Don't Panic Labs Reading List

DPL Reading List – June 16, 2017

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| June 16, 2017 | in

Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.

Your Tools Don’t Define You – “You could start out on an Acer and become a friggin’ programming prodigy using Notepad and a free FTP! Why? Because you were hungry enough to forget you were tool-deficient. You were driven enough to master your passion. Because you had just enough to do it.”

How Corporate Values Get Hijacked and Misused – “True cultural norms drive results, are shaped by strategy, and engender strong communal pride. Culture, in such companies, becomes a competitive advantage and attracts top talent. Values that everyone knows mean nothing weaken an organization’s confidence, integrity, and ability to compete, rendering its culture a liability. The forces left to shape behavior become shame, pessimism, and cowardice.”

Blockchain for non-techies: 1. Agreement – “This post is the first post in a series on blockchain technology, where I give a non-technical introduction. This post is about agreement, which might seem like a digression, but it is an important foundation in order to understand the power of blockchains.”

Startup Workers Are Coming Home – “According to the latest LinkedIn Workforce Report, the San Francisco Bay Area is no longer among the top ten cities that are gaining the most workers. Instead, individuals are opting to move to rising cities with lower costs of living and ample opportunity like Seattle, Denver, Austin, and Charlotte. As part of what I call the Rise of the Rest, the talent that would have typically flocked to the coasts is looking to the rest of the country.”

Why Design Thinking Is Critical For A Digital Future – “Design thinking is not just about creativity, as complex problem solving requires a collaborative approach, incorporating all parts of an organization — from internal resources, to partners, and customers.”

Sorry, Amazon, But Microsoft Is The World’s #1 Cloud Vendor – Here’s Why – “While Amazon is unquestionably helping tens of thousands of businesses cut IT costs and accelerate some key processes, Microsoft and its sweeping Commercial Cloud products and services have become indispensable digital-transformation enablers for businesses in every industry in every region across the globe.”

Left to our own devices – “The more I can do to bring real devices into my design process—into early concept work, into internal reviews, into reviews with clients and stakeholders—the better my design will be.”