Mike's Industry View - Issue #130
AI / Creativity
Inmates in Finland are training AI as part of prison labor — www.theverge.com Inmates at two prisons in Finland are doing a new type of prison labor: classifying data to train artificial intelligence algorithms for a startup. The startup, Vainu, sees the partnership as a kind of prison reform that teaches valuable skills, but other experts say it plays into the exploitative economics of prisoners being required to work for very low wages.
This Samsung flower vase is also a throwable fire extinguisher — www.theverge.com The Firevase is a flower vase that you literally throw at a fire like a grenade in order to put it out. The vase has an outer chamber filled with potassium carbonate that quickly cools and suppresses oxygen when the vase is smashed.
Business/Marketing/Adv
Great Strategy Requires Creativity — hbr.org An analytic framework alone won’t reinvent your business.
How a former Vogue fashion assistant built Glossier from a small blog to a $1.2 billion beauty business — www.businessinsider.com Glossier is now valued at $1.2 billion. Here's how it grew from a small beauty blog into a massive cosmetics company.
Interestingness
Why You Procrastinate (It Has Nothing to Do With Self-Control) — www.nytimes.com If procrastination isn’t about laziness, then what is it about?
Japanese Company Pays Employees to Get a Full Night's Sleep — www.bloomberg.com Kazuhiko Moriyama is betting that well-rested workers are good for business. In fact, he’s placing real money on the wager.
Influencers
A 19-year-old who faked being rich on Instagram says he was 'shocked' by how easy it was — www.thisisinsider.com YouTuber Byron Denton used photo-editing software to make it look like he was wearing designer clothes and sitting on private jets.
Red Bull creates an energy drink can after Ninja — venturebeat.com Tyler "Ninja" Blevins made more than $10 million playing video games last year. He's about to make more, as Red Bull is creating a can after him.
Wellness
The World’s Happiest Country Is All About Reading, Coffee, and Saunas — www.afar.com Finland topped the seventh annual World Happiness Report for the second year in a row.
The 4 ‘Attachment Styles,’ and How They Sabotage Your Work-Life Balance — www.nytimes.com Our subconscious programming — developed through our youth and on into adulthood — plays a huge role in how we survive or thrive at work. Here’s how your “attachment style” may affect your office relationships.