Kickoff For February 11, 2019
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
To be honest, I’ve been overwhelmed with fascinating articles to read over the last couple or three weeks. It’s been hard to choose between everything that’s passed before my eyes but I hope you find this week’s collection of links worth reading.
And if you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to my newsletter Weekly Musings. Thanks!
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Technology
My advice after a year without tech: rewild yourself, wherein Mark Boyle explains why he chose to live without modern technology, and what you can do to make that tech a less pervasive presence in your life.
Suriname community uses new open-source app to preserve storytelling traditions, wherein we learn how groups are using open source technologies to preserve the oral histories and traditions of the Matawai people.
How a Phone Glitch Sparked a Teenage Riot, wherein we hear the tale of how a group of Swedish teens in the 1980s found a way to create their own chat lines using a flaw in the country’s telephone system, how a mass gathering organized that way went awry, and how that led to a shift in Swedish society.
Business
Will Amazon Finally Kill New York?, wherein Rebecca McCarthy looks at the issues surrounding Amazon’s new headquarters in New York City through the lens of the book Seasonal Associate, and examins how that move heralds scary changes to the notions of how we’ll work in the future.
MacKenzie Bezos and the Myth of the Lone Genius Founder, wherein we learn that a successful startup is successful not (just) because of its founder but due to the often-unseen efforts of the people working with and under that founder.
How the Market Abandoned Morality, wherein we’re (re)introduced to the problems caused by free markets, and how a return to ethics in policymaking might be able to help fix those problems.
Politics
The Second Half of Watergate Was Bigger, Worse, and Forgotten By the Public, wherein we learn of the events that led to the U.S. enacting sweeping corporate anti-bribery laws in the 1970s, and how those laws hardened into a misguided policy.
When Is a Meme a Foreign-Influence Operation?, wherein we discover how Russia, using accounts on Facebook, targeted black Americans in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, and how they were able to do so with impunity.
The Pirate Radio Broadcaster Who Occupied Alcatraz and Terrified the FBI, wherein we learn about John Trudell, who used the power of (pirate) radio to advocate politically for Native Americans and in doing so changed the face of activism.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.