Un paio di cose che non sapete sul giorno del Ringraziamento, festa americana della quale a noi dovrebbe importarci il giusto (cioè niente). La annuncia per prassi il presidente degli Stati Uniti d’America. Che, quando c’era la crisi e bisognava incentivare i consumi, l’ha pure spostata per dare più giorni ai negozianti. Con il risultato che alcuni stati - quelli democratici - la facevano un giorno e altro - quelli repubblicani - un altro giorno.
Money quote: “IN 1939, PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO Roosevelt faced a dilemma. He was responsible for declaring the last Thursday of November to be a day of Thanksgiving—something American presidents had done since Abraham Lincoln began the tradition. But November of 1939 had five Thursdays, which would shorten the holiday shopping season. Retailers still struggling from the Great Depression encouraged him to move Thanksgiving earlier by a week. To the country’s shock, Roosevelt agreed. For the next three years, some states recognized the federal government’s new Thanksgiving date, while others defiantly stuck with the old one”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/franksgiving-thanksgiving-franklin-delano-roosevelt
Money quote: “IN 1939, PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO Roosevelt faced a dilemma. He was responsible for declaring the last Thursday of November to be a day of Thanksgiving—something American presidents had done since Abraham Lincoln began the tradition. But November of 1939 had five Thursdays, which would shorten the holiday shopping season. Retailers still struggling from the Great Depression encouraged him to move Thanksgiving earlier by a week. To the country’s shock, Roosevelt agreed. For the next three years, some states recognized the federal government’s new Thanksgiving date, while others defiantly stuck with the old one”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/franksgiving-thanksgiving-franklin-delano-roosevelt
Atlas Obscura
For Years, Republican and Democratic States Held Separate Thanksgivings
Before Friendsgiving, there was Franksgiving.
Volevate scrivere quel romanzo che da anni dite di voler scrivere? Ecco perché non lo avete fatto e qualche suggerimento invece su come fare.
Money quote: “Aspiring writers tend to get trapped in one of two mindsets. They either get captured by a sort of perfectionism, concerned that, putting their writing into the ether for everybody to see, they may end up looking silly. They imagine the writer’s equivalent of standing in front of the 6th Grade class in their underpants while everybody laughs.
If not perfectionism, they get caught up with imposter syndrome. This is especially true for writers who struggle to discover topics on which they can write. Despite the fact that everything we know is a remix, they feel that they are frauds or incapable of writing well because they can only think of things based on what other people have written or done.
Both of these are a bunch of malarkey”
https://medium.com/the-mission/the-easiest-way-to-become-a-better-writer-3ee4bc1c4b9e
Money quote: “Aspiring writers tend to get trapped in one of two mindsets. They either get captured by a sort of perfectionism, concerned that, putting their writing into the ether for everybody to see, they may end up looking silly. They imagine the writer’s equivalent of standing in front of the 6th Grade class in their underpants while everybody laughs.
If not perfectionism, they get caught up with imposter syndrome. This is especially true for writers who struggle to discover topics on which they can write. Despite the fact that everything we know is a remix, they feel that they are frauds or incapable of writing well because they can only think of things based on what other people have written or done.
Both of these are a bunch of malarkey”
https://medium.com/the-mission/the-easiest-way-to-become-a-better-writer-3ee4bc1c4b9e
Medium
The Easiest Way to Become a Better Writer
“I’m an aspiring writer and I want to become better. What advice do you have for me?”
E se avessimo bisogno di qualcosa che non è solo la tecnologia, nei nostri apparecchi tecnologici? Un modello interpretativo del ruolo e delle strategie del design, che rivisita alcune cose già fatte e ne propone altre di nuove. Il punto è che. In è la forma o la funzione a guidare il designer, ma il significato (per l’utente) di quel che si progetta.
Money quote: “To illustrate what I mean by “designing for meaning”, let‘s go back in time to take a closer look at MP3 technology and Apple’s iPod. Back in 1997 MP3 players were seen as substitutes for a Walkman and CDs. It was Apple in 2001 that offered an entire system to discover, store, organize and listen to music in a seamless experience with the iPod, the iTunes application and iTunes Store. And in doing so, Apple changed the business model for selling music.”
https://uxdesign.cc/looking-ahead-digital-design-in-2018-14c7c08b45f2
Money quote: “To illustrate what I mean by “designing for meaning”, let‘s go back in time to take a closer look at MP3 technology and Apple’s iPod. Back in 1997 MP3 players were seen as substitutes for a Walkman and CDs. It was Apple in 2001 that offered an entire system to discover, store, organize and listen to music in a seamless experience with the iPod, the iTunes application and iTunes Store. And in doing so, Apple changed the business model for selling music.”
https://uxdesign.cc/looking-ahead-digital-design-in-2018-14c7c08b45f2
UX Design Collective
How Design-Driven Innovation Will Surpass Technology in 2018
Looking ahead with digital design
Uno scoop tecnologico. La campagna di supporto alla normativa anti net neutrality è falsa, creata con i bot.
A parte la notizia, è interessante anche il modo con cui è stato svelato. Questo articolo di medium è la fonte, il ground zero dello scoop.
Money quote: “NY Attorney General Schneiderman estimated that hundreds of thousands of Americans’ identities were stolen and used in spam campaigns that support repealing net neutrality. My research found at least 1.3 million fake pro-repeal comments, with suspicions about many more. “
https://medium.com/@jeffykao/more-than-a-million-pro-repeal-net-neutrality-comments-were-likely-faked-e9f0e3ed36a6
A parte la notizia, è interessante anche il modo con cui è stato svelato. Questo articolo di medium è la fonte, il ground zero dello scoop.
Money quote: “NY Attorney General Schneiderman estimated that hundreds of thousands of Americans’ identities were stolen and used in spam campaigns that support repealing net neutrality. My research found at least 1.3 million fake pro-repeal comments, with suspicions about many more. “
https://medium.com/@jeffykao/more-than-a-million-pro-repeal-net-neutrality-comments-were-likely-faked-e9f0e3ed36a6
Hacker Noon
More than a Million Pro-Repeal Net Neutrality Comments were Likely Faked
I used natural language processing techniques to analyze net neutrality comments submitted to the FCC from April-October 2017, and the…
L’articolo definitivo su come alcuni scrittori organizzano gli scaffali delle loro librerie casalinghe.
Money quote: “After all, as Jeanette Winterson once said, “when we go to somebody’s house, what’s better than looking at their bookshelves? Nobody’s ever going to say, “Can I see the index to your Kindle?” It’s so depressing and so unsexy.””
http://lithub.com/how-11-writers-organize-their-personal-libraries/
Money quote: “After all, as Jeanette Winterson once said, “when we go to somebody’s house, what’s better than looking at their bookshelves? Nobody’s ever going to say, “Can I see the index to your Kindle?” It’s so depressing and so unsexy.””
http://lithub.com/how-11-writers-organize-their-personal-libraries/
Literary Hub
How 11 Writers Organize Their Personal Libraries
There’s a secret war raging on the internet. The stakes are high. The warriors are fierce. The battleground is your bookshelf. Do you alphabetize? Do you color-code? Do you have no system at …
Jeff Bezos, esempio di imprenditore illuminato. In particolare, i suoi suggerimenti su come migliorare. Uno è particolarmente utile per superare la pigrizia o le indecisioni del momento attuale: pensare a se stessi quando avremo 80 anni e guardare indietro gli errori fatti (i rimpianti) per scegliere il percorso che li minimizza.
Money quote: "During an interview earlier this month at festival Summit LA17, Bezos said when it comes to making all those life-altering decisions, he made up his mind by projecting his like “forward to age 80.” From there, he said that he would take the path that minimized his regrets, which would often make the correct choice obvious."
https://lifehacker.com/take-jeff-bezoss-advice-for-success-and-consider-80-yea-1820579150
Non è un cattivo consiglio. L'altro, il metodo-Bezos per i meeting (uno sport molto diffuso che personalmente odio), è semplice: riguarda i "meeting da due pizze".
Money quote 2: "Unfortunately, the rule is not that there must be two pizzas in attendance, but rather that Bezos won’t hold (or even go to) a meeting if two pizzas couldn’t feed the entire group. It’s unclear exactly how many people Bezos thinks he can feed with two pizzas, but it’s a good way to keep the number of attendees near something reasonable, and keep everything a little more productive."
https://lifehacker.com/follow-jeff-bezos-two-pizza-rule-for-more-productive-1797824738
Money quote: "During an interview earlier this month at festival Summit LA17, Bezos said when it comes to making all those life-altering decisions, he made up his mind by projecting his like “forward to age 80.” From there, he said that he would take the path that minimized his regrets, which would often make the correct choice obvious."
https://lifehacker.com/take-jeff-bezoss-advice-for-success-and-consider-80-yea-1820579150
Non è un cattivo consiglio. L'altro, il metodo-Bezos per i meeting (uno sport molto diffuso che personalmente odio), è semplice: riguarda i "meeting da due pizze".
Money quote 2: "Unfortunately, the rule is not that there must be two pizzas in attendance, but rather that Bezos won’t hold (or even go to) a meeting if two pizzas couldn’t feed the entire group. It’s unclear exactly how many people Bezos thinks he can feed with two pizzas, but it’s a good way to keep the number of attendees near something reasonable, and keep everything a little more productive."
https://lifehacker.com/follow-jeff-bezos-two-pizza-rule-for-more-productive-1797824738
Lifehacker
Take Jeff Bezos's Advice For Success and Consider 80-Year-Old You
There’s no denying that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is successful. Bezos recently dethroned Bill Gates as the world’s richest man and has made countless decisions throughout his career that has forever impacted, amongst other things, how we all shop.
Il Washington Post di Jeff Bezos diventa una software house - il mio articolo per Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/washington-post-jeff-bezos-software-house/
https://www.macitynet.it/washington-post-jeff-bezos-software-house/
Macitynet.it
Il Washington Post di Jeff Bezos diventa una software house - Macitynet.it
La trasformazione del quotidiano americano: produce il codice per il suo lavoro e lo rivende ad altre testate. Un business da 100 milioni di dollari
E se il ritorno dell’analogico non fosse la grande crisi del computer nelle nostre vite, ma più semplicemente fosse il segno del riequilibrio degli atomi rispetto ai bit?
Un articolo di opinione interessante ed equilibrato del NYTimes.
Money quote: “As much as we might fantasize about it, we probably won’t delete our social media accounts and toss our phones in the nearest body of water. What we can do is to restore some sense of balance over our relationship with digital technology, and the best way to do that is with analog: the ying to digital’s yang”
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/opinion/sunday/internet-digital-technology-return-to-analog.html
Un articolo di opinione interessante ed equilibrato del NYTimes.
Money quote: “As much as we might fantasize about it, we probably won’t delete our social media accounts and toss our phones in the nearest body of water. What we can do is to restore some sense of balance over our relationship with digital technology, and the best way to do that is with analog: the ying to digital’s yang”
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/opinion/sunday/internet-digital-technology-return-to-analog.html
Nytimes
Our Love Affair With Digital Is Over
But real books, records and brick and mortar stores will take us back with open arms.
Ci costruiamo delle narrazioni di comodo. Una fra queste è relativa al collasso (e alla nascita, se è per questo) delle cività. La fine dei Maya, dell'Impero romano, del popolo dell'Isola di Pasqua, di quelli collassati in India oppure in Vietnam, Indocina e Corea.
Inoltre, troviamo ragioni sempre più spesso vicine alla nostra sensibilità odierna: mutamento climatico, cattivo uso delle risorse naturali, mancanza di responsabilità e capacità di previsione e gestione delle trasformazioni. Insomma, affermiamo cosa sia successo a loro ma in realtà parliamo di noi e del nostro bisogno di una etica ambientalista e dei consumi responsabili che ci permetta di sopravvivere alla nostra stessa civiltà globale.
Bello, ma se facciamo un passo indietro però scopriamo che forse forse - anzi senza forse - le cose non stanno proprio così.
Money quote: "But are these stories right? Is that really what happened to the Maya and the Easter Islanders? In the view of many archaeologists, collapse is not quite so simple – the silver-bullet theories grow less convincing the closer they are scrutinised. As the eminent archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler sagely pointed out in Civilisations of the Indus Valley and Beyond (1966): ‘The fall, like the rise of a civilisation is a highly complex operation which can only be distorted by oversimplification. It may be taken as axiomatic that there was no one cause of cultural collapse.’"
https://aeon.co/essays/what-the-idea-of-civilisational-collapse-says-about-history
Inoltre, troviamo ragioni sempre più spesso vicine alla nostra sensibilità odierna: mutamento climatico, cattivo uso delle risorse naturali, mancanza di responsabilità e capacità di previsione e gestione delle trasformazioni. Insomma, affermiamo cosa sia successo a loro ma in realtà parliamo di noi e del nostro bisogno di una etica ambientalista e dei consumi responsabili che ci permetta di sopravvivere alla nostra stessa civiltà globale.
Bello, ma se facciamo un passo indietro però scopriamo che forse forse - anzi senza forse - le cose non stanno proprio così.
Money quote: "But are these stories right? Is that really what happened to the Maya and the Easter Islanders? In the view of many archaeologists, collapse is not quite so simple – the silver-bullet theories grow less convincing the closer they are scrutinised. As the eminent archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler sagely pointed out in Civilisations of the Indus Valley and Beyond (1966): ‘The fall, like the rise of a civilisation is a highly complex operation which can only be distorted by oversimplification. It may be taken as axiomatic that there was no one cause of cultural collapse.’"
https://aeon.co/essays/what-the-idea-of-civilisational-collapse-says-about-history
Aeon
Do civilisations collapse?
The idea that the Maya or Easter Islanders experienced an apocalyptic end makes for good television but bad archaeology
La campagna anti-net neutrality negli Usa era un fake news? - il mio articolo per Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/la-campagna-anti-net-neutrality-negli-usa-un-fake/
https://www.macitynet.it/la-campagna-anti-net-neutrality-negli-usa-un-fake/
Macitynet.it
La campagna anti-net neutrality negli Usa era un fake news? - Macitynet.it
Secondo un ricercatore più di un milione di email con i commenti richiesti ai cittadini dalla FCC sono falsi. Usate centinaia di migliaia di identità digitali rubate
Il costo segreto dei Bitcoin è la bolletta energetica - il mio articolo per Macitynet
https://www.macitynet.it/costo-segreto-dei-bitcoin-la-bolletta-energetica/
https://www.macitynet.it/costo-segreto-dei-bitcoin-la-bolletta-energetica/
macitynet.it
Il costo segreto dei Bitcoin è la bolletta energetica
Bitcoin, Finanza, Mercato
Quando ho letto l’ultimo romanzo postumo di Michael Crichton, completato da un baldo ghostwriter, mancavano purtroppo molte cose ma per fortuna non il “tocco” del maestro. La vita minuscola sulla superficie del nostro pianeta. Ecco, immaginate che quello di “Micro” fosse solo l’antipasto. Perché la vita sotto la superficie terrestre è qualcosa da sconvolgere il difficile equilibrio psico-zoologico che avete costruito nel corso della vostra vita.
Money quote: “We are also beginning to map the different ecosystems and populations of the deep Earth. Generally speaking, the older subterranean fissure water is brinier (saltier) and has higher concentrations of dissolved hydrogen. Our studies and those by some of our colleagues have shown an apparent trend that the microbes living in older, more brackish water are distinctly different from ones in the younger, less saline water.”
https://aeon.co/essays/deep-beneath-the-earths-surface-life-is-weird-and-wonderful
Money quote: “We are also beginning to map the different ecosystems and populations of the deep Earth. Generally speaking, the older subterranean fissure water is brinier (saltier) and has higher concentrations of dissolved hydrogen. Our studies and those by some of our colleagues have shown an apparent trend that the microbes living in older, more brackish water are distinctly different from ones in the younger, less saline water.”
https://aeon.co/essays/deep-beneath-the-earths-surface-life-is-weird-and-wonderful
Aeon
Life goes deeper
The Earth is not a solid mass of rock: its hot, dark, fractured subsurface is home to weird and wonderful life forms
La manipolazione è una cosa che non ci piace, anche se ci sono sistemi e ragioni per cui può avere una valenza addirittura positiva.
Il problema è che le tecnologie diventano olistiche e pervasive, con una grande differenza: essendo programmate portano con loro molto più di quello che i limiti di una tradizionale tecnologia meccanica può portare.
Le tecnologie digitali invece entrano nella nostra vita e stanno assieme a noi, con un progetto e un modo per farci fare le cose che è stato esplicitamente progettato da chi forgiangli algoritmi e che ci manipola cambiano la nostra natura e le nostre abitudini. E noi non abbiamo ancora creato anticorpi per quello.
Money quote: “Unfortunately, our moral compass has not caught-up with what technology now makes possible. Ubiquitous access to the web, transferring greater amounts of personal data at faster speeds than ever before, has created a more addictive world. Addictiveness is accelerating and according to Paul Graham of Y Combinator, we haven’t had time to develop societal “antibodies to addictive new things.” Graham puts responsibility on the user: “Unless we want to be canaries in the coal mine of each new addiction — the people whose sad example becomes a lesson to future generations — we’ll have to figure out for ourselves what to avoid and how.””
https://medium.com/the-mission/the-morality-of-manipulation-c3115fb2bb3d
Il problema è che le tecnologie diventano olistiche e pervasive, con una grande differenza: essendo programmate portano con loro molto più di quello che i limiti di una tradizionale tecnologia meccanica può portare.
Le tecnologie digitali invece entrano nella nostra vita e stanno assieme a noi, con un progetto e un modo per farci fare le cose che è stato esplicitamente progettato da chi forgiangli algoritmi e che ci manipola cambiano la nostra natura e le nostre abitudini. E noi non abbiamo ancora creato anticorpi per quello.
Money quote: “Unfortunately, our moral compass has not caught-up with what technology now makes possible. Ubiquitous access to the web, transferring greater amounts of personal data at faster speeds than ever before, has created a more addictive world. Addictiveness is accelerating and according to Paul Graham of Y Combinator, we haven’t had time to develop societal “antibodies to addictive new things.” Graham puts responsibility on the user: “Unless we want to be canaries in the coal mine of each new addiction — the people whose sad example becomes a lesson to future generations — we’ll have to figure out for ourselves what to avoid and how.””
https://medium.com/the-mission/the-morality-of-manipulation-c3115fb2bb3d
Medium
The Morality of Manipulation
Let’s admit it, we in the consumer web industry are in the manipulation business. We build products meant to persuade people to do what we…
I podcast sono una gran cosa e c’è chi si è appassionato e ne ascolta a decine. Ma questo richiede tempo. A meno che non pratichiate anche voi lo sport estremo dell’ascolto accelerato.
Money quote: “Kenny's listening habits may be extreme, but she's not alone. Meet the podfasters, a subset of podcast obsessives who listen to upward of 50 episodes a week, by, like Kenny, listening extremely fast. They're an exclusive group: According to Marco Arment, creator of the Overcast podcast app, only around 1% of Overcast listeners use speeds of 2x or higher. (An app called Rightspeed, which costs $2.99, allows you to listen at up to 10x.)”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/meet-the-people-who-listen-to-podcasts-at-super-fast-speeds
Money quote: “Kenny's listening habits may be extreme, but she's not alone. Meet the podfasters, a subset of podcast obsessives who listen to upward of 50 episodes a week, by, like Kenny, listening extremely fast. They're an exclusive group: According to Marco Arment, creator of the Overcast podcast app, only around 1% of Overcast listeners use speeds of 2x or higher. (An app called Rightspeed, which costs $2.99, allows you to listen at up to 10x.)”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/meet-the-people-who-listen-to-podcasts-at-super-fast-speeds
BuzzFeed
Meet the People Who Listen to Podcasts at Super-Fast Speeds
"I have often, when finding out about a new podcast with a large back catalog, made myself a 100-hour-plus playlist to catch up."
Tra religione e superstizione: tutti i culti della Silicon Valley - il mio articolo per La Stampa
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/24/tecnologia/idee/tra-religione-e-superstizione-tutti-i-culti-della-silicon-valley-xAcl2s8nyrf24dhzk3mYPL/amphtml/pagina.amp.html
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/24/tecnologia/idee/tra-religione-e-superstizione-tutti-i-culti-della-silicon-valley-xAcl2s8nyrf24dhzk3mYPL/amphtml/pagina.amp.html
LaStampa.it
Tra religione e superstizione: tutti i culti della Silicon Valley
Da chi vuole costruire e adorare una intelligenza artificiale, un bot divino, a chi invece crede nella vita dentro le macchine oppure che le radiazioni extraterrestri ci inquinino ma si possano purificare
Ah, finalmente dieci buoni consigli per gli aspiranti scrittori. Non gli autori, i saggisti, i creatori di codice o qualsiasi altra attività vi venga in mente che coinvolge una tastiera. No. Scrittori. Neanche poeti. Scrittori.
Money quote:
“2- The beginning of the book should rope the reader in. It has to be exciting and fun to read in order to hook the reader into reading on.
Again, complete crap. The reader should have to work hard to get into the book. Don’t make things too easy to comprehend. Overcoming difficulties and struggling makes things more worthwhile. Make the reader sweat a little; it might do her some good.”
https://curiosityneverkilledthewriter.com/the-worst-good-advice-ever-given-to-novelists-5c258dc2f1cd
Money quote:
“2- The beginning of the book should rope the reader in. It has to be exciting and fun to read in order to hook the reader into reading on.
Again, complete crap. The reader should have to work hard to get into the book. Don’t make things too easy to comprehend. Overcoming difficulties and struggling makes things more worthwhile. Make the reader sweat a little; it might do her some good.”
https://curiosityneverkilledthewriter.com/the-worst-good-advice-ever-given-to-novelists-5c258dc2f1cd
Curiosity Never Killed the Writer
The Worst “Good Advice” Ever Given To Novelists
1. You, as the writer, must like your characters.
I programmatori? Negli Usa a rischio, come gli scrittori - il mio articolo per Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/programmatori-negli-usa-rischio-gli-scrittori/
https://www.macitynet.it/programmatori-negli-usa-rischio-gli-scrittori/
Macitynet.it
I programmatori? Negli Usa a rischio, come gli scrittori - Macitynet.it
Manipolare il codice in America potrebbe non essere più garanzia di occupazione e di una buona carriera. Le cose però sono molto diverse in Europa
La cosa più bella vista in tv da parecchio tempo: BetterThings “Dance”
Ci risiamo, ecco di nuovo quelli che vogliono laptop iOS. E addirittura fisso... (con il presupposto che riescono a lavorare con iPad come se fosse un portatile).
Money quote: “I don’t know what they’d call it—can we bring back the iBook?—or what they’d charge for it. But I’d love to see it. And while we’re at it, yes, I’d also like Apple to make an iOS desktop in the style of the Microsoft Surface Studio. With all the improvements in iOS 11, it’s time to start considering all the places iOS can go that it hasn’t been able to go before”
https://www.macworld.com/article/3238186/laptop-computers/why-apples-next-laptop-should-run-ios.html
Money quote: “I don’t know what they’d call it—can we bring back the iBook?—or what they’d charge for it. But I’d love to see it. And while we’re at it, yes, I’d also like Apple to make an iOS desktop in the style of the Microsoft Surface Studio. With all the improvements in iOS 11, it’s time to start considering all the places iOS can go that it hasn’t been able to go before”
https://www.macworld.com/article/3238186/laptop-computers/why-apples-next-laptop-should-run-ios.html
Macworld
Why Apple’s next laptop should run iOS
It's time to start considering all the places iOS can go that it hasn’t been able to go before.