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It’s surprising to realize that they’re the same.

They are both places to hide.

When we ship average work, it’s not our fault. We’re simply doing what the manual says, and if you don’t like it, blame the culture and the system.

And when we hold back on shipping because it isn’t perfect, we’re also hiding. Who can blame us for refusing to sign off on something if we can find something (anything) that could still be discussed or improved?

If it doesn’t ship, it doesn’t count.

The work is to establish a standard and then meet it. To ship it when it’s good enough (which we get to define in advance). Don’t ship junk, but ship.

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In the business world (and beyond) everybody loves the success story of an underdog. Estonia’s Bolt is one such example. The startup was founded in 2013 by then 19-year-old Markus Vilig with €5,000 in his pocket. Since then, it has successfully become the European challenger to Uber, valued at €7.4bn at its latest fundraising in 2022. The company also claims to be Europe’s first mobility super-app, combining ride-hailing with services including car and scooter sharing as well as food and grocery delivery. Bolt now operates in over 50 countries across its home continent, Africa, Asia, and Latin and North America.…

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Since its inception, Netflix has been a challenger brand. A born innovator, creating beyond convention. Equal parts cultural capital, content development, and category expansion, Netflix sets itself apart as a brand keenly aware of its value proposition. While its actual product may be streaming, its core product is entertainment. What happens off the screen is…Read More

Running into a burning building is heroic work.

Keeping buildings from burning down in the first place is actually just as important. And it scales more reliably.

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In a bad 1950s science fiction movie, you might see flying jetpacks, invisibility cloaks and ray guns.

What we got instead is a device that fits in our pocket. It allows us to connect to more than a billion people. It knows where we are and where we’re going. It has all of our contacts, the sum total of all published knowledge, an artificially intelligent computer that can understand and speak in our language, one of the best cameras ever developed, a video camera with editor, a universal translator and a system that can measure our heart rate. We can look up real time pricing and inventory data, listen to trained actors read us audiobooks and identify any song, any plant or any bird. We can see the reviews from our community of nearby restaurants or even the reputation of a doctor or lawyer. It can track the location of our loved ones and call us a chauffeured vehicle at the touch of a button.

And of course, we use it to have arguments. And to watch very short stupid videos.

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Smokey Bear is now an octogenarian and today, Smokey celebrates eight decades of educating Americans about the role they play in preventing human-caused wildfires. Smokey Bear emerged from his den during World War II, when fears of incendiary shells led to his emergence as a symbol of fire prevention. Smokey’s “Only You” message has since…Read More

China is currently busy accumulating most of the gold medals in the table tennis events in the Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, an AI-powered robot from Google DeepMind has achieved “amateur human level performance” in the sport.  In a study published in an Arxiv paper this week, the Google artificial intelligence subsidiary outlined how the robot functions, along with footage of it taking on what we can only assume were willing enthusiastic ping pong players of varying skill.  According to DeepMind, the racket-wielding robot had to be good at low-level skills, like returning the ball, as well as more complex tasks, like…

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Last year, Swiss sportswear brand On chronicled the remarkable journey of long-distance runner Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu as the South Sudanese refugee sought to race for his adopted country, Switzerland. Now, the brand continues the story as Lobalu prepares for the men’s 5,000-meter race Saturday at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. “To Chase a…Read More

There’s a sale on band saw blades, including a really good deal on one that fits the saw you owned years ago.

The folks who live next door to the house you used to live in are having a raucous party.

A guy with a name just like yours wins the lottery…

These adjacencies can capture our attention, but they’re simply a distraction. We are easily triggered by things that feel close, but come out ahead when we focus on the things that are actually relevant.

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Brands promoting ads featuring artificial intelligence, and tech capabilities at large, are not reading the room. Major brands like Levi’s and Toys R Us have eagerly experimented with AI in their marketing efforts. Tech giants like Google and Apple have funneled billions into their AI technology. Despite these efforts, their attempts to sell AI to…Read More