It’s that time of the year where everything starts to wind down (well except the retail industry, but you know what I mean). The staff component starts to dwindle as everyone goes on leave, projects get postponed till next year, and on the whole, you notice a palpable chilled attitude at work.
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You are probably stuck at the office but the meetings required to go forward with other projects require people who have already left to put their towels down on the coast. Here is something for you to read while relaxing at your desk instead of eating leftover cake from the office party. I have curated a variety of well written tech articles that are worth reading (read: not celebrity gossip). These are the kind of articles that if your boss catches you reading them on office time, he won’t be quite as upset — actually he might even be impressed and ask for the link.
They are not numbered as they are not in any real order. Each I found to be impressive in some regard, either in the subject or the writing or both, but without exception I learnt something new. These are predominantly meaty, well thought out articles so it should keep you engaged till it’s time to go home and make sure the Christmas tree isn’t too lonely.
Imgur: The biggest little site in the world
It’s pronounced “IM-uh-jur.” Initially born as a gift to Reddit and then something crazy happened: it began to outpace Reddit itself. This simple image sharing site gets 100-million unique users a month — go read their story.
Snowden and Greenwald: the men who leaked the secrets
This is a behemoth of an article — it walks you through the full story of how Edward Snowden came to be the whistleblower that unleashed a world of havoc on the NSA and the Obama administration at large. With the help of the Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, who is now also a celebrity in his own right, Snowden dropped a proverbial bomb on the United State’s international relations as well as caused massive mistrust within its own country towards their own government.
Don’t bet against Aaron Levie
This man is a machine, coffee goes in a business genius comes out. Don’t assume anything based on this mans age he can see how the worlds trends are bending far before the rest of silicon valley, a truly inspiring man to read about and I will most certainly try to keep tabs on his life.
People don’t leave companies — they leave leaders
When a staff member tells you why he or she is leaving, mentioning “morale,” when they say, “communication is poor,” when they express frustration at the lack of clarity for their career progression — they are telling you that it’s the leaders they are leaving. It’s obvious, isn’t it? Leaders are responsible for morale, communication and career path.
On GPAs and brainteasers: new insights from Google on recruiting and hiring
Hiring is random and all the usual tricks of the trade such as brain teasers, GPA evaluations, etc. don’t actually work. Rather go for who they are and how they personally deal with problems, because the problems they will face in your company won’t be the same they faced in school or university.
Auto Correct – Has the self-driving car at last arrived?
This is another long form, beautifully written article. It focuses on advent of Google’s self driving cars, why they are needed and the modern world in which we have come to need them.
8 Things really successful people do
This article shows you what you should focus on (and what you shouldn’t) in life if you want to take heed of the advice from those who have become successful. Most are obvious, like not falling for materialism and rather focusing on learning. Others are not so obvious, like how to manage your relationships and your time for what gains you the most value to your life.
The man who would teach machines to think
There is a man, inspired by how his sister couldn’t understand language, who decided to find out what William James described as “the most mysterious thing in the world” — the mind. He went on to write a book about it which earned him a Pulitzer Prize, and he is now – along with his grad students – studying artificial intelligence. Not the easy responsive level of Siri on your iPhone but actually figuring out how to code thought, so machines can think for themselves.
6 Ways to create a culture of innovation
Innovation is not something easily manufactured within a company. You can’t just say the person with best innovative ideas by 5pm gets a prize — that works in sales but not in something so abstract as ideas. This is more to do with a nurtured culture within the company that allows for innovation.
How to go from $0 to $1,000,000 in two years
This is built on how Bryan Johnson went on to make millions via his company Braintree in a nice step by step process. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not easy, but it might help clarify your focus.
Hope you enjoyed the reading, if you know of any other good articles that others might enjoy please leave your link for us in the comments.
