2016-06-30

  1. How Facebook Tries to Prevent Office Politics - HBR
    For any organization or group, politics is not a stranger. This article shares some of the measures that Facebook uses to prevent office politics.

  2. The Illicit Perks of the M.D. Club - NYT
    In this personal account from an M.D., Dr. Thakkar, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the NYU, shares and reflects on navigating medical care and how his M.D. status gives him an unfair privilege and perks.

"Nepotism occurs in many fields ... But when everyone is feeling the pain of decreased access and increased costs, physicians currying favors will only foster resentment. Shouldn’t we be advocating for reform, rather than finding our own shortcuts?"

2016-06-27

  1. The Mistrust of Science - New Yorker
    The commencement speech given at Cal Tech this year. Another solid one from Atul Gawande.

Today, you become part of the scientific community, arguably the most powerful collective enterprise in human history. In doing so, you also inherit a role in explaining it and helping it reclaim territory of trust at a time when that territory has been shrinking.

  1. President Obama Weighs His Economic Legacy
    On the insurmountable challenges faced and great accomplishments and mistakes made.

"Why do so many voters feel left behind? The president has a theory."

  1. Autonomous Vehicles Need Experimental Ethics: Are We Ready for Utilitarian Cars?
    The concept of self-driving car or driverless car is no longer out of pure fiction. Technology is almost there as we already have products in market that have driverless features (e.g. Tesla's Autopilot and similar functions from other manufacturers such as Audi, MB, and BMW). However, perhaps the most critical part for completely autonomous driving is setting how it would react to potential accidents—in terms of what kind of ethics/algorithm should we implement when making split-second decisions that affect multiple lives.
    Related interesting articles:

2016-06-23

  1. Why even driving through suburbia is soul crushing
    The modern suburbs are quite unique to the United States, and recently there are many thoughts and movements to reverse (or at least stop building new ones).

  2. Stanford CPU DB

  3. Basic Income: A Sellout of the American Dream - MIT Technology Review

"Funding a basic income with that wealth makes perfect sense—but doing it now doesn’t..."

  1. The New Panama Canal: A Risky Bet - NYT
    An in-depth review of the Panama canal expansion project

  2. Daring Fireball featuring Philip Schiller and Craig Federighi
    Apple's own Philip Schiller and Craig Federighi provide more insights on the recent developments at WWDC and Apple.

2016-06-04

  1. Cartography Comparison: Google vs Apple
    Long time ago, maps used to be difficult to produce, update, and acquire, but today modern map has become unprecedentedly accessible and alive. Justin O'Beirne, a person who is responsible for Apple's cartography, has many insightful essays on modern cartography. This in depth article still in progress highlights design differences and characteristics of the two most widely used maps today.

  2. John Siracusa’s OS X reviews
    Extensive reviews of all OS X versions. I've been a user since Tiger. Looking back, it's amazing how much it has changed while being consistent.

  3. Body temperature changes during the practice of g Tum-mo yoga
    This unbelievable Tibetan Buddhist meditation called Tummo allows a practitioner to raise his/her surface temperature (up to ~8 degree C) without affecting the core body temperature. In this Nature paper, the scientists—for the first time with a help from HH Dalai Lama—gathered some key physiological data during the process.

  4. Google's Material Design
    This outlines Google's platform agnostic master design plans for their products.

  5. American schools are teaching our kids how to code all wrong
    We should focus on solid computational thinking, problem solving, and critical thinking rather than the "light and fluffy version of computer science."