Weekly Thing #107 / May 25, 2019
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Weekly Thing
Join over 1,000 subscribers to the Weekly Thing by Jamie Thingelstad! Each Saturday morning, you will get my thoughts on technology, leadership, productivity, culture, privacy, and anything else interesting. I add commentary combining my decades of experience leading teams and building technology. I also include my personal writing, what I’m currently into, and a photograph of the week. There is even a fortune at the end! 🥠 A friend once described the Weekly Thing as a “direct feed from Jamie’s brain.” 🧠 There are no ads, your email will never be shared, your privacy will be protected, and it is free. Subscribe now and positively impact your journey with knowledge, insight, and perspective! Here is what others have to say. 🙌 “I’m a better person and leader because of the Weekly Thing!” — Jenny “I look forward to reading what you are digging.” — David “I don’t find the interesting links you share anywhere else!” — Andy “It’s a perfect start to every Saturday!” — Phil
Weekly Newsletter from Jamie Thingelstad
Issue #107 / May 25, 2019
It’s Memorial Day weekend in Minnesota! For Minnesotans this marks the official end of our long winter months, and the true beginning of the summer. The actual weather may not agree with us, but that doesn’t matter. It’s time to declare summer! I’m writing this outside (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/24/nice-spot-to.html) and it is sublime. My main plan for the weekend is to get some more practice sessions on the flat top grill. I need to work on my short order cook skills! 🍳
I’ve been noodling on some new things to include in the Weekly Thing. I haven’t settled on anything yet, but I’m playing with some ideas that I think will be fun.
If you are in the US of A I hope you have a fabulous holiday weekend! 🇺🇸
Featured Links 🏅
Tesla: Insane or Clever – Monday Note (https://mondaynote.com/tesla-insane-or-clever-b7a8e1479f6b) mondaynote.com
This article captures very well the way I think about Tesla. It’s all about the software.
Turning to mainstream, legacy car companies, we have to ask what they know about software — and do they even care? The Engine Control Unit, the computer that controls ignition and fuel injection, comes from a vendor like Robert Bosch (my autokorrekt wants to write “ogre botch”); the gearbox controller from ZF (as in toothed gears, Zahnrad Fabrik) or Japan’s Aisin; and the entertainment/navigation module from Panasonic and others. And they all use bundled software. To conventional automakers, software is a sourced component, often from the lowest bidder, a hard-to-control annoyance.
It’s a situation that’s reminiscent of the early days of cell phones. Motorola and Nokia had software because they had to, they even boasted about being good at it, only to be displaced by competitors who loved software, namely Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
I’ve told many friends that driving my Tesla Model 3 feels a lot using an early iPhone. The dashboard’s emptiness harkens back to the ridicule of the first iPhone, that “it doesn’t even have a keyboard!” Yeah, there is no speedometer in the middle of the steering wheel. The car can become completely different with a software update. Just today I got a new software push that changes dramatically some of the on screen displays.
It’s awesome to experience this, and wether other companies catch up to batteries and motors I suspect is a given. But catching up to the unified software platform that Tesla has is going to be exceedingly hard. For everyone that is, except other software companies. 😎
My Weekly Photo 📷
American Flag hanging in the Crystal Court alongside the IDS Center.
American Flag hanging in the Crystal Court alongside the IDS Center. May 18, 2019 at 1:59 PM IDS Center, 80 South 8th St, Minneapolis, MN
Notable Links 📌
The Empty Promise of Data Moats – Andreessen Horowitz (https://a16z.com/2019/05/09/data-network-effects-moats/) a16z.com
Just having data doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a use and have structured the data in a way to provide strategic benefit.
None of this is to suggest data is pointless! But it does need more thoughtful consideration than leaping from “we have lots of data” to “therefore we have long-term defensibility”. Because data moats clearly don’t last (or automatically happen) through data collection alone, carefully thinking about the strategies that map onto the data journey can help you compete with — and more intentionally and proactively keep up with — a data advantage. It’s way better to plan for it than being blindsided when an asymptote or point of diminishing returns suddenly hits your company.
Having a data strategy is probably a good place to start.
Khoi Vinh on How His Blog Amplified His Work and Career – Own Your Content (https://ownyourcontent.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/khoi-vinh-on-how-his-blog-amplified-his-work-and-career/) ownyourcontent.wordpress.com
Great story from a well known blogger on the value that his personal website has brought to his career and work.
Playdate. A New Handheld Gaming System (https://play.date/) play.date
This looks super fun, and Panic is a top-tier company that makes great products. I love the idea that this brand new handheld game unit comes with a “Season 1” of 12 games, delivered every week. Gruber’s reaction (https://daringfireball.net/2019/05/playdate) is worth reading too. Plus, it has a crank! Love that! 🤩🕹
The Human Antivenom Project | Outside Online (https://www.outsideonline.com/2395803/snakebite-antivenom-tim-friede) www.outsideonline.com
This is absolutely bananas. 🐍
In the video, Friede holds the head of a Papua New Guinea taipan, one of the world’s most potently venomous snakes, against his forearm. Blood is already dripping from fang marks on his right arm, left there moments earlier by a ten-foot-long black mamba. Now the taipan bites. An attack from either snake can stop a person’s heart in a couple of hours. Other symptoms, including drooping eyelids and paralysis of the tongue, develop in seconds. But Friede calmly puts the snake back in its cage and says to the camera, “I love it. I love it. I love it.”
😲
Google Gmail tracks purchase history — how to delete it (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/google-gmail-tracks-purchase-history-how-to-delete-it.html) www.cnbc.com
It surprises me that people would be surprised that Google would index the email receipts that you receive to augment to your profile for advertising. Of course they would. It’s a cheap and very effective way to see purchasing activity all around the web, and in some cases offline!
Novelist Mark Haddon Quit Twitter. Not Because It’s Terrible, But Because It Prevents Him From Being Great - Study Hacks - Cal Newport (http://www.calnewport.com/blog/2019/05/17/novelist-mark-haddon-quit-twitter-not-because-its-terrible-but-because-it-prevents-him-from-being-great/) www.calnewport.com
This is spot on. I’m guessing it’s bad form to quote another articles quote, but…
“I am taking a long break because every tweet had begun to feel like a peep of steam through my whistle — Listen to me! Listen to me! — which reduced the boiler pressure I needed to write another novel.”
Blurting out little bits of stuff has exactly this effect for me of letting out the steam. I debate often removing those outlets to force the urge to author to build up to something more substantial.
Olivia Laing: ‘I was hooked and my drug was Twitter’ | Technology | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/05/olivia-laing-i-was-hooked-and-my-drug-was-twitter) www.theguardian.com
The emotions that Laing describe in this article are very close to what I feel from Twitter, but certainly not as strong as she describes.
A 2014 study by Dutch neurologists suggests that when people see an accident, they can’t at first empathise, let alone reflect, make decisions or act, because they are bombarded by an instantaneous flight/freeze/fight response, which has to wear off before they can think in more helpful ways. It seems to me now that being on Twitter was like watching a perpetual car crash.
Ever since I’ve stopped following any profiles and only use Twitter to syndicate to, I’ve not had this problem, which is great.
Can “Indie” Social Media Save Us? | The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/can-indie-social-media-save-us) www.newyorker.com
Nice writeup by Cal Newport about IndieWeb solutions. I like that he highlights my own microblogging platform of choice, micro.blog! He’s skeptical they can have the scale of the surveillance networks out there today.
Despite its advantages, however, I suspect that the IndieWeb will not succeed in replacing existing social-media platforms at their current scale. For one thing, the IndieWeb lacks the carefully engineered addictiveness that helped fuel the rise of services like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This addictiveness has kept people returning to their devices even when they know there are better uses for their time; remove the addiction, and you might lose the users.
I totally agree, but I also don’t think the goal is to be that scale. These services are human scale, and that is part of what makes them great.
Give Back 🎁
https://www.eff.org
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (https://www.eff.org) is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. I have been a member of the EFF for years. Not only is the EFF working hard to protect you on the Internet they have also recently launched solutions like Privacy Badger (https://www.eff.org/privacybadger) and the critically important Let’s Encrypt (https://letsencrypt.org) service to make encrypting web servers free to anyone. Support the EFF with a donation (https://supporters.eff.org/donate) !
Yet More Links 🍞
- Kickstarter will not voluntarily recognize its employee union - The Verge (https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/15/18627052/kickstarter-union-nlrb-election) www.theverge.com I didn’t realize that Kickstarter had so much internal turmoil.
- Focused, beautiful & free blogging – Proseful (https://proseful.com/) proseful.com Another super simple, nicely designed blogging service. It’s never been easier to create your own website!
- The best cycling hack is a pool noodle — Quartz (https://qz.com/1620913/the-best-cycling-hack-is-a-pool-noodle/) qz.com I’ve done my share of riding on rural highways and this is a pretty great idea!
- Google AI Blog: Introducing Translatotron: An End-to-End Speech-to-Speech Translation Model (https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/05/introducing-translatotron-end-to-end.html?m=1) ai.googleblog.com Getting closer to creating our very own, non-fiction, Babel Fish (https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish) !
Microposts 🎈
Thursday @ 11:20 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/23/we-got-to.html)
We got to take in some jazz from Patricia Barber (https://www.patriciabarber.com) at the Dakota tonight. Very good! 🎶
mp-photo-alt[]=
Thursday @ 3:16 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/23/minnestar-board-strategy.html)
Minnestar board strategy and future planning session! Great group and an amazing community! 👍 @minnestar
Wednesday @ 8:13 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/22/at-the-minnesota.html)
At the Minnesota United v Hertha Berlin friendly! ⚽️👏 #MINvHER #MNUFC
Sunday @ 12:17 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/19/was-planning-a.html)
Was planning a moderate 60 minute spin, but ended up with a PR (https://members.onepeloton.com/profile/workouts/559a7868755a4aff9dfc0b08af3c862b) ! Nice. 🙌 #peloton
Saturday @ 8:03 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/18/there-is-seriously.html)
There is seriously no better Polish sausage than Kramarczuk’s Deli (https://www.kramarczuks.com) . Minneapolis institution! 🤤
Saturday @ 4:36 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/18/another-saturday-another.html)
Another Saturday, another PR (https://members.onepeloton.com/profile/workouts/0fa0a4a0d7434bdf90f418acb6ea62f5) ! Plus hit 102% MHR! 🚴🏼♂️ #peloton
Saturday @ 10:18 AM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/18/goals-from-franck.html)
Goals from Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben in today’s Bayern game, their final (https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/franck-ribery-arjen-robben-break-16165414) and the title clencher, are amazing. ⚽️👏
Saturday @ 9:51 AM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2019/05/18/awesome-goal-from.html)
Awesome goal from David Alaba (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alaba) to take Bayern ahead 2-1! And then Renato Sanches (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renato_Sanches) to go 3-1! ⚽️ Championship Saturday! 👏
Fortune 🥠
You’ve made it all the way to the end! 👏 Here is your fortune for this week.
Someone is speaking well of you.
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