Category: personal AnGoL

The Disruption Antidote This analysis applies to Facebook and Google, two of the other companies in that chart, more than you might expect. While the two companies’ revenues are based on advertising, the attractiveness to advertisers rests on consumers using both services. Both, though, are disadvantaged to an extent because their means of making money operate orthogonally to a great user experience; both are protected by the fact would-be competitors inevitably have the same business model. That is why, fo

Source: Divine Discontent: Disruption’s Antidote – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

The business model follows from these fundamental differences: a platform provider has no room for ads, because the primary function of a platform is provide a stage for the applications that users actually need to shine. Aggregators, on the other hand, particularly Google and Facebook, deal in information, and ads are simply another type of information. Moreover, because the critical point of differentiation for aggregators is the number of users on their platform, advertising is the only possible business

Source: Tech’s Two Philosophies – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Opinion is not scholarship, it is not journalism, and we are dying for lack of honest, fact-based, slow inquiry. Twenty years since my first scholarship-based op-ed ran in The New York Times, here’s what I see: a postapocalyptic, postmodern media landscape where thoughtfulness and nonpartisan inquiry go to die. The Intellectual Dark Web isn’t a solution, it might just be a sign of end times. I’m all for bringing intellectualism to the masses, but like a lot of academics, I value ambivalence itself, along w

Source: Why I Escaped the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Entrepreneurs think they are better than their resumes show and realize they can make more money by going it alone. And in most cases, they are right.

Source: Why Entrepreneurs Start Companies Rather Than Join Them

If a decision is reversible, we can make it fast and without perfect information. If a decision is irreversible, we had better slow down the decision-making process and ensure that we consider ample information and understand the problem as thoroughly as we can. Bezos used this heuristic to make the decision to found Amazon. He recognized that if Amazon failed, he could return to his prior job. He would still have learned a lot and would not regret trying. The decision was reversible, so he took a risk. Th

Source: Go Fast and Break Things: The Difference Between Reversible and Irreversible Decisions

HYMN TO TIME
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Time says “Let there be”
every moment and instantly
there is space and the radiance
of each bright galaxy.
And eyes beholding radiance.
And the gnats’ flickering dance.
And the seas’ expanse.
And death, and chance.
Time makes room
for going and coming home
and in time’s womb
begins all ending.
Time is being and being
time, it is all one thing,
the shining, the seeing,
the dark abounding.

I can’t believe I am bookmarking something from the National Review.

Amid political differences, there was respect. Then it was back to basketball. It was back to dunks, to the challenges of defending the pick-and-roll, and to off-topic rants from Shaq and Charles. It was back to the things that games are supposed to do: to bring us joy, to tie communities together, to sometimes provoke and sometimes inspire. That’s today’s NBA. That’s why it’s on the rise.

Source: NBA Popularity and Rise in American Culture | National Review

There are at least three different kinds of feedback that may be appropriate in a given situation:
APPRECIATION is expression of gratitude or approval of another’s effort. It is an expression of emotion, designed to meet an emotional need.
ADVICE (or COACHING) consists of suggestions about particular behavior that should be repeated or changed. It focuses on the performance, rather than judging the person.
EVALUATION is ranking the subject’s performance in relation to that of others or against an explicit or implicit set of standards.
The habit you want to develop is to know your purposes when you offer feedback, and to make your comments in a form appropriate to accomplishing that purpose.

Source: How to Provide Great Feedback When You’re Not In Charge

I am livid. I am seething with anger. I wish to walk but the irrational part of my brain is warning me against being labeled nanlaban. I don’t know how long, but if this continues I have to completely disengage from Facebook.

Head to your mental casino and place the bet, quantifying all the subjective information in your head that is messy and hard to articulate. You will cut through the endless “but maybes” and have a clear path forward that addresses the probable future. It may make sense to give him the benefit of the doubt. It may also be reasonable to avoid him as much as possible. When you figure out how much you would wager on the potential outcomes, you’ll know what to do. Sometimes we can’t just get rid of people who a

Source: Bayes and Deadweight: Using Statistics to Eject the Deadweight From Your Life