2017:22 What I learned this week

Reversing the lies of the sharing economy.
An interesting read that takes you back to why the sharing economy exists and how it began to what it has become today, a monetized platform.

Give a startup minimal capital to hire developers and run media campaigns, and then watch as the network effects ripple over the infrastructure of the internet. If it works, you’re suddenly in control of a corporation built with digital tools, but extracting value from real-world, physical assets like cars and buildings. The entity holds itself together not via employment contracts, but rather by self-employed workers’ dependence on it to access the market they rely on for their survival.

https://howwegettonext.com/reversing-the-lies-of-the-sharing-economy-a85501d14be8

2017:21 What I learned this week

Fitbit based research
Fitbit released their research library which references all the research that's being done using the data captured by your Fitbit.
https://www.fitabase.com/research-library/

How Amazon is disrupting retail
Scott Galloway gives an interesting lecture on how retail is dying and how Amazon is going to replace them all, through voice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MOwRTTq1bY


What service design is, and isn't
For all those confused about Service design (is it the same as design thinking? Is it strategic?), here's a nice response to common assumptions.
http://www.meldstudios.com.au/2016/08/31/what-service-design-is-and-what-it-is-not/

2017:18 What I learned this week

Barbie's Vlog
I watched a Barbie vlog and was really impressed at how real Barbie and Ken felt... it's strange to have children's dolls act like a real life vlogger you would watch on youtube. Uncanny valley-ish maybe? I don't have the same issue watching the LEGO movie, but I suppose the LEGO characters are not acknowledging me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpyq7n_O4ZY

A planner's guide to reading:
If you are looking for some reading inspiration, this person organized the types of books to read by a framework in which she identify the specific things she is learning about.  The seven types of books are:
1. That which expands our capacity for empathy
2. That which grounds us in the basics of strategy
3. That which grounds us in the basics of how brands are built
4. That which illuminates the present state of things
5. That which lets us peer into the near-future
6. That which deepens our appreciation for creative instinct and craft
7. That which expands our capacity for persuasive expression

https://martinweigel.org/2016/05/25/a-planners-guide-to-reading/

The architecture of work
I originally did not entirely agree with this article, but I've been thinking about it over the past few days and it has intrigued me. Maybe he is onto something afterall..
This is Esko Kilpi's commentary on what the next management paradigm looks like and why traditional management thinking is no longer very effective. His argument is that industrial management was about hierarchy and fragmentation so each item/task could be measured and managed whereas today, the technology has created a networked and interdependent environment that reflects a shift towards a need regarding understanding the participative, self-organizing responsibility and the equality of peers. The example he provided is below:

...Organizational outcomes are first chosen by a few top executives and then implemented by the rest. Here, planning and enactment of the plans are two separate domains that follow a linear causality from plans to actions. From the perspective of open source development, organizational outcomes emerge in a way that is never just determined by a few people, but arises in the ongoing local interaction of all the people taking part. For example GitHub encourages individuals to fix things and own those fixes just as much as they own the projects they start [..] and ten million people working together for ten minutes may be the model in the future.

https://workfutures.io/esko-kilpi-on-the-architecture-of-work-1b35f9fb4bc0