FiveThirtyEight says People Working From Home In A Snowstorm May Be Producing More Than You Are, on the productivity of working from home.
I enjoyed this Ars Technica look at USB 3.1 and Type-C, which is probably the cable/connection change people will notice the most over the next few years. (As I look with despair on my dozens of USB devices and cables.) I also dug their retrospective, A brief history of USB, what it replaced, and what has failed to replace it. Remember serial ports?
Ben Dwyer on why writing code is like solving a Rubik’s cube.
Great piece by Jonathan Libov on text-based messaging interfaces for everything in the future, it’s like the command line has come alive again.
It’s been a long road, but the WordPress mobile apps are finally making some major strides. WordPress iOS version 4.8 includes a visual editor so you won’t see code anymore when blogging on the go. (For anyone curious at home, WordPress originally shipped with WYSIWYG in version 2.0, and it was highly controversial at the time.)
Meyer Sound Constellation
The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center has an awesome ambient sound system that sounds acoustic and full from every point in the 500-seat room.. Hat tip: Niall.
“For every McDonald’s you blow up, ‘they’ will build two. Instead of slapping a wad of Semtex between the Happy Meals and the plastic tray, work your way up through the ranks, take over the board of Directors and turn the company into an international laughing stock.”
Sounds nice in theory. But I knew corporations were more resilient than that. Sabotaging the system from inside was as much a pipe dream as changing it through politics and protest.
From Prada Revolutionaries: Confessions of a Recovering Solutionist.
Om Malik on the decline of cameras as gadgets, Standalone camera: Shot (Dead) By iPhone.
Scott Berkun asks Why Isn’t Remote Work More Popular?
Josh Kopelman on why raising a Series A is harder than ever, and how startups can adapt to survive the changing investment landscape. Fantastic essay, relevant for every company raising money at any stage.
The New Yorker has a great overview as Richard Stallman’s GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty.
Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.
John Perry Barlow’s classic A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.
The CEO of Automattic worked with the co-founder of WordPress directly, mediated by the head of the WordPress Foundation. Matt Mullenweg said the meetings were very productive.
As inside-baseball WordPress-focused April Fools go, this one is pretty funny: WordPress to be bundled in Jetpack with mission to power 50% of the web.
Ambiguity. It’s the defining characteristic of this age. Yesterday offered many certainties. A secure job, stable income, lasting community…a predictable economy, culture, society. But that’s not the case anymore. Something surrounds us, permeating our worlds, defining our lives; though we call it by different names. Economic uncertainty; social instability; political unpredictability. All simply different kinds of ambiguity.
Umair Haque writes on Ambiguity and the Art of Meaning.
Sam Altman of YCombinator wrote a great post on the occasion of his thirtieth birthday, The days are long but the decades are short. There’s a lot of subtlety and nuance in each point, so even if you’ve read it already it’s worth another pass.
The Verge: Slot machines perfected addictive gaming. Now, tech wants their tricks. Includes information from one of my favorite authors Nir Eyal, who also spoke at WordCamp San Francisco a few years ago.
The Misconception about Money and Motivation, a good summary of the work by Dan Pink, Dan Ariely, and others.
When I spoke in Ireland yesterday someone asked if I would blog about them today. I am, but not the best story: Ireland’s media silenced over MP’s speech about Denis O’Brien. Because of an injunction, no media in Ireland can report on alleged corruption, laws I think set up with good intentions (preventing libel?) but being twisted now to prevent the vital functioning of the fourth estate. The country showed amazing mettle in their Yes vote for gay marriage last week, perhaps censorship could be the next thing the populace tackles. (Also I really enjoyed my visit to Dublin, if you want an amazing meal check out Forest Avenue.)