The brilliant secret behind all great innovations
The brilliant secret behind all great innovations
Excerpted from Innovating with Impact by Ted Ladd and Alessandro Lanteri. Published by Pegasus Books, 2023. In 1815, the volcano Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted, throwing enough ash into the atmosphere to block sunlight from reaching the earth. The event pushed much of the planet into a premature winter, precipitating a significant crop failure across Northern Europe in 1816. With limited fodder, farmers opted to feed cows, which could supply food, instead of horses, which were used primarily for transportation. People were forced to walk instead of ride, requiring more time and energy to travel. Two years later, Karl von Drais mounted a flat board between two wooden wheels a few feet apart. His device allowed a person to sit astride the board and plant their feet on the ground to run uphill or lift their feet to coast downhill. In front of a large crowd, he demonstrated that his laufmaschine (running machine) could go 7 km (4.3 miles) in an hour. Ironically, this was considered too fast, causing this first incarnation of the bicycle to be outlawed in several cities for creating a hazard to pedestrians. Continued here |
Ukrainians' Google Searches Reveal a Year of Fear--and Hope
People type their most private fears and immediate needs into Google's search box. For Ukrainians battered by more than a year of war, what they dread and desire—at least as indicated by their searches—has not changed much since the conflict began. After Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Ukrainians turned to Google Search for instructions on building bomb shelters and turning on notifications for incoming bombs, according to the company's search trends database. Data from recent weeks show that protective structures and gear continued to be top of mind, reflecting the constant danger of bombardments. Continued here |
Company of Heroes 3 Gives Strategy Games a Much-Needed Reboot
In 2006, when Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes was released, the real-time strategy genre’s glory days were already just about over. The popularity of ’90s and early ’00s staples like Warcraft, Starcraft, or Command & Conquer had begun to give way to blockbuster first-person shooters, RPGs, and action games. Within the broader “strategy” umbrella, games like Warcraft III ushered in evolutions to the genre like powerful, named characters mixed in with fodder troops. Company of Heroes focused on smaller groups of micro-managed units. These changes led to the creation of a spin-off genre that now stands as the most popular form of strategy gaming: the “multiplayer online battle arena” of Dota 2 or League of Legends. Continued here |
GPT-4 Will Make ChatGPT Smarter but Won't Fix Its Flaws
With its uncanny ability to hold a conversation, answer questions, and write coherent prose, poetry, and code, the chatbot ChatGPT has forced many people to rethink the potential of artificial intelligence. The startup that made ChatGPT, OpenAI, today announced a much-anticipated new version of the AI model at its core. Continued here |
With the XPS 13 2-in-1, Dell Adds a Tablet to Its Lineup
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED Dell's XPS 13 laptops are some of our favorites. The latest version did not wow us like past releases, but the XPS line remains thin, light, powerful enough, and an overall good deal for a premium laptop. Continued here |
11 fun facts to help celebrate Pi Day
Just like it does every year, March 14th is now upon us. While there are many reasons to celebrate the day, mathematically inclined residents of any country that writes the date in (month/day) fashion should immediately be excited by the prospect of seeing the numbers “3” and “14” next to one another, as 3.14 is famously a good approximation for one of the most well-known numbers that can’t neatly be written down as just a simple set of digits: π. Pronounced “pi” and celebrated worldwide by baking enthusiasts as “Pi day,” it’s also a great opportunity to share some facts about π with the world. While the first two facts that you’ll read here about π are generally very well-known, I seriously doubt anyone, even an actual mathematician, will get to the end of the list and know all 11 of these facts. Follow along and see how well you do! Continued here |
The mystery of Alice in Wonderland syndrome
Nine-year-old Josh Firth was in the car with his parents when he noticed something strange happening to the buildings on either side – they seemed to be getting bigger. When he told his mother, Sonja, she was baffled. As far as she was concerned, the buildings looked the same as they always had. "As the car was moving, the buildings on either side suddenly became enlarged and felt as if they were closing down on him," says Sonja. It wasn't the only time this would happen. After returning from school one day, Josh, who is from Canberra, Australia, told his mother how "his teachers' faces became bigger, out of proportion to their bodies and the walls of the schoolroom got elongated and further away from him". Josh says that on one occasion when playing chess at school, he noticed "his fingers getting wider and bigger to the point of feeling unable to pick up the chess pieces". Continued here |
Pi gets all the fanfare, but other numbers also deserve their own math holidays
March 14 is celebrated as Pi Day because the date, when written as 3/14, matches the start of the decimal expansion 3.14159… of the most famous mathematical constant. By itself, pi is simply a number, one among countless others between 3 and 4. What makes it famous is that it’s built into every circle you see – circumference equals pi times diameter – not to mention a range of other, unrelated contexts in nature, from the bell curve distribution to general relativity. Continued here |
The data startup helping businesses navigate climate change Hanyuan (Karen) Wang is the founder of Climind, a data-as-a-service startup that translates climate data into actionable business intelligence. Wang is the first Chinese woman to be selected as a United Nations Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is also a research assistant at Imperial College’s Centre for Climate Finance and Investment (CFFI), where she focuses on the voluntary carbon market, climate risks, and nature-based solutions. Previously, she worked at Merrill Lynch and Microsoft. Climind is a data-as-a-service platform that measures and analyzes climate change information. Continued here |
Inc. at SXSW: Sweetgreen's Nicolas Jammet on Building a Durable Brand The co-founder of salad chain Sweetgreen stopped by the Inc. Founders House at SXSW to talk about inspiration, problem solving, and how to draw inspiration from other industries. Continued here |
5 Strategy Lessons from Tech Company That Just Raised $205 Million Relieve customer pain with the best product and innovate to keep customers ahead of changing headwinds and tailwinds. Continued here |
Welcome to the Big Blur
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. The question will be simple but perpetual: Person or machine? Every encounter with language, other than in the flesh, will now bring with it that small, consuming test. For some—teachers, professors, journalists—the question of humanity will be urgent and essential. Who made these words? For what purpose? For those who operate in the large bureaucratic apparatus of boilerplate—copywriters, lawyers, advertisers, political strategists—the question will be irrelevant except as a matter of efficiency. How will they use new artificial-intelligence technology to accelerate the production of language that was already mostly automatic? For everyone, the question will now hover, quotidian and cosmic, over words wherever you find them: Who’s there? Continued here |
Why You (and Your Company) Need to Experiment with ChatGPT Now
The online application ChatGPT and its integration into Microsoft search engines have put generative artificial intelligence technology in the hands of millions of people. Early adopters are using them in their daily jobs, and preliminary academic studies show big boosts in productivity. Managers can’t sit on the sidelines, says Ethan Mollick, an associate professor of management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He argues that companies urgently need to experiment with ChatGPT and eventually develop policies for it. He explains the breakthrough, some promising uses, open questions, and what the technology could mean for workers, companies, and the broader economy. Mollick wrote the HBR article “ChatGPT Is a Tipping Point for AI.” Continued here |
If the Mathematical Constant Pi Was a Song, What Would It Sound Like?
Every year on Pi Day, we have a reason to celebrate one of math’s most famous symbols. But this year we speak to someone who has captured it in song. It’s that special day in March when we collectively celebrate the irrational number represented by the Greek symbol pi. Continued here |
Tree Roots May Have Set Off a Mass Extinction
The evolution of terrestrial plant roots could have kicked off large-scale extinctions by throwing the planet’s mineral cycle into disarray More than 360 million years ago, during the Devonian period, life was flourishing in spectacular fashion. As fish and invertebrates populated the seas, the first trees emerged on land. But by the end of the Devonian, more than half of all Earth's species had disappeared in a series of mass extinctions. New research shows how tree evolution could have contributed to these extinction events. Continued here |
How to Protect Workplace Inclusion Initiatives During Cutbacks At Inc. Founders House at SXSW in Austin, entrepreneurs and investors shared ways founders can preserve DEI efforts amid layoffs and market uncertainty. Continued here |
What Employers Can Do to Address High Housing Costs
Housing is already a major part of every company’s HR strategy, simply because wages depend on housing costs. But some companies go beyond wages, attracting workers with rental or mortgage subsidies. And in a few cases they even advocate for more housing to be built in a community, or directly provide employee housing. Companies should consider all of these options. The appropriate approach will depend on the properties of the local housing market. Continued here |
The 8 best hidden impact craters on Earth
The solar system can be a violent place. When we look at bodies like the Moon or Mercury, we see that they are peppered by the meteor impacts of many eons. On Earth, though, evidence of collisions is rare. Sure, there’s the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona, and perfectly circular lakes that are in fact water-filled impact craters. But for the most part, craters on our planet have been erased by wind, rivers, or rain — things you will not see on Mercury or the Moon. Continued here |
Embrace Uncertainty as Your Leadership Superpower Focus on what you know to be true, use the power of collaboration, and create multiple pathways to achieve your goals. Continued here |
Holy Week: Black Messiah
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. Archival news narrator: Memo. To: S.A.C. Boston. From: the director, FBI. Subject: Counterintelligence program. Continued here |
How This Online Proctoring Company Aced the Pandemic Demand Surge as Test-Taking Went Remote New tech, economic uncertainty, and shifting markets are making things tough for businesses. Here's how to cope. Continued here |
In these 11 European countries, births out of wedlock are in the majority
For many young people across Europe, “wedlock” is as outdated a concept as flintlock or Matlock. For proof, look at this map, showing the share of children born outside of it. Across the entire continent, figures are well into the double digits. And despite considerable regional variation, children with unmarried parents are the norm rather than the exception in plenty of countries. Until (relatively) recently, there was serious social and religious stigma attached to having children outside of marriage, and figures across Europe were more in line with those of today’s Turkey (2.8%). According to the earliest records available for France, the share of children born out of wedlock in the mid-19th century was less than 5%. That number was relatively stable across most European countries, and for many subsequent decades. Continued here |
'Toxic Forever Chemicals' in U.S. Drinking Water to Be Regulated for the First Time
The EPA has proposed the first nationwide limits for toxic chemicals called PFAS in the U.S. water supply For the first time, the U.S. government has proposed limits on toxic “forever chemicals” in the nation’s drinking water. Continued here |
The Commons: The Eureka Theory of History Is Wrong
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. Derek Thompson’s conclusion that societal progress depends on trust is profound and should be shouted from the rooftops. I am a rabbi, and I may make it the topic of my High Holiday sermon this coming year. Continued here |
Should I Insist My Employees Do More Public Speaking? I worry they're limiting their careers if they won't do it. Continued here |
The Failed Promise of Having It All
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. Rona Jaffe’s classic novel explores the age-old question, but contains a darker message for contemporary readers. Continued here |
Forever Chemicals Are Widespread in U.S. Drinking Water
Experts hope that with the incoming Biden administration, the federal government will finally regulate a class of chemicals known as PFASs Editor’s Note (3/14/23): This story is being republished to provide background on the Biden administration’s announcement of a proposal to regulate six perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in drinking water. Continued here |
How Pie Makers Handle Pi Day Inc. talked to Ron Silver, founder of Bubby's about how he handles the Pi Day rush. Continued here |
NFL Owners Are Making an Example of Lamar Jackson
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. Teams are always looking for a top-tier quarterback, but the Baltimore Ravens star is garnering surprisingly little interest. Continued here |
8 Best Practices for Creating a Compelling Customer Experience
How can a company best create a compelling customer experience? Based on the author’s research involving thousands of companies and analyses of millions of customer data points from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the eight areas that companies need to focus on are: Orchestrating the marketing ecosystem, aligning company and customer needs, delivering amazing customer convenience, reinforcing digital marketing, adjusting customer incentives, cultivating customer evangelists, handling customer complaints, and managing product returns. Continued here |
Ordinary Things: Who owns the internet of the future?
The emergence of data-driven mass surveillance "is threatening to turn privacy into a relic of the 20th century," says the anonymous YouTube creator known as Ordinary Things. Meanwhile, state-funded troll farms are spreading disinformation and curating chaos on platforms meant to connect us and revolutionize the way we live. Ordinary Things gives an enlightening account of the internet's strengths and weaknesses, warning that the fight for a free internet is a fight for our collective future. Continued here |
What Social Media Is Doing to Finance
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. Financial panics are nothing new. But the strange little panic we’re enduring—one that started last week with a massive bank run causing the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and that continued this morning with big sell-offs in the stocks of other regional banks—is arguably the first one in which social media, and particularly Twitter, has been a major player. And if the past few days are any indication, that does not bode well for the next major financial crisis. Continued here |
How Network Effects Make AI Smarter
Network effects have dictated the success of technologies from the telephone to shopping platforms like Etsy, and AI tools such as ChatGPT are no exception. What is different, however, is how those network effects work. Data network effects are a new form. Like the more familiar direct and indirect network effects, the value of the technology increases as it gains users. Here, however, the value comes not from the number of peers (like with the telephone) or the presence of many buyers and sellers (as on platforms like Etsy), but from feedback that helps it make better predictions. More users mean more responses, which further prediction accuracy, creating a virtuous cycle. Companies need to consider three lessons: 1) feedback is crucial, 2) routinize meticulous gathering of information, and 3) consider the data you share, intentionally or not. Continued here |
Older Workers Need to Brace for Cutbacks Never mind quiet quitting. Companies are moving toward stealth personnel reductions. Make sure your skills are up to speed. Continued here |
ChatGPT Changed Everything. Now Its Follow-Up Is Here.
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. Less than four months after releasing ChatGPT, the text-generating AI that seems to have pushed us into a science-fictional age of technology, OpenAI has unveiled a new product called GPT-4. Rumors and hype about this program have circulated for more than a year: Pundits have said that it would be unfathomably powerful, writing 60,000-word books from single prompts and producing videos out of whole cloth. Today’s announcement suggests that GPT-4’s abilities, while impressive, are more modest: It performs better than the previous model on standardized tests and other benchmarks, works across dozens of languages, and can take images as input—meaning that it’s able, for instance, to describe the contents of a photo or a chart. Continued here |
How Not to Cover a Bank Run
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. On September 17, 2008, the Financial Times reporter John Authers decided to run to the bank. In his Citi account was a recently deposited check from the sale of his London apartment. If the big banks melted down, which felt like a distinct possibility among his Wall Street sources, he would lose most of his money, because the federal deposit-insurance limit at the time was $100,000. He wanted to transfer half the balance to the Chase branch next door, just in case. Continued here |
How to Avoid the Dreaded Norovirus
The so-called winter vomiting disease has been closing schools and hitting long-term care facilities this year. Here’s what you should know Norovirus, the infamous “winter vomiting disease” that has people keeling over on the toilet with a bad case of the runs, is making its seasonal rampage through countries that include the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. Impervious to hand sanitizers and able to remain infectious outside the body for weeks, the notoriously unpleasant gastrointestinal virus can strike any time of year, but cases tend to peak in the Northern Hemisphere between November and April. Continued here |
How I Kept My Company Afloat During the Silicon Valley Bank Meltdown On Thursday, my company was business as usual. A day later, we lost access to all our funds and were scrambling to meet payroll. Continued here |
The Founder of Chewy.com on Finding the Financing to Achieve Scale
As Ryan Cohen was on the verge of launching an online jewelry business with his friend Michael Day, he had a revelation: He was standing in a local pet store with his toy poodle, Tylee, discussing her food with the proprietor, when he realized that millions of other pet owners were equally concerned about their animals’ well-being. Clearly, the opportunity was huge—and he cared much more about pet food than about jewelry. Continued here |
Winners of the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards Open Competition
The top entries in the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards Open Competition have been announced, and the contest organizers were once again kind enough to share some of their winning and shortlisted photos below, from their 10 categories: Architecture, Creative, Landscape, Lifestyle, Motion, Natural World & Wildlife, Object, Portraiture, Street Photography, and Travel. Captions have been provided by the photographers. Slam on the Brakes. Winner, Motion. "Barrel racing is a competition where cowgirls ride quickly around barrels; the one that does this in the shortest time wins. Every time a horse reaches a barrel it needs to brake sharply, turn around the barrel and then race to the next one." Ontario, Canada, August 2022. # Continued here |
Build Your Credibility by Avoiding These Writing Errors Proofreading problems, fuzzy thinking, and rambling sentences undermine our readers' trust in our message. Continued here |
What Are Your Decision-Making Strengths and Blind Spots?
Many of us approach decision making from the same perspective over and over. We use the same tools and habits every time, even if the decisions are vastly different. But following the same strategy for every problem limits your abilities. To make better decisions, you need to break out of these patterns and see things differently, even if it is uncomfortable. Continued here |
When You Can't Be Transparent with Your Team
One of the hardest skills you’ll need to learn as a new manager is how to manage your emotions as someone in a position of power who has access to more information than others. When you know something that could impact your team, but you can’t share it, how do you balance your values with your words and actions as a leader? Continued here |
Can AI and Machine Learning Help Park Rangers Prevent Poaching?
Globally there are too few park rangers to prevent the illegal trade of wildlife across borders, or poaching. In response, Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) was created by a coalition of conservation organizations to take historical data and create geospatial mapping tools that enable more efficient deployment of rangers. Continued here |
The Atlantic releases Holy Week: eight-episode narrative podcast, hosted by Vann R. Newkirk II
The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was revolutionary—so why was it nearly forgotten? Listen to Holy Week, a new narrative podcast with Vann R. Newkirk II. An exploration of how the week that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968, diverted the course of a social revolution Continued here |
When a Colleague Is Grieving
Grief is a universal human experience, yet workplace culture is often inhospitable to people suffering profound loss. Managers come to work prepared to celebrate births and birthdays, and even to handle illnesses, but when it comes to death, they fall silent and avert their gaze. The default approach is to try to spare the office from grief, leaving bereaved employees alone for a few days and then hoping they’ll return expediently to work. Continued here |
Why East Antarctica is a 'sleeping giant' of sea level rise
Jan Lieser had just started going through the dozens of satellite images he looks at every day when he realised something was missing. As a glaciologist at the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, he knew the shape of every ice shelf sticking out from the coast of East Antarctica. And on 17 March 2022, there was a gap where most of the Conger glacier's ice shelf had broken off into an iceberg the size of Vienna and drifted away. Lieser was stunned. He had been keeping an eye on Conger since the last few pieces of the neighbouring Glenzer ice shelf had broken up 10 days before, but he had not expected to see it disintegrate so quickly. "All of a sudden the rest of the land-fast ice collapsed, and the ice shelf moved northward and turned 90 degrees sideways. Two features we had been monitoring for years weren't there anymore," he says. "In my 15 years of looking at it, I have not expected to see that in East Antarctica." Continued here |
The impending deadline for deep-sea mining
On 5 March, the world reached what could well be a turning point for protection of the world's oceans. With almost one in 10 species are at risk of extinction, and the growing pressure from climate change, the treaty provides a framework for setting up protected areas in the high seas, sometimes known as international waters. It's been seen as crucial for supporting the aim to protect 30% of the oceans by the year 2030. At the moment, we protect just a little more than 1% of the high seas. Continued here |
How to Teach Kids to Better Manage Life's Disappointments
Her brother ate the last two Oreos instead of saving one for her. Dad said no more TV right before bedtime. He tested positive COVID at the last minute and can’t take a planned spring break trip. A broken arm means baseball season is over until next year. Disappointment can take infinite forms for a kid. Though you can’t spare them from disappointment, you can teach them how to handle it so they bounce back stronger as they get older. Kids today may have more experience with disappointment than prior cohorts considering the ways in which the pandemic canceled or fundamentally altered two years of their childhood. Even with all that experience, all kids—from toddlers to teens—still need their parents’ help to learn skills to process their emotions. Continued here
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