The hot weather in the UK has been a delight, the rare feel of warmth is showing off our best and least pasty side…although there are a few lobsters about (there is even mention of lobsters in one of the articles posted below). \u00a0As well as being joyous weather wise, this week has also been good for interesting things I have read on the Internet. Topics covered this week are a real mixed bunch, Do things that don’t scale, design fiction pedagogy, unhappiness is good, and so is shyness, why we should all have something to hide, interviews with Vint Cerf and Marshall McLuhan, Cricket technology and the theory that all the Pixar films take place in the same universe. Get yourself an ice lolly and enjoy.<\/p>\n
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Startups building things for other startups have a big pool of potential users in the other companies we’ve funded, and none took better advantage of it than Stripe. At YC we use the term “Collison installation” for the technique they invented. More diffident founders ask “Will you try our beta?” and if the answer is yes, they say “Great, we’ll send you a link.” But the Collison brothers weren’t going to wait. When anyone agreed to try Stripe they’d say “Right then, give me your laptop” and set them up on the spot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Design Fiction as Pedagogic Practice<\/a><\/h3>\n
What first seems like a good idea, can have unexpected, unintended and undesirable consequences. Use fiction as a way to think through a full range of possible consequences. The interesting (and often dangerous) impacts of objects happen on the outskirts of intention, like a ripple effect on reality. Pretend before you mess the world up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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A Case for the Pursuit of Unhappiness<\/a><\/h3>\n
Forgas’ idea is that a happy mood inclines you to feel that the world accords with your beliefs and emotions. Conversely, he argues, unhappiness inclines you to think that the world\u00a0doesn’t<\/em>\u00a0match your inner state\u2014so you’d better adjust. Accordingly, a happy mood inclines people to pay less attention to detail, rely more on stereotypes, give credence to what they’re told and even to argue less effectively.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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The crystalline wall<\/a><\/h3>\n
Shyness is something different: a longing for connection with other people which is foiled by fear and awkwardness. The danger in simply accepting it, as Cain urges us to do with introversion, is that shyness can easily turn into a self-fulfilling persona \u2014 the pose becomes part of you, like a mask that melds with your face.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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We Should All Have Something To Hide<\/a><\/h3>\n
Over the past year, there have been a number of headline-grabbing legal changes in the US, such as the legalization of marijuana in CO and WA, as well as the legalization of same-sex marriage in a growing number of US states. […]\u00a0What\u2019s often overlooked, however, is that these legal victories would probably not have been possible\u00a0without the ability to break the law<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Internet pioneer Vint Cerf talks online privacy, Google Glass and the future of libraries<\/a><\/h3>\n
\u201cI just moved to London and I\u2019ve already been accepted by\u00a0Barclaycard. And you know that\u00a0reader they send you\u00a0(a personal device required to log into your Internet banking account), I was thinking \u2018what\u2019s that?\u2019. Now I understand that this is two-factor authentication right there, and I\u2019m damned impressed. And I\u2019m also impressed that people are actually using it, because it\u2019s slightly annoying having to carry one around with you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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The lost Marshall McLuhan tapes<\/a><\/h3>\n
Newman: What\u2019s ahead? What is the most surprising trend we can expect?<\/em><\/p>\n
McLuhan: The biggest job in the world will be espionage. Around the world, people are spending more and more of their time watching the other guy. Espionage at the speed of light will become the biggest business in the world. But the CIA and the FBI are really old hat using old hardware by comparison to what\u2019s coming, in which everybody earns pocket money by watching his own mom and dad or his brothers and sisters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Test Match Special and Technological Agency<\/a><\/h3>\n
A number of different approaches, one based on Hawk-Eye, another using chips implanted in footballs, are currently under trial. However,\u00a0Blatter has long opposed these, based partly on their accuracy, but also going on the record to say that \u201cOther sports regularly change the laws of the game to react to the new technology. \u2026 We don\u2019t do it and this makes the fascination and the popularity of football\u201d. What underlies this statement is a fundamental belief that sport is a human undertaking, with all the confusion, fallibility and debate that that involves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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The Pixar Theory<\/a><\/h3>\n
Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why.\u00a0Several months ago, I watched a\u00a0fun-filled video\u00a0on Cracked.com that introduced the idea (at least to me) that all of the Pixar movies actually exist within the same universe.\u00a0Since then, I\u2019ve obsessed over this concept, working to complete what I call \u201cThe Pixar Theory,\u201d a working narrative that ties all of the Pixar movies into one cohesive timeline with a main theme.\u00a0This theory covers every Pixar production since\u00a0Toy Story.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Another week done, enjoy the sun, fingers crossed for England to win the second test and tell your email obsessed friends to subscribe<\/a> and your cooler RSS using friends to add this feed<\/a>. Bye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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