Find a half-remembered link or follow a subject through years of Sunday notes.
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There is so much interesting history behind the Nike brand and it’s predecessor Blue Ribbon Sports, and I had no idea! Knight explains the efforts to build the business, starting with selling shoes out of the trunk of his car. It’s also a great window to the culture…
Instead of mastering one thing before moving on to the next, interleaving means mixing related skills among each other to take small steps that cumulatively have a bigger effect. |learn more
According to new research, “[s]tarting companies is becoming so quick and cheap that venture capitalists have shifted strategy funding entrepreneurs. Now, more startups get backing—but they have to prove themselves in a hurry…” | learn more
This article adds context and busts myths about the famed Tulip bubble of the 1600s, then ties it back to Cryptocurrencies. | learn more
Patrick Brown runs the company that’s trying to make meatless meat that’s as tasty as the real thing. He’s raised $200 million for this venture, and thinks VCs need to ask harder scientific questions. | learn more
“What best distinguishes our species is an ability that scientists are just beginning to appreciate: We contemplate the future. Our singular foresight created civilization and sustains society. It usually lifts our spirits, but it’s also the source of most depression and anxiety, whether we’re evaluating our own lives…
I’ve been pretty critical of QR codes for a long time. The next version of the iPhone camera will be able to read them, so it’s time to re-evaluate the possibilities. | learn more
“In February 2003, Notarbartolo was arrested for heading a ring of Italian thieves. They were accused of breaking into a vault two floors beneath the Antwerp Diamond Center and making off with at least $100 million worth of loose diamonds, gold, jewelry, and other spoils. The vault was…
“Bank robberies are great case studies for the economics of crime. They’re premeditated affairs in which a perpetrator has evaluated (consciously or not) the rationality of proceeding. The gains are quantifiable. They also come with a built-in dilemma: every minute a robber stays in the bank increases both…
We’ve all seen times where brainstorming leads to narrowing of ideas rather than the opposite. University of Texas professor Art Markman offers advice for how to get better results from brainstorming sessions. | learn more
The Atlantic definitely grabbed my attention with this headline. The article is all about how websites (and even vending machines) are using dynamic pricing to capture as much of the price/demand curve as possible. | learn more
UK-based Tokamak energy’s fusion reactor has reached plasma temperatures in its core for the first time. It’s on track to produce temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius by 2018, and its CEO “says to expect fusion energy ‘in years, not decades.’” | learn more
Professors from Princeton University and UW-Madison use the latest genetic evidence to clarify that racial divides as we know them are completely BS. “The genetic distance between East Asians and Europeans is shorter than the divergence between Hazda in north-central Tanzania to the Fulani shepherds of West Africa…
This interesting infographic gives you a glimpse into how much code is used in various technologies, including the F-35 Fighter jet, the Large Hadron Collider, and a modern car. | learn more
Cartography expert Justin O'Beirne created a fascinating post diving into the nuanced changes in Google and Apple maps over the past year. This is way more interesting than it sounds! Thanks to Alex S for the link. | learn more
“The development of a microprocessor is one of the riskiest, costliest, and most technically complex feats in business.” One of Intel’s chip factories can cost “at least $8.5 billion”. In May, the team from Bloomberg were lucky to receive one of the most extensive tours of the factory…
Hipsters sometimes have impressive ideas. | learn more
Josh Worth put together this interesting website that gives you some serious perspective on our solar system. “If the moon were only 1 pixel…” | learn more
Mark Manson, the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck, talks about his experience writing the book, including the diminishing returns and negative returns of spending extra hours per day on the endeavor. | learn more
The rice industry is mad at cauliflower. The recent market success of cauliflower rice has them freaking out, even asking the FDA to evaluate whether manufacturers should be allowed to use the word rice to describe the product. Oddly, they don’t feel the same way about rice milk. | learn more
The promise of indoor farming is an attractive one: super-efficient land and water usage + hyper-local food. Sadly, most companies that have tried it have failed, including Chicago’s FarmedHere. Fast Company profiles Plenty, which is taking a run at a sustainable business model for indoor farming. | learn more
The Human Genome Project was a huge win for science. It’s outcome: we are now able to read our DNA. Next up on the docket is writing our DNA. Dr. Jef Boeke is the director of the Institute for Systems Genetics at New York University. He expects scientists will…
Everyone knows that there’s a placebo effect in blind studies, where pills without active drugs still cause patients to feel better. Studies now find that this is true even if the patient knows the pill is a placebo. | learn more
Some years back, someone made a graphic showing how each Craigslist category spawned today’s successful vertical marketplaces. In that sense, Excel might be the next Craigslist. “Need to calculate? Excel. How about a task list? Excel. How about a lightweight CRM to manage customers? Financial model? Waterfall chart…