Weekly Thing #60 / Jun 30, 2018
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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
60 / Jun 30, 2018
I don’t have a lot to update on this week, and there are no features or changes to the Weekly Thing for me to share and have a meta update around. 🤷♂️ Have a great weekend and enjoy the links below! ⬇️
Featured Links 🏅
In Formula 1, you have to be amazing just to be average - The Verge (https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/26/17499438/formula1-french-grand-prix-behind-the-scenes) www.theverge.com
Some nice pictures and behind the scenes look into Formula 1 (https://www.formula1.com) .
How Silicon Valley is responding to the immigration crisis - Recode (https://www.recode.net/2018/6/25/17499356/charlotte-dave-willner-facebook-reunite-immigrant-parent-children-fundraiser-brian-chesky-podcast) www.recode.net
I am often very critical of Facebook, but this is an example of something that would definitely not happen without Facebook. This fundraiser started by trying to raise $1,500 for RAICES to fund legal support for families separated at the border (https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/bondfund) . Within 2 days they had raised $1 million and are now over $20 million! I bypassed Facebook, but appreciated them highlighting this organization and donated (https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/bondfund) myself.
The Legend of Nintendo - Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-21/how-nintendo-s-switch-helped-the-japanese-gaming-giant-win-again) www.bloomberg.com
An in-depth background on Nintendo. I find Nintendo a very interesting company with such a rich history. I’m happy that the Switch is experiencing strong growth. Nintendo, for me, captures the essence of fun in games.
My Weekly Photo 📷
When you walk around Lake Harriet in South Minneapolis there is this tree on the south end of the lake that has a fairy house built in the bottom of it. It’s such an awesome idea and it adds a little bit of magic 🎩 to your walk.
Fairy house in the base of a tree. Jun 24, 2018 at 8:03 PM Lake Harriet, 4869–4899 W Lake Harriet Pkwy, Minneapolis MN
Notable Links 📌
Click ‘Delete’ to Save Your Soul - The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/books/review/jaron-lanier-ten-arguments-for-deleting-your-social-media-accounts-right-now.html) www.nytimes.com
Review of Jaron Lanier’s (http://www.jaronlanier.com) new book Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250196682) . The book itself does not get a glowing review, but it comes with a punch at the end.
Only at the very end does Lanier venture into new territory. His argument, however, is a profound one. He worries that our reliance on big tech companies is ruining our capacity for spirituality, by turning us into robotic extensions of their machines.
If you are less versed in the debate about social media the book may be more novel.
Watch Apple CEO Tim Cook Speak at Fortune’s CEO Initiative - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=629XzLgO6ac) www.youtube.com
I turn into more of a Tim Cook fanboy every time I watch an interview with him. 🤩 Very eloquent, direct answers to the topics discussed.
Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvzCTqkBDQ) www.youtube.com
Make your day, just watch the absolute genuine Paul McCartney. 🎧
Introducing a16z crypto – a16zcrypto (https://a16zcrypto.com/2018/06/introducing-a16z-crypto/) a16zcrypto.com
Andreessen Horowitz (https://a16z.com) launches a new crypto focused fund.
Today we are announcing the launch of a16z crypto, a $300M venture fund that will invest in crypto companies and protocols.
💰
How Atul Gawande landed the most extraordinary job in health care (https://www.statnews.com/2018/06/25/how-atul-gawande-landed-extraordinary-impossible-job/) www.statnews.com
I’ve read a number of Atul Gawande’s books and he has always impressed me as an incredibly talented and smart person. He also seems to have an infinite amount of energy. Him joining this very well funded healthcare venture is very interesting.
Fear of missing out - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out) en.wikipedia.org
This is the thing that keeps people from disengaging with social media. It’s good to name it, understand it, so you can manage it.
REST vs. GraphQL: A Critical Review – Good API (https://blog.goodapi.co/rest-vs-graphql-a-critical-review-5f77392658e7) blog.goodapi.co
An argument for using GraphQL for API development, and that it’s easier than REST.
Here is the idea: If you have never heard about the REST architectural style constraints and their implication on the properties of the resulting distributed system and you do not want to (or can’t) educate yourself, use GraphQL.
🤔
Intel and the Danger of Integration — Stratechery by Ben Thompson (https://stratechery.com/2018/intel-and-the-danger-of-integration/) stratechery.com
Keen observations on the very difficult spot that Intel is in. For the first time ever they are following others in fabrication.
The Sweet Setup Guide to Cutting the Cord – The Sweet Setup (https://thesweetsetup.com/articles/sweet-setup-guide-cutting-cord/) thesweetsetup.com
Thorough guide to various options for getting rid of cable TV (or satellite TV). I cut the cord in 2009 (https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/directv-canceled/) . The options now are great. I’ve long had an Apple TV attached to each TV we have. I’ve recently gotten the HDHomeRun (https://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/) referenced here and am using it with Plex on my Synology NAS. We also have Netflix, Hulu and HBO Now subscriptions.
Ways to think about machine learning — Benedict Evans (https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2018/06/22/ways-to-think-about-machine-learning-8nefy) www.ben-evans.com
A grounded, reality-based view of the potential of machine learning and how we should be thinking about it in solutions.
So, this is a good grounding way to think about ML today - it’s a step change in what we can do with computers, and that will be part of many different products for many different companies. Eventually, pretty much everything will have ML somewhere inside and no-one will care.
I like the pragmatic views in this.
Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance (https://littlebits.com/zero-tolerance-for-zero-tolerance) littlebits.com
The CEO of littlebits (https://littlebits.com/) , an immigrant and refuge, taking a position on the despicable separation of children from their parents at the border.
History will judge us if we sit still and allow this to happen. Our kids will not forgive us if we don’t stand up for them. Our conscience will not rest if we allow something so basically human to appear partisan. We must speak out.
It’s good to see tech companies taking positions on important matters.
Why do I procrastinate | And How to Stop Right Away (https://whydoiprocrastinate.com/) whydoiprocrastinate.com
Interesting set of questions to categorize why you might not be working on something. I plugged in my perennial favorite “Clean the garage” and got back that “Lack of value” is why I’m not getting it done.
To-Do: Find a Better To-Do List | Doodle Blog (https://en.blog.doodle.com/2018/06/22/to-do-find-a-better-to-do-list/) en.blog.doodle.com
Tips for managing your to do list more efficiently. I do the “If/Then” on my lists. I’ll have something like “Take multivitamin, if at home” for example. The “Have-Done” concept is easily done in a tool like OmniFocus. I’m less into ideas like the “1-3-5 list”.
A Supervised Approach To The Interpretation Of Imperative To-Do Lists (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.07999.pdf) arxiv.org
Interesting machine analysis of “to do” lists. It surprises me that more research hasn’t been done in this area, but understandably there is not a lot of data to pull out. To Do’s are very short, so understanding intent could be hard.
To-do lists are a popular medium for personal information management. As to-do tasks are increasingly tracked in electronic form with mobile and desk- top organizers, so does the potential for software support for the corresponding tasks by means of intelligent agents. While there has been work in the area of personal assistants for to-do tasks, no work has focused on classifying user intention and information extraction as we do. We show that our methods per- form well across two corpora that span sub-domains, one of which we released.
This approach would also benefit from tuning over time. People tend to develop “shorthands” that they use in their To Do’s and a system could learn those and tune to each person over time.
Smarter, Not Harder: How to Succeed at Work (https://fs.blog/2018/06/succeed-at-work/) fs.blog
Get focus in what you do. I love the 96 blocks a day idea, and choosing what you do with these.
Service Mesh and Cookpad – Envoy Proxy (https://blog.envoyproxy.io/service-mesh-and-cookpad-ba4d5d915dbd) blog.envoyproxy.io
I like that this article is written from more of an “average” company perspective. Service mesh is a powerful and useful capability, but it is less interesting to me how giant tech companies use it. I want to know how average companies use it.
We’ve Come a Long Way in 30 Years (But You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet!) — Wolfram Blog (http://blog.wolfram.com/2018/06/21/weve-come-a-long-way-in-30-years-but-you-havent-seen-anything-yet/) blog.wolfram.com
Mathematica has been around for 30 years – wow! When I read Wolfram’s thoughts on Mathematica I always feel like he is onto something much bigger than I can comprehend.
An Invisible Rating System At Your Favorite Chain Restaurant Is Costing Your Server (https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/ziosk-presto-tabletop-tablet-restaurant-rating-servers#.tqg28Jv8q) www.buzzfeed.com
This is a great example of the unintended consequences of more technology in the workplace, and making uninformed decisions with the technology. People who understand how rating systems work, and the things that influence them, would never suggest you evaluate a servers performance on it.
Give Back 🎁
https://minnestar.org
Minnestar (https://minnestar.org/) is the technology community for Minnesota. If you are passionate about technology you need to go to Minnebar and Minnedemo. Did you know that Minnebar is the largest BarCamp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp) in North America and one of the largest in the world? Its also been going on for over 10 years? Minnedemo is the best place to hear about innovative tech and fun projects in the Twin Cities area. I am on the Minnestar board and I focus on Minnestar as one of the driving forces improving and expanding the technology community in the area. Minnestar is a 501c3 non-profit. Become a Community Supporter today! (https://minnestar.donortools.com/)
Yet More Links 🍞
- A one size fits all database doesn’t fit anyone - All Things Distributed (https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2018/06/purpose-built-databases-in-aws.html) www.allthingsdistributed.com Overview of the various database offerings of AWS.
- macOS Mojave: Back to the Mac - Six Colors (https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/06/mojave-beta/) sixcolors.com Fantastic overview of both big and small new things in macOS Mojave. I wasn’t very intrigued by the news on Mojave, but these improvements look solid.
- molten: modern API framework (https://moltenframework.com/) moltenframework.com molten is a minimal, extensible, fast and productive framework for building HTTP APIs with Python.
- America’s Millennials Are Waking Up to a Grim Financial Future - Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-21/america-s-millennials-are-waking-up-to-a-grim-financial-future) www.bloomberg.com I wish these graphs looked better.
- How To Fall Asleep And Why We Need More : Shots - Health News : NPR (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/10/16/558058812/sleep-scientist-warns-against-walking-through-life-in-an-underslept-state) www.npr.org I read the book, but this article captures some of the key points in snippet form.
- Self-Hosted Developer Bliss - Home - Bruno Antunes (https://blog.nootch.net/2018/06/24/self-hosted-developer-bliss/) blog.nootch.net Great collection of various tools for running your own infrastructure. I hadn’t heard of dokku (http://dokku.viewdocs.io/dokku/) but it looks great.
- Young people still love Twitter — as screenshots on Instagram - The Verge (https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/21/17442028/instagram-twitter-meme-accounts-screenshots-text) www.theverge.com The social web of meaninglessness.
Microposts 🎈
Thursday @ 7:32 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/28/first-clematis-flower.html)
First clematis flower of the year.
Tuesday @ 9:15 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/26/i-contributed-to.html)
I contributed to RAICES Bond Fund to help reunite immigrant children (https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/bondfund) separated from their families after listening to this podcast on responding to the immigration crisis (https://www.recode.net/2018/6/25/17499356/charlotte-dave-willner-facebook-reunite-immigrant-parent-children-fundraiser-brian-chesky-podcast) . They’ve raised over $20M and still going.
Monday @ 9:39 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/25/introducing-mazie-to.html)
Introducing Mazie to the 1980’s by watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (https://imdb.com/title/tt0091042/) . Classic. 🎬
Monday @ 8:38 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/25/013826.html)
We had a fun time beating The Search for Atlantis (https://www.escape-frenzy.com/Our-Rooms/The-Search-for-Atlantis) at Escape Frenzy! Another escape room down! 🙌🏻
Sunday @ 9:56 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/24/we-dropped-tyler.html)
We dropped Tyler off for his first overnight camp. Just two nights. Experienced some nervousness and anxiety as we sent him off, but Tyler seemed okay. 😬
Sunday @ 9:35 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/24/tyler-scoring-a.html)
Tyler scoring a run this weekend. ⚾️
Sunday @ 9:34 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/24/urban-fishing-on.html)
Urban fishing on Lake Harriet tonight.
Saturday @ 6:13 PM (https://micro.thingelstad.com/2018/06/23/took-my-canon.html)
Took my Canon 5D Mark II with the 70-200 f/2.8L to Tyler’s baseball game today. Good reminder of how far iPhone photography has to go. 📷
Fortune 🥠
Here is your fortune for this week. 👏
Don’t blow your own trumpet.
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