fun facts
Animals can have regional accents.
Humans don’t have a monopoly on location-based differences in how we communicate. Researchers have found regional dialects among whales, monkeys, dogs, and cows. | learn more
book recommendations
The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed.
If you’re acquainted with finance or investing, you’ve probably heard of Benjamin Graham’s concept of value investing. It’s also made famous by its very successful application by Warren Buffet. The content of the book can be a little dry in […]
better doing
Expiring vs. long-term knowledge.
There’s an important distinction to be drawn here. Think about how much of what we learn every day won’t matter in a year. This is expiring knowledge. Then, consider the fundamental truths that we learn that will always matter. This […]
retail therapy
Walmart associates now drop off packages on their way home.
Some years back, I heard a story about the McDonald’s in Williston, ND (home of the somewhat recent oil boom). The manager would drop by the oil workers’ camp in the AM to pick up dinner orders, then drop them […]
thoughts of food
A premature post-mortem of The Melt.
“In 2011, Silicon Valley’s finest minds launched The Melt, a restaurant chain meant to reinvent the humble sandwich. Here’s the untold story of why that hasn’t gone according to plan.” | learn more
oh, chicago
An outdoor strip club for downtown prison inmates.
Stroll through downtown Chicago, and you’ll eventually find the Metropolitan Correction Center. From its tiny windows, prisoners can see a parking garage rooftop across the street. On top of this garage is a sort of pop-up strip club where loved […]
big ideas
Silicon Valley is spending big money on public education.
Though mostly lost to history, the public education system has often been influenced by one of its biggest sponsors – the industrialists. Today, the new industrialists (namely Silicon Valley billionaires) continue to spend money trying to alter the way children […]
big ideas
You should understand exponential curves better.
“The takeaway: when you are on an exponential curve the trajectory looking forward is the same at any point on the curve.” | learn more
under the microscope
The energy cost of multitasking is real.
“When we attempt to multitask, we don’t actually do more than one activity at once, but quickly switch between them. And this switching is exhausting. It uses up oxygenated glucose in the brain, running down the same fuel that’s needed […]
under the microscope
Homo sapiens are older than we thought.
“‘We used to think that there was a cradle of mankind 200,000 years ago in east Africa, but our new data reveal that Homo sapiens spread across the entire African continent around 300,000 years ago,’ palaeoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin of Germany’s […]