Tuesday Dispatch: Issue #60
Tuesday Dispatch: Issue #60
The Owl and The Beetle
This week we learn about clouds and clocks, happiness optimization, and where to find strength in hard times. As well as yet another list of movies and the speed of sound on Mars.
Let's get going!
3 Droplets of Leadership
Of Clouds and Clocks
Clock problems have a discernable end state that's easy to identify. You make a clock, and it tells time, job done; you know you've fixed it. Engineering is mostly like this. Doesn't mean that the problem is easy, just that it's simple to understand what done looks like.
Cloud problems are the opposite: there's no end-state, and for any problem-solving you try, it may take some effort to understand if you're done. Relationships, psychology, politics, design. They're messy; indefinite, you may have an effect but not really 'fix' anything...
Don't miss this fascinating Twitter thread. It's eye-opening!
Nobody Optimizes Happiness
Maybe it’s feasible to increase happiness—there are many ways most of us could move the needle, and it would be pretty easy to do them, but we don’t.
Is this plausible at all? Well, “optimizing happiness” is very abstract. So here’s a more concrete exercise I sometimes think about: What do you want your days to look like?
Fascinating read on this matter. Don't miss it!
Where Do We Find Strength in Hard Times?
To keep her feet on the ground, Armstrong Miyao starts by telling herself the same thing she tells her clients: It’s okay not to be okay. Then she checks in with her body. She finds stillness where she can. And she looks at her three children, sees how strong and resilient they are, and remembers that she is, too.
Interesting read! Check it out!
2 Grains of Technology
The 100 Greatest Films of All Times
Once a decade, Sight and Sound asks critics to select the Greatest Films of All Time. In their biggest-ever poll, conducted in 2012, 846 critics, programmers, and curators from around the world nominated the ten best movies ever made – and the results gave us a new top film, ending the 50-year reign of Citizen Kane.
Speed of sound on Mars
The first audio recordings on Mars reveal a quiet planet with occasional gusts of wind where two different speeds of sound would have a strange delayed effect on hearing. Wow!
1 Atom of Reflection
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent..." - Calvin Coolidge.