What’s Nextby Jordan Gonen
by Jordan Gonen
This Newsletter May Contain Affiliate Links
Hi there 👋 Appreciate the feedback on last week’s edition! Lots of deep dives and interesting perspectives in this week’s newsletter.
Hope you enjoy!
9.11.2017
Articles to Read.
[tweetstorm] You will never be changed by something you instantly agree with
I Downloaded an app. And Suddenly was part of the Cajun Navy (Absolutely Crazy Story)
The article explained they were using a walkie-talkie-type app called Zello to communicate with each other, locate victims, get directions, etc. I downloaded the app, found the Cajun Navy channel and started listening.
They asked if there was anyone who could work through the night to keep taking rescue requests and log them.
I sat up and turned on my light. I timidly pushed the “talk” button and said, “I can.”
Here I Stand, at Age 80: Ted Nelson recounts his life. (pioneer of the internet)
[book] Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (Quick-ish Read)
This book is an eye-opening perspective on the upbringing and social problems in the white working class in the Appalachians.
“Social mobility isn’t just about money and economics, it’s about a lifestyle change. The wealthy and the powerful aren’t just wealthy and powerful; they follow a different set of norms and mores. When you go from working-class to professional-class, almost everything about your old life becomes unfashionable at best or unhealthy at worst.”
“So, to Papaw and Mamaw, not all rich people were bad, but all bad people were rich.”
“Barack Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities. He is a good father while many of us aren’t. He wears suits to his job while we wear overalls, if we’re lucky enough to have a job at all. His wife tells us that we shouldn’t be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it — not because we think she’s wrong but because we know she’s right.”
The Politics of Cryptography [long read]:
This paper explores the cryptographic aspects of Bitcoin.
In conclusion, by drawing on my reconceptualization of cryptography as a discrete notational system, I suggest that Bitcoin functions as a new weapon in our control society.
It Takes 10 Years To Build A Career in Anything
Reciprocation Bias (11 Minute Read):
If you are like me, whenever receiving a favor, you too feel an immense need, almost an obligation, to pay it back in kind.
Have you ever wondered why?
A large part of the reason is that this behavior seems to have strong evolutionary benefits. It’s so pervasive in human culture, it’s believed that there is no society that does not feel reciprocation’s pull.
If the reciprocation rule is so overpowering, the natural question here would be, is there a way we can still control our response to it?
How A Burning Man Camp Project Became A Multi-Million Dollar Business
“I couldn’t get the idea out of my head,” Weber tells me during a recent interview. “I started to think about [adapting] the walls of a hexayurt together so they fold up into one piece. I thought about doing it with fabric. I got my origami book out and did some drawings.”
The result was the Shiftpod, a sturdy, insulated, easy-to-construct camping shelter that weighs 64 pounds but transports easily. At 77-by-13-by-13 inches, it’s big enough to fit a queen-sized bed and plenty of gear. Most people can stand up in it.
You and Your Research [long read]:
`Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run?’
If you do not work on an important problem, it’s unlikely you’ll do important work.
The three outstanding problems in physics, in a certain sense, were never worked on while I was at Bell Labs. By important I mean guaranteed a Nobel Prize and any sum of money you want to mention. We didn’t work on (1) time travel, (2) teleportation, and (3) antigravity. They are not important problems because we do not have an attack. It’s not the consequence that makes a problem important, it is that you have a reasonable attack. That is what makes a problem important. When I say that most scientists don’t work on important problems, I mean it in that sense. The average scientist, so far as I can make out, spends almost all his time working on problems which he believes will not be important and he also doesn’t believe that they will lead to important problems.
To use the ergodic framework: My death at Russian roulette is not ergodic for me but it is ergodic for the system. The precautionary principle, in the formulation I did with a few colleagues, is precisely about the highest layer.
About every time I discuss the precautionary principle, some overeducated pundit suggests that “we cross the street by taking risks”, so why worry so much about the system?
More:
– Lessons Learned Scaling Airbnb 100x
– [guide] How to Get What You Want Professionally
– When Will Machines Reach Human Intelligence?
– How He Landed a SWE Internship in High School
– ARKit and the Mainstream Adoption of AR
– To Understand Rising Inequality, Consider the Janitors at Two Companies
Current Book I’m Reading — Thinking Fast and Slow
Last Book I Read — Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of A Family and Culture in Crisis
You made it to the end! Thanks for reading 👋
If you enjoyed, would really appreciate if you shared this link!
Want to read more? I write daily, and tweet too!
My Update:
– We’re nearly at 2,000 newsletter subscribers. I’m really excited for this milestone — but really I know just the start. IF you have any feedback or thoughts on how I can scale this newsletter — please email 📩
– I think Augmented Reality will be really important in the next 5 years. So a few friends and I just launched ARVisions, Subscribe
– Just launched IntroSender 🚀 the easiest way to make an introduction (soon: Mesh)
– Continuing work on Student Hustle — A growing community with tons of good career perspectives
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Thanks for reading! Really hope you enjoyed! (If you did, would be really awesome if you could share this link with 5 friends)
– Jordan
Personal Website
By jordangonen on September 11, 2017.
Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.