1. Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams Lays Out His Plan for the Future Of Media [via Tech Crunch]
Evan Williams, who rose to tech notoriety through the invention of 140-character information bites and hashtags, discusses the vision of Medium, his newest venture in personal digital publishing.
Ironically, Medium’s value and purpose is that of long-form narrative illuminating substantial ideas–quite the opposite of the expediency of mini news nuggets (all too often spit out before verification) and iPhone photos that comprise Twitter.
“News in general doesn’t matter most of the time, and most people would be far better off if they spent their time consuming less news and more ideas that have more lasting import,” Williams says in the interview.
States the article, “Instead, Williams argues, citizens should re-calibrate their ravenous appetite for information towards more awe-inspiring content. In Williams’s grand vision, the public reads for enlightenment; news takes a backseat directly in proportion to how often it leaves us more informed and inspired.”
Do you agree with any of Williams’s statements? Even though we are (obviously) in the business of news, we find his viewpoints encouraging.
2. The Habits of Supremely Happy People [via Huffington Post]
According to Martin Seligman, the “father of positive psychology,” there are three types of happy lives: the pleasant life, the life of engagement, and the meaningful life.
While the life of engagement can be lived through our professions, and the meaningful life is lived by using our strengths, talents and specializations to contribute to organizations, communities and causes, some of the cited habits of happy people can be challenging for the modern-day 24/7 professional.
A few of these habits us business folk must work extra hard to emulate: “They let themselves lose track of time (and sometimes they can’t help it)” by immersing themselves in invigorating and challenging tasks geared toward success; “They make a point to listen,” opening themselves to knowledge and to the rewards of having their presence serve a purpose; “They unplug,” as overuse of technology has been linked to increased blood pressure, increased stress levels, depression and fatigue; and “They make exercise a priority,” an all-too-common conundrum for busy professionals.
3. Cooper Manning Tired of Being Disrespected: “Peyton and Eli don’t know $#@% about energy investment equity” [via Sports Pickle]
Warning: If you are easily offended by foul language, don’t click this link–but this is one high-profile interview for the New Orleans Business Journal gone horribly awry!
Cooper Manning, a partner of energy investment boutique Howard Weil and oldest brother of Peyton and Eli Manning, flipped his lid when the business reporter asked several consecutive questions about Manning’s NFL royalty brethren instead of energy capital development in the Gulf Coast region.
In his expletive-laced tirade, Manning reminds the reporter that energy runs the world–not football–and that his brother Peyton is, in fact, an idiot who “thinks a good business investment is buying up a bunch of Papa Johns franchises” in Denver.
4. Why Amazon Hides Its Cheapest Price (and Where) [via Businessweek]
In this 90-second video, learn about the concept of Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP), and why Amazon mysteriously hides some products’ prices until they’ve hit your shopping cart.
It’s all about manufacturers not appearing too cheap: “Manufacturers don’t really care if one of their products is sold cheaply, because a sale is a sale. They just don’t want everyone to know about it.”
5. Visualizing Health Policy: Premium Subsidy Scenarios Under Obamacare [via The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation]
We’re a fan of infographics around here. We’re also supportive of a continuing education in healthcare reform.
This infographic, one in a monthly Visualizing Health Policy series produced in partnership with the Journal of the American Medical Association, illustrates the cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act before and after premium subsidies for a family of four, a retired 60-year old couple, and a single 30-year old smoker.
6. Awesome Ways Data Has Been Turned Into Art [via Buzzfeed]
More infographics!
As the golden ratio proves, number crunching and visual art need not be viewed as antithetical–they actually make a beautiful partnership.
In a perfect world, every business would employ a graphic artist to spruce up those dreaded PowerPoint presentations of financial charts, quantitative research and other graphical data. We guarantee more employees would pay attention instead of reading Humpday Hyperlinks on their smart phones, shielded by the conference room table…
