- Google CEO Warns Staff: Stay Nonpartisan
In a staff memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Pichai told employees, known as “Googlers,” that the company has strict policies against letting political views influence the products they create.
“We do not bias our products to favor any political agenda,” Mr. Pichai said. “The trust our users place in us is our greatest asset and we must always protect it. If any Googler ever undermines that trust, we will hold them accountable.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-ceo-warns-staff-stay-nonpartisan-1537580004?ns=prod/accounts-wsj
- Amazon Is a Giant. But Bigness Isn’t a Crime.
Many in the field point to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in the 2004 case of Verizon v. Trinko. It examined the question of whether Verizon was required, under antitrust law, to provide competitors wholesale access to its telephone network.
“The mere possession of monopoly power, and the concomitant charging of monopoly prices is not only not unlawful; it is an important element of the free market system,” Justice Scalia wrote.
In this view, there is no crime in being monopolist; the crime is in abusing that power. According to Justice Scalia, a healthy monopoly “induces risk taking that produces innovation and economic growth.”
- An astronaut’s guide to risk taking | Chris Hadfield
- How to Successfully Delegate Work to Someone Else
Even if you don’t have a specific “deadline” for a delegated task, come up with an arbitrary one that you give someone the first time you pass a responsibility their way. A reasonable deadline can make sure the task doesn’t get forgotten and can give you a good idea of when you can expect the work to be completed.
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-successfully-delegate-work-to-someone-else-1829254908
- Hate your cubicle? Thank medieval monks
But medieval monks may have been the first to use cubicles–or a scriptorium, as it was called–as they worked on manuscripts. These writing rooms were also used by lay scribes and illuminators.
Botticelli’s painting of St. Augustine in his cell depicts a small three-walled alcove with a curtain, further suggesting that such work in Renaissance times was done in secluded spaces to maximize focus. Coincidentally, this painting hangs in the Uffizi Gallery, which was originally the central administrative building of the Medici empire.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90236769/hate-your-cubicle-thank-medieval-monks
Photo by Angelo Pantazis on Unsplash