Working Wednesday Reads #2

Every Wednesday, I report to the office early.

Here are my morning commute reads :

• Is the Belt and Road Initiative going to fail? The costs of constant lockdown will hurt China’s international influence. Yet, it seems that the leadership in Beijing appears undaunted. (Danson Cheong, Straits Times)
• How To Write Good Headlines (Even when you don’t have time) Want to impress your boss with your writing WITHOUT looking like a suck-up? This is a must read. (Sean D Souza, Psychotactics)
• Will Foxconn now make your electric cars? Beyond the EV hype, what we are witnessing is the convergence of two radically different sectors. “Historically, the car industry has been driven by mechanical capabilities. Its production cycles are several years long and its products have been highly customised to appeal to consumers ranging from families to wealthy race car lovers. By contrast large parts of the electronics industry, such as the consumer segment which Foxconn comes from, are increasingly commoditised and churn out new models every few months.” We might soon arrive at a day where automobiles become subsumed under consumer electronics. (Kathrin Hille, Financial Times)
• The Open Secret of Google Search. The evolution of Google ‘search’ from a revolutionary product to an AI-powered monopoly. Do you feel that Google search has become increasingly vapid and sterile? (Charlie Warzel,The Atlantic)
• The Death of Authority in American Classrooms. The death of authority in the classroom can be explained by the ‘educational universe has slowly tilted away from its original mission of transforming and improving the inner fiber of young people’ towards ‘becoming emotive enclaves of a stark student-centered universe’. If true, what will be the impact of this ‘softening’ for America in 20 years? (Percy Deift, Quillette)
• Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. The prominent song has become an American Rorschach test. This is why it makes total sense that this song is featured in weddings, wakes, movies (Shrek & Justice League). This is the power of cultural artefacts such as songs - they tell us much more about the psychology of the consumer than a lab test would. (Rob Ledonne, The Guardian)
• The Instragrammatization of Fitness. Social media can make statements “true” by repetition. Someone makes up one of these infographics with a bunch of repeated statements (some of which are right and many of which are wrong). Someone else assumes it’s true and reposts it to tell their friends. And as the information spreads across the network- what starts off as tenuous become gospel. (LyleMCD, BodyRecomposition)