Sundry #8: Prayer, mathematics, swearing & more interesting links
Issue #8 · December 28th, 2015 · View in your browser
1. Secrets from the world's most competitive cities
These cities include Bucaramanga, Colombia; Coimbatore, India; Kigali, Rwanda; Changsha, China; Gaziantep, Turkey; and Tangier, Morocco. None of which are in the Western world. The researchers behind this study emphasise that there is no silver bullet for competitiveness. Most of these cities, though, have established strategies to strengthen their competitive advantages. Bucaramanga uses oil revenue to invest in universities that focus on oil research boosting the quality of human capital and creating a virtuous circle. These competitive advantages lie in high-skill tradable industries (such as carpets in Gaziantep).
- The devil and José Mourinho
A long but interesting paper on José Mourinho, who was recently ousted from Chelsea. His relationship with football is defined by what he hates most—Barcelona. Oddly, there is a link between the idea underlying this piece and the documentary “Bitter Lake” by Adam Curtis. They share a similar point: you are influenced by what you say, or inflict, to the other party in a relationship, not only by what they do to you. (In “Bitter Lake”, it's about how US involvement in Afghanistan influenced back American society.)
- How can secular people benefit from prayer?
If you do not practice religion, you might sometimes feel like missing out. Some days, everything is going haywire and you may feel like you need to pray. Why not? Prayer is not necessarily religious. It's a “peculiar kind of speech that acts, and a peculiar kind of action that speaks to the depths and heights of being” (Philip Zaleski & Carol Zaleski in Prayer: A History, 2005). Heather Havrilesky, the author of this essay, suggests, after experimentation, to say aloud a daily prayer of names. That is, to remember and repeat the names of the people you care about. People matter. People can be an acceptable belief system for non-religious folks.
- On the benefits of swearing
No kidding, what I'm about to share here is the result of scientific research: taboo words communicate emotional information better than non-taboo words. They allow us to vent anger without getting physical. Swearing helps you endure pain (people who were allowed to swear could leave their hand in super cold water 40 seconds longer than people who said neutral words). By cursing, factory workers bond over shared frustrations. In the office, well-timed use of coarse language lower stress among coworkers. In politics, mild curse words bring about sympathy from listeners. Fuck yeah!
- Contextual runtimes
Both Benedict Evans (VC at a16z) and Fred Wilson (VC at USV) we need to think more about the future. In this future, there will be a new “runtime”. Today we have the web and native apps to build user services—like Google and Uber. What's next? If you think about a sports dashboard, it might be the notification layer inside your phone's OS. If you want to build a modern travel agency, it might be a concierge IA you can text via a messaging app. New runtimes will be contextual.
6. Forget book smarts and street smarts—it's about stream smarts “In the 21st century, both book smarts and street smarts are obsolete concepts. What would you call great Google-Fu skills? What about reputation on a site like Stack Overflow. Or a when-to-use-snopes instincts? These skills combine book smarts and street smarts and go FAR beyond. This is stream smarts. As we wind down 2015 and gear up for 2016, I bet many of you are making high-minded resolutions to read worthwhile books and/or acquire worthwhile real-world practical skills, perhaps via an unpaid internship or hobby project. Let me recommend refactoring those old-fashioned aspirations into "stream smarts" aspirations. Here's how.”
7. Fresh links
- Aeon: The beauty of mathematics [a less than 2 minute long visual representation of mathematics, watch it]
*Thanks and have a nice week,
Ulysse*
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