3/5/21 Recommended Issues: Resilience, Zoom Research, Twitter Super Followers

Good day!

Each week we handpick newsletter issues by independent writers you may have missed that provide new or unique perspectives. 

If you read last week's and would like to subscribe or leave a review of any of the highlighted newsletters, you can do that here: The Cottage, Extra Points with Matt Brown, and Out of Pocket. The narrowSCALE community really appreciates it!

Also, if someone forwarded you this and you'd like to subscribe, you can do that here -- thanks!)

Here's what's worth reading this week...enjoy!

RESEARCH EXPLAINS WHY ZOOM IS EXHAUSTING

Not another Zoom call in Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr on Mar 2

Lots of people report “Zoom fatigue” and being tired of it, but Stanford researchers actually delved into the SCIENCE of interacting on Zoom. Bill neatly summarizes and explains the outcome of the research: four real, practical physical reasons why Zoom calls are more exhausting than in-person communication. It’s a quick, interesting read that will validate how you probably already felt before, as well as leave you with a better understanding of why and a couple ideas for what you can do to improve your Zoom situation. (981 words;3.5 minutes) Read it...

BUILDING RESILIENCE

7 Mentally Tough People on the Tactics They Use to Build Resilience in The Profile, by Polina Marinova Pompliano on Feb 23 

This issue deep dives into seven unique, individual stories of people who have developed incredible mental toughness and resilience-- and it’s not only just about how/what they did, but also, it gives actual takeaways that you could actually incorporate into your life (ie, they don’t seem so far fetched that you’d say “that’s great, but I couldn’t ever do that”...). From an ultra-marathon runner who discusses the difference between listening to yourself and talking to yourself, to the 30 year death row inmate who visualized a better reality, to the guy who created an alter ego to leave behind his poor health, learning disabilities, and low self-esteem to become a Navy Seal and Guinness World Record holder for pull-ups, the stories are fascinating. At worst you’ll be impressed and inspired, at best, you will also find a couple applicable take-aways, making you just a skosh (or more!) mentally stronger. (2997 words; 11 minutes) Read it…  

TWITTER’S NEW “SUPER FOLLOWS”

Twitter pulls a Patreon in Platformer, by Casey Newton on Feb 25

If you hadn’t heard, Twitter recently announced that they are going to move into subscriptions and create new ways for people to monetize their followers, including a paywall for tweets. This definitely shakes up the Twitter that the world knows...and Casey does an excellent job of talking through the impacts (both pros and cons) on various groups (followers, those that tweet, journalists/newsrooms, etc) as well on competition in the social network space. It’s well worth a read to understand-- and ponder-- how things may change as Twitter moves ahead with their new strategy.  (1728 words; 6.25 minutes). Read it…

Some interesting facts from newsletters this week:

• Apparently, Google’s Pixel phones have a new feature that can detect car crashes -- and call for emergency services! Dynamically Typed 2/28

• There's a website where you can search famous movie frames for images/objects...It's pretty fun to play around with. Dynamically Typed 2/28

• Robots can *almost* fold towels now...Berkeley researchers have built a system that can fold a range of fabrics more accurately than before... which is more impressive than it sounds. Import AI 3/1

• Sevilla is using leftover oranges (35 tonnes!!!) to generate clean energy to run one of the city’s water purification plants. As the oranges ferment, the methane is captured and drives the generators... cool! Sentiers 2/28

• Ugh - Between 1900 and 1905, 45 college football players died due to injuries. President Teddy Roosevelt actually hosted a summit with representatives of Ivy League football teams to the White House to discuss reforms to the game to reduce its brutality. Yes, that was over 100 years ago... Tedium 2/26

• Double Ugh: between1989 and 2014, 523 race drivers were killed during auto races in the United States. Tedium 2/26

• Triple Ugh. Increasing racism: In 2020, there was a 150% increase in reported anti-Asian hate crimes in American cities. :(  (For comparison, there was "only" a 30% rise in murder and 6% rise in aggravated assault.) Noahpinion 3/2

• Holy iceberg Batman: An iceberg 20 times the size of Manhattan (!!!!!) broke off of an ice shelf in Antarctica this week!!! Understandably 3/2

• Apparently when Michael Jackson was working on the song "Annie, are you ok?", he was also learning CPR... and the name Annie came from the CPR industry-standard dummy "Resusci Anne"... who knew?! now I know 3/2

• In the commercial foodservice sector, there are special generic brand "BandAids" that are blue and lined with metal so that 1. they stand out more if dropped in food (there are VERY few actual blue foods) and 2. they can be detected by metal detectors if in a sealed box. I'm all for NOT discovering a bandage in my food... now I know 2/25

Hopefully you found something intriguing!

And if you're looking for any specific newsletters to read, feel free to email me or explore narrowSCALE.

Also, if you're not subscribed to THIS newsletter yet, please subscribe here :)!

Best,
~Jessica