Kickoff for January 7, 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.
We’re a week into a new year. I hope things are looking good, or looking up, for you. It’s too early to say how the year is going to go, but we can all be positive, can’t we?
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
The Horrors of Facebook
‘It’s digital colonialism’: how Facebook’s free internet service has failed its users, wherein we discover that some internet might not be better than no internet, and how services like Facebook’s Free Basics can contribute to the spread of misinformation and track users.
The Autocracy App, wherein we read about how Facebook doesn’t just undermine privacy but also inflicts harm on democracies around the globe, and just how difficult it might be to reign in the company and wean people off it.
“He Doesn’t Believe in It”: Mark Zuckerberg Has Never Cared About Your Privacy, and He’s Not Going to Change, wherein we see how Facebook’s problems with (your) privacy stem from the attitudes of the people at the top of the company, and how most users don’t seem to care.
Productivity
The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world, wherein we’re (re)introduced to the various ways the digital world has pummelled our concentration and attention, and learn some effective techniques for getting them back.
What’s All This About Journaling?, wherein yet another person discovers the productivity (and therapeutic) benefits of writing in a journal — benefits researchers are actually studying.
How productivity tools hurt your work relationships, wherein we discover that while so-called productivity tools can give us a boost, they can do so at the cost of face-to-face interaction with our co-workers and teams.
Odds and Ends
How Curry Became a Japanese Naval Tradition, wherein we learn about the Japanese navy using a unique take on the venerable Indian dish to stave off beriberi, and how that dish became popular with wider Japanese society.
The Past, Present, and Future of ‘Asteroids’, wherein the origins of the classic arcade game are presented to us, we discover its influence on future programmers is presented to us, and we learn why Asteroids remains popular decades after its debut.
The Time Capsule That’s as Big as Human History, wherein we’re told the tale of Martin Kunze’s efforts to create a time capsule, deep within an Austrian salt mine, that consists of ceramic tablets preserving the stories of ordinary people around the world.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.