News You Can Use: 9/18/2019


Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

  • The Many Ways Planned Obsolescence Is Sabotaging How We Preserve Internet History

    But one issue keeps cropping up that I think is going to become even more prevalent in the years to come: Non-functional batteries.

    Battery technology and the circuitry that connects to it varies wildly, and it creates issues that prevent gadgets from living their best lives, in a huge part due to the slow decay of lithium-ion batteries.

    A prominent example of this, of course, are AirPods, highly attractive and functional tools that will slowly become less useful over time as their batteries go through hundreds of cycles and start to lose steam. But at the same time, AirPods are just an example of what is destined to happen to basically every set of Bluetooth headphones over time: The lithium-ion batteries driving them will slowly decay and turn a once-useful product into an object that must be continually replaced because a single part, the battery, cannot be replaced.

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjwmqm/the-many-ways-planned-obsolescence-is-sabotaging-how-we-preserve-internet-history

  • India’s Restaurants Rebel Against Food Delivery Apps

    The frustration goes beyond India. As food ordering and delivery increasingly move online, restaurateurs and delivery workers around the world are questioning the small share of the pie they get from powerful gatekeepers like Zomato in India, Grubhub and DoorDash in the United States, and Deliveroo in Europe.

    The apps have made it easier for people to order takeout meals, and restaurants have gotten exposure to a larger audience of diners. But the platforms also charge hefty commissions on each order and can squeeze the profit margins of culinary establishments. In the United States, some restaurants have closed, unable to keep up with the cost of working with the delivery apps.

    The revolt in India underscores how tense the relationship between restaurants and the dining apps has become. On Thursday, restaurateurs spent all day meeting with top executives of Zomato and Swiggy, but failed to settle their differences.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/technology/india-restaurants-logout-delivery-zomato.html

  • How to vastly improve your problem-solving workshops

    Key Concept: Move from ideas to experimentation quickly
  • Out-of-Office Replies: Can a Strongly Worded One Set You Free?

    Some people threaten to delete all emails upon return. Many deflect with a joke, but taking creative liberties with an OOO only works if you’re high enough on the food chain in certain industries. “Stating you’ll respond ‘if you feel inspired’ will likely be poorly received at a law firm or by your boss if you’re entry-level,” said Ms. Licht. “It comes down to anticipating who’s receiving the message.”

    Others think that working a not-so-humble brag about, say, your “tightly scheduled tour of vineyards in Burgundy” into your OOO might convince people to leave you alone, or at least want to. For some recipients, however, “that’s just too much information,” said Ann Shoket, author of “The Big Life,” a self-help resource for professionals.

    If you can’t totally excise yourself from the grind, or can’t push your work off to a colleague, Ms. Johnson recommends selecting a window of availability each day to maintain some semblance of control over a vacation. Because let’s be real, we can never truly sign off(line) anymore.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/out-of-office-replies-can-a-strongly-worded-one-set-you-free-11567174442

News You Can Use: 9/28/2016

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  • Indian workers staged one of the largest strikes in human history and no one in the USA noticed

    The strike came after Modi began a push for increased foreign investment and privatization of some state-run industries. Unions fear these policies will undermine both wages and employment.

    The size of the strike alone forced the government to offer concessions prior to Friday in an attempt to avert it, offering a boost in the minimum wage for some non-skilled workers and the unfreezing of some public employee bonuses.

    The unions were not persuaded by this offer. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his fight is with poverty, but it seems his fight is with the poor in this country,” Indian National Trade Union Congress Vice President Ashok Singh said prior to the strike.

    http://boingboing.net/2016/09/08/indian-workers-staged-one-of-t.html

  • Three Helpful Techniques to Ease You Into Talking With Strangers

    Use “triangulation”: Triangulation is the process of talking about something in the environment that both you and the other person can see. The book they’re reading, a street performer playing a song, or even a beautiful sunset can be a great opener.

    http://lifehacker.com/three-helpful-techniques-to-ease-you-into-talking-with-1786019077

  • Gartner study highlights disparity between supply chain leaders and staff

    Ken Chadwick, Research Director at Gartner, said: “To adapt and response on the fly to challenges their organisation faces, supply chain leaders must develop the organisation’s change capabilities. Being ‘change agile’, having the ability to design and adopt new ideas and changes quickly and completely should be the goal of supply chain leaders in the digital era.

    http://www.manufacturingglobal.com/lean/951/Gartner-study-highlights-disparity-between-supply-chain-leaders-and-staff

  • Eight Proven Strategies for Better Remote Work

    One way to measure your progress is by using the X-card technique. (Some people call this the “Seinfeld Technique,” named after comedian Jerry Seinfeld who committed to working every day to hone his craft, without breaking the chain.)

    The technique is simple enough: start by creating an “X-Card,” an index card divided into a 7×7 grid of 49 boxes. You could also use a dedicated app like 7 weeks or a good old-fashioned calendar.

    On top of each card, write the habit you want to stick with. Every time you stick to that habit, you mark it with a big X in one of the boxes.

    http://lifehacker.com/eight-proven-strategies-for-better-remote-work-1786346960

  • Coupa IPO: Is The Unicorn Dead?

    However, with yesterday’s announcement that Coupa has filed the preliminary paperwork to take the company public by way of a $75 million IPO, the purpose of this post is to help you to avoid getting caught up in the usual analyst speak and blogger assessments.

    In the new age of the commoditized cloud – where technological differences between one provider and the next are becoming increasingly indistinguishable, it is the people behind the company that matter the most. In particular, those in positions of leadership.

    https://procureinsights.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/coupa-ipo-is-the-unicorn-dead/

Photo: Joey Kyber