Weekly Links & Thoughts #107

Here is this week’s edition of meshedsociety.com weekly, loaded with thoughtful opinion pieces, interesting analyses and significant yet under-reported information bits from the digital and technology world. Published and annotated every Thursday (CET), just in time so you have something good to read over the weekend.

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Reading time indicator: 1 = up to 3 minutes, 2 = 3 to 10 minutes, 3 = more than 10 minutes

• The Rise of the Neo-Generalist (3)
  
  A thought-provoking piece outlining the emergence of a new style of approach to life. A style that differs considerably from the specialist mindset that prevailed until now.
• Snap: too soon to IPO (2)
  
  Passionate, intelligent plea to Snapchat-owner Snap Inc not to go public yet, considering massive losses and the fact that pension money from American citizens is being channeled towards a speculative IPO of a company that has not proven itself yet.
• It’s time to admit Apple Watch is a success (1)
  
  About the strange media narrative of the Apple Watch being a flop.
• A Tale Of Two Technologies: The Narrative And The Numbers For VR And Voice (1)
  
  Speaking about strange narratives: VR has been hyped endlessly. The anticipation of voice interfaces wasn’t even close. Yet, voice caught on with the masses. VR is still niche.
• Amazon’s Alexa isn’t the future of AI—it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise (2)
  
  Ok, not everyone is convinced by the capabilities of the biggest hit in the field of voice control, Amazon Echo.
• Listening to bots (3)
  
  What the CEO of Betaworks has learned about chatbots and conversational interfaces after having tinkered with them for much of 2016. A couple of instructive takeaways in here.
• In Defense of Large Native Apps (2)
  
  Is it a problem that popular smartphone apps nowadays commonly reach sizes between 100 and 150 megabyte? Provided that one has a proper Internet connection and a device with more than 8 or 16 gigabyte of storage, it shouldn’t be, argues this developer.
• Incorporating a Limited in Germany for Bootstrappers (2)
  
  Don’t get discouraged by the dull headline. This is an informativ but also (involuntary?) humorous explainer on the bureaucratic obstacles for foreign entrepreneurs that plan to launch in or relocate their startup to Germany.
• The top 12 international cities for software engineers (2)
  
  A bunch of interesting rankings not only of interest for software engineers but probably for everyone working in tech.
• Sex doesn’t sell any more, activism does. And don’t the big brands know it (2)
  
  An intriguing observation. The recent #deleteuber campaign was just one of various examples from the corporate world pointing towards a major shift for marketing.
• The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything (3)
  
  I didn’t know the industrial designer Raymond Loewy whose ideas and philosophies about product innovation and newness are profiled in this text but they undoubtedly offer insightful perspectives.
• Is ‘fake news’ a fake problem? (2)
  
  Yeah, the fake news audience is comparatively small. But in the connected age, a small group can be highly influential. 3 % is the magical number. This is misunderstood by many. You don’t need majorities in order for a certain idea/ideology/world view to impact and change the rules for everyone. Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s essay explaining this phenomenon remains one of the most outstanding and important texts I have read over the past years.
• How to Become a Famous Media Scholar: The Case of Marshall McLuhan (3)
  
  Since I recently dedicated a post to the work of Marshall McLuhan, it seems relevant to share this revealing, slightly demystifying profile of the Canadian media scholar and his sudden rise to celebrity status, which actually happened twice over the course of a couple of decades.

Recently on meshedsociety.com:

• Zuckerberg’s Lock-in Effect
  
  Facebook has become a revenue and profit machine. But the company’s success comes at a cost for politics, societies and the maintenance of social peace. The undesirable effects of the “Facebook world” have become so apparent lately that CEO Mark Zuckerberg should be seriously concerned. Tragically, even if the 32-year-old would start to have doubts about what he has unleashed, it wouldn’t matter: He cannot fix the damage anymore. He has locked the company into a highly effective business model. Abandoning it is not an option. It’s his very own Lock-in Effect.
• Medium can be the better Twitter
  
  When looking at Medium.com not as a publishing platform but as a social network around smart ideas and constructive discussions, it has huge potential to actually become the better Twitter.

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