retail therapy
Shady(ish) tactics that shopping sites use to get your money
You’ve seen a bunch of these first-hand. Quartz sums them all up nicely with entertaining examples and animations. | learn more
to your health
A Mexican hospital, an American surgeon, and a $5k rebate check
“A novel twist on medical tourism to avoid the high cost of U.S. health care saves an employer money and even earns the patient a bonus.” I’d take this option, especially if the alternative was Chicago winter! | learn more
better doing
NerdWallet’s CEO on shifting from first-time founder to seasoned exec
“Tim Chen reflects on the arc of his journey as founder after more than a decade of company building. He shares the six mindset shifts he needed to make to transition from entrepreneur to executive as his startup scaled, weaving […]
better doing
Principles of shaping
The fine folks at Basecamp have released a manual that teaches the world how they work. This page covers a topic they call shaping. It’s supremely interesting and especially relevant if you manage digital products, though I think it’s great even […]
tech, startups, internet
Some AI leaders think we need an FDA-equivalent to regulate algorithms
“Imagine a couple of caffeine-addled biochemistry majors late at night in their dorm kitchen cooking up a new medicine that proves remarkably effective at soothing colds but inadvertently causes permanent behavioral changes.” | learn more
tech, startups, internet
Boston saved $5M annually routing school buses with an algorithm
Before that, they were using a team of 10 human route planners. Interestingly, no jobs were lost during the transition. | learn more
oh, chicago
Shedd Aquarium’s stingrays keep dying and nobody knows why
“More than 30 stingrays died at the Shedd Aquarium early this year, but officials have not figured out why and have replaced the fish with catches from the Gulf of Mexico.” | learn more
oh, chicago
How socialism permeated Chicago’s city council
For some reason this reminds me of Nassim Taleb’s comment about his politics: “At Fed level, libertarian; state, Republican; local, Democrat; family/friends, socialist.” | learn more
fun facts
Harvard streamlines admission process by directly growing new students from DNA of top donors
Wonderful satire from The Onion. “This saves a lot of time we would otherwise spend tediously pretending to review applications, allowing us to focus on ensuring every student we accept is a good fit for Harvard.” | learn more