What is an API? In English, please.
I find that an increasing number of customers are asking me about whether or not our apps have APIs. Sometimes I feel like they were told to ask about this, and other times I feel like they know more about APIs than I do. This is a good way to establish a baseline understanding of what APIs do and why they're awesome. – Calvin
An Apology for the Internet — From the People Who Built It
I guess I'm going to just once again throw myself into the hypocritical-luddite trope I've hollowed out in the soft and loamy sands of this newsletter.
I present to you several truisms cum trestles of the despair train that is our current culture:
But how do you blame the technology? Are sticks and stones responsible for the existence of war? Or do they simply provide the leverage to enhance the lethality of our worst inclinations? Instead of complaining about the spear and sword or social media and smartphones maybe we need to look deeply inside ourselves and ask whether and why we are all this broken? -Brian
The real Goldfinger: the London banker who broke the world
I disagree pretty substantially with the take (it is very r/latestagecapitalism) but the history is fascinating. We have a lot of goals here but at least one of them is to put things in front of you that you don't agree with, and wouldn't otherwise make it inside whatever sort of bubble you've created for yourself. -Brian
The Last Slave Ship Survivor Gave an Interview in the 1930s. It Just Surfaced.
We aren't far removed generationally-speaking from times of human misery and suffering so dark it breaks the mind to even try to empathize. -Brian
GM CEO Mary Barra developed a two-word dress code for employees
Courtesy of Tiffany - I love this approach. The more I treat my team like adults the more they act like adults. Now how do I get someone to treat me like an adult? I'm 40! I'm a man! -Brian
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — sonder
The wikipedia of dictionaries except it is only full of words that should exist but don't. Sonder is my favorite word from it. It definitely needs to exist. -Brian
How Box Conquered the Enterprise and Became a $1.7 Billion Company in a Decade
Love me a good startup story. This article is well-researched, and has thoughtful questions at the end. - Calvin
There seems to be this growing idea among the younger crowd that college isn't worth the cost, time, effort, etc. And I could see some argument that taking out huge loans to get a degree that doesn't make you marketable in the economy is probably a bad idea. And certainly the cost of college is out of control. But the benefit of a college degree (as measured by the median income multiplier of getting a degree) has done nothing but increase over time. -Brian
The High Price of Stale Grievances
There's a weird situation where someone gets fired for not looking enough like a minority even though they are a minority. Is that racism or just clever marketing? -Brian
How to Be Happy: A Cheat Sheet