?
/rant
In the hands of law enforcement, this data could be evidence. But at every other moment, the location data is reviewed by hedge funds, financial institutions and marketers, in an attempt to learn more about where we shop and how we live.
This new data set offers proof that not only is there more interest in location data than before, but it is also easier to deanonymize. It gets easier by the day. As the data from Jan. 6 eerily demonstrates, it does not discriminate. It harvests from the phones of MAGA rioters, police officers, lawmakers and passers-by. There is no evidence, from the past or current day, that the power this data collection offers will be used only to good ends. There is no evidence that if we allow it to continue to happen, the country will be safer or fairer.
Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson show , in this NYTimes Opinion piece, how insidiously apps leak information, whether users know it or not
A perspective worth considering: what should middle management actually be doing?
Think of the role of the direct manager in performance management. Ultimately, it’s not about the system. It’s not about the form. It’s about whether your direct manager helps you understand the value of your work and how it fits into a broader strategy. It’s about coaching. It’s about real-time feedback delivered by a human. I think we’ve undervalued those elements, tried to systematize them away with data, with systems, with tools. Meanwhile, workers are asking for better leaders, better apprenticeships, better coaching. When we try to disintermediate the role of a good midlevel leader, I think we do this at our peril.
Fred Wilson makes the point in a short blog post:
There will always be new mistakes to make. It is best not to repeat the ones you’ve already made.
Ms. Grossman, writing about Gamestop’s fall, rise & fall & fall & …:
In the long term, fundamentals *should* matter. because the value of having the market in the first place isn’t to make people rich but to help channel investment to viable businesses. If it doesn’t fulfill that function it’s time for real reform.
“Your relentless pursuit of wisdom postpones your actually possessing it. Quit chasing after tonics and new teachers. The latest fashionable sage or book or diet or belief doesn’t move you in the direction of a flourishing life. You do.”
HT FS Blog, 10 Lessons of an MIT Education:
Lesson Five: You don’t have to be a genius to do creative work.
The idea of genius elaborated during the Romantic Age (late 18th and 19th centuries) has done harm to education. It is demoralizing to give a young person role models of Beethoven, Einstein, and Feynman, presented as saintly figures who moved from insight to insight without a misstep. Scientific biographies often fail to give a realistic description of personality, and thereby create a false idea of scientific work.
Prof Max Bazerman’s book “Better, Not Perfect“:
Bazerman’s guiding light is the philosophy of utilitarianism, which teaches the goal of creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people. But he tempers that with the principle of “maximum sustainable goodness,” a term he coined based on the environmental concept of “maximal sustainable yield”—that is, the amount of goodness that a person can achieve over time without depleting their ability to do good in the future.
