Quick link dump:
— Marc Benioff's riffs (20 minute video interview) on the future of work seem spot-on. Marc sees enterprise software looking more and more like Facebook — the changes in software should be accompanied by new management practices and compensation structures.
— One way to inspire, NFL edition:
There were 65 yards between the Steelers and the end zone in their A.F.C. divisional playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens, which was tied with less than four minutes remaining when [quarterback] Ben Roethlisberger entered the huddle.
The local train was leaving for the conference championship game on a cold, sleety Saturday night, and Roethlisberger, the Steelers’ quarterback, wanted to know if all his offensive teammates were aboard.
“I’m going down to score,” Roethlisberger said, according to Steelers receiver Michael Wallace. “Who’s coming down with me?”
— Chris Yeh thoughtfully assesses the different ways to be influential on Twitter.
— Arnold Schwarzenegger reflects on leaving office:
I can only operate to the utmost and to 100 percent of my potential if I have no safety net. Because it's only then that I'm at my peak. That's one reason I never did TV shows — I didn't want to have that security. What I liked about being governor was never knowing how a meeting would end. The legislative leaders could leave and destroy you to the press. Or they go out and compliment you. So you don't know. You don't know the way the people go. One year they like something, the next year it's number seven on their priority list. So you just never know. That brings excitement and spice to life. And that to me is the difference between living and existing.
Here's a
piece in the Atlantic about why Arnold did more to save California than his critics think. Here's a
piece about why California's financial problems are overstated. To California-bashers in the national media, the author notes: "In the quarter century through 2005 (the most recent year for which we have data), Californians bailed out the rest of America to the tune of about $620 billion in today’s dollars. In 2005 alone it came to nearly $50 billion."
— Here's a video of a robot harvesting strawberries — it knows which are ripe and which are not. What would we do without the Japanese?
— Is Andrew Mason the funniest big-time CEO alive right now? (Here are more examples.)
— Two girls order Indian food in Hindi over the phone…even though they don't speak Hindi. This is the future. (The Economist reviewed the recent book on whether English will someday not be the lingua franca.)
— Via Justin Rockefeller, this is a 60 Minutes report on people who can remember every detail of every day of their life. It's called "Super Autobiographical Memory." Fascinating.
— The would-be Times Square bomber was on a plane bound for Dubai that was seconds from taking off at JFK. Then the pilot got an urgent message from air traffic control. Here's the audio of the conversation.
— Steve Blank, expert entrepreneur and Silicon Valley leader, honestly assesses the state of entrepreneurship in Chile after a two week visit.
— This was the rap song I listened to while driving today. First few verses are epic. The opening line channels Steinbeck: "there's a thin line between anger and hunger my man / And I ride a unicycle down the middle, you might catch me touchin feet down on both sides." Later: "If you drop three crumbs, Ill eat one / Feed one to the family, rest I get invested in my freedom."
