Playing Monopoly: What Facebook’s Mark Zuckergerg Can Learn From Bill Gates | WIRED

August 1, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

POP QUIZ: WHAT tech mogul dropped out of Harvard after two years to found a tech company that conquered the world? If you answered Mark Zuckerberg, congratulations! You are correct. And if you answered Bill Gates, congratulations: You are also correct!

And the interesting thing is, it’s not just Harvard. The more you compare the two, the more similar they seem. It’s as if they were cloned from the same DNA: They both were born the only boy into a wealthy family. They both have doting, indulgent mothers, who believed they could do no wrong and instilled in them both a preternatural self confidence.

How Learning to ‘Manage Sideways’ Can Totally Transform Your Career | Entrepreneur

July 31, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As a manager, members of your team expect and even crave, your feedback. Similarly, senior managers (or least those who are any good at their jobs) welcome feedback from junior professionals.

But providing feedback laterally is a challenging workplace problem. Startup founders, entrepreneurs and other professionals often mistakenly assume that candor and cordial relationships with colleagues are diametrically opposed. In reality, the only way you can maintain a healthy relationship with the colleagues you rely on is to learn the art of “managing sideways.”

Snapchat Is Shutting Down Snapcash, Its Peer-to-Peer Payment Service | Digital Trends

July 30, 2018July 29, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Snapchat’s woes show no sign of ending, and the latest casualty in the company is Snapcash, the peer-to-peer payment service. It’s likely that you’ve never heard of — much less used — the service, which makes its shuttering less of a surprise.

Part of Snapcash’s problem is that it wasn’t always used for the most innocent of purposes. Rather than splitting bills or sending back some money for the pizza you stole from your roommate, Snapcash tended to be used to pay adult entertainers for content on Snapchat. In short, it was probably more bane than boon to Snapchat proper.

Tesla surprises fans with $1,500 limited edition surfboards | Mashable

July 30, 2018July 29, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Is Tesla taking merch too far?

Elon Musk has a knack for selling weird branded merchandise that has nothing to do with what his companies actually do — remember The Boring Company’s flamethrowers? Or the $400 leather jackets made from the same automotive grade leather that adorns Tesla interiors?

Tesla added surfboards to its gift shop on Saturday. The surfboards, which were briefly available for the perfectly reasonable price of $1,500, is a collaboration between Tesla Design Studio and Lost Surfboards.

Twitter stock tumbles 15% after it purged fake accounts | Money CNN

July 27, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The number of people on Twitter fell during the three months ending in June as it worked to clean up the platform and comply with new privacy regulations.

The social network said Friday that it had 335 million monthly users around the world in the second quarter, down from 336 million users in the quarter prior. The number of users could also decline in the third quarter, Twitter warned.

The company attributed the dip in part to “decisions we have made to prioritize the health of the platform” and, to a lesser extent, complying with sweeping new data protection regulations in Europe.

The stock fell 15% in premarket trading Friday after the earnings results.

Is Sleeping with a Fan On Really Bad for Your Health? | Live Science

July 27, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Scorching summer days can be tough without air conditioning, and you might find yourself searching for ways to stay cool, including using a fan at night. But is it healthy to sleep with a fan on?

Some recent headlines have made sleeping with a fan on sound downright dangerous. “Why Sleeping with Your Fan on Could Be Seriously Damaging Your Health,” read one recent headline from the Mirror. “Sleeping with a Bedside Fan Could Pose Health Risks,” read another, from LifeZette.

But experts say the reality is not that dire.

D.B. Cooper: Investigators Claim They’ve Discovered Skyjacker’s Identity | Rolling Stone

July 26, 2018July 25, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A team of former FBI investigators is claiming to have proof of the real identity of D.B. Cooper, the notorious airplane hijacker who has remained at large since he parachuted out of a Seattle-bound plane with $200,000 in November 1971. According to filmmaker and author Thomas Colbert – who has led the independent investigation into the cold case for the last seven years – the real Cooper is a 74-year-old Vietnam veteran named Robert Rackstraw. And the proof is hidden in a series of letters allegedly written by Cooper in the months after the hijacking and his disappearance.