Hi, this is an issue of my monthly newsletter. I’ve picked a few interesting articles on technology, startups, growth, marketing and other topics for you.
I hope you enjoy the read with your morning cup of coffee. Let me know what you think! ~Max
Technology and Startups
- Fake videos of real people — and how to spot them. (TED video)
- The Cloud 100. The top private companies in cloud computing 2018.
- Magic Leap One first look: worth the hype? Spoiler: not quite. (TechnologyReview)
- The Impossible Job: Inside Facebook’s Struggle to Moderate Two Billion People. The struggle is real. (VICE)
- Tesla, software and disruption. A deeper look at Tesla’s business strategy and future. Is Tesla going to completely disrupt the car industry? Or will the incumbents learn to build software faster than Tesla can learn to make cars at scale? (Ben Evans, a16z)
- Everybody Dance Now. “Do as I do” motion transfer facilitated by machine learning: given a source video of a person dancing, that performance can be transferred to a novel (amateur) target after only a few minutes of the target subject performing standard moves. (3-min video)
- WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton Gives The Inside Story On #DeleteFacebook And Why He Left $850 Million Behind. The story behind the conflict between WhatsApp founders and Facebook business strategy. Bonus: promising messaging apps that prioritize privacy, such as Signal and AnchorFree. (Forbes)
Growth and Marketing
- Slack Copywriting: What They Say to 9.6 Million Pageviews Every Month. Sometimes talking about specific product features can be more effective than talking about customer benefits.
- All Things Sales! 16 Mini-Lessons for Startup Founders. (a16z)
Product Management and Design
- The Lever. New Google blog about the way machine learning can be integrated into various tech products.
Leadership and Management
- The Two Traits of the Best Problem-Solving Teams. Build teams composed of people with diverse cognitive skills and create psychological safety. (HBR)
Economy and Global Development
- We’re Measuring the Economy All Wrong. Averages vs. the distribution. Stock prices vs. net worth. GDP vs. income. (NYT)
Books
- The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. An easy read that explains exactly how to conduct customer development interviews.
Podcasts and Documentaries
- Borders Series by Vox. A fascinating documentary about borders and their impact on countries, people, and the world.
- Elon Musk on Joe Rogan’s podcast. In case you’ve somehow missed this one.
- Scott Belsky and Drew Houston on Tim Ferriss’ podcast. Entrepreneurial stories and lessons learned from building Behance and Dropbox.
Cognition and Psychology
- How to read. You might want to take notes or even create flashcards and review them if you want to remember what you read.
Smarter Living
- Habits vs. Goals: A Look at the Benefits of a Systematic Approach to Life. “Exercise for one hour after work every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday” might be more effective than “lose 10 pounds by the end of the year”.
Science and Research
- The Complete Guide to the Science of Meditation. (Endpoints by Elysium Health)
- Workplace Wellness Programs Don’t Work Well. Why Some Studies Show Otherwise. Observational studies vs. randomized controlled trial. The former shows a strong effect, the latter shows almost none. Spoiler: healthy and motivated people are more likely to take advantage of these programs. (NYT)
Numbers
- $13T GDP could be delivered to the global economy by AI by 2030. (McKinsey)
- $4.15B is the valuation of Peloton, a connected training bike system. It’s impressive how the company managed to create a habit.
My Essays
Contemplation Break
“The way you train reflects the way you fight. People say I’m not going to train too hard, I’m going to do this in training, but when it’s time to fight I’m going to step up. There is no step up. You’re just going to do what you did every day.”
— Georges St. Pierre
Previous Issues
Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5.
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