fun facts
Faster internet isn’t worth it
“WSJ testing shows typical U.S. households don’t use most of their bandwidth while streaming and get marginal gains from upgrading speeds” | learn more
fun facts
Are optical illusions cultural?
Hadn’t really thought about it before, but a book I’m reading (it’s called Range) prompted me to inquire. It turns out that not everybody is subject to the same illusions. | learn more
fun facts
Why Hawaii has weird cans
I noticed this strange can top all over the island. Naturally, I had to look up the back story. “As can tops started to shrink around 1980, they also lost their neck ridging, leaving Hawaii as the last state to […]
on the blockchain
Lightning network economics – $20/month for locking up $5 million
This doesn’t look compelling. Is it a means to an end, or a lost economic cause? | learn more
on the blockchain
Presidential candidate Andrew Yang wants to implement blockchain-based mobile voting
Agreed, we should be able to vote online at this point in the internet-age. Standing in line? What a waste! | learn more
thoughts of food
Popeyes & private equity
Ranjan Roy from The Margins talks about fried chicken and 3G (the private equity firm). “Has my beloved Popeyes been given a new life thanks to private equity and that specific breed of hyper-capitalism?” | learn more
under the microscope
Borrowed bacteria make plants salt-resistant
Another great win for bacteria researchers! “Much of the world’s soil is too salty for crops. There’s hope, though, as scientists have developed a method of growing plants in ‘unusable’ soil.” | learn more
retail therapy
How eCommerce stores are using Airbnb to build lifestyle brands
I think this is a neat concept. Smaller brands are opening Airbnbs filled with their products as a marketing strategy. I learned from this article that one (from Marine Layer) is actually in my neighborhood! | learn more
better doing
How anger can help us make better decisions
“In a series of studies, [Kellogg’s Michal] Maimaran and colleagues showed that anger can actually cause consumers to make more goal-oriented choices.” | learn more
tech, startups, internet
Stratechery’s take on the WeWork IPO
It’s hard to say something about WeWork that hasn’t already been written in the popular press in the past two weeks. Yet, Ben Thompson does a nice job of highlighting the bull case for WeWork. It sounds really good right […]