DPL Reading List – January 12, 2018
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
Using thought to control machines – “These questions are not urgent. But the bigger story is that neither are they the realm of pure fantasy. Technology changes the way people live. Beneath the skull lies the next frontier.”
Exclusive: What Fitbit’s 6 billion nights of sleep data reveals about us – “Since Fitbit began tracking sleep stages in March 2017, it has collected data from 6 billion nights of its customers’ sleep. This is a gold mine – by far the largest set of sleep data ever assembled. (This data is anonymous and averaged; it’s not associated with individual customers’ names.) “It’s a really, really exciting and really rare data set,” Fitbit data scientist Karla Gleichauf says. “It’s probably the largest biometric data set in the world.””
The Algorithms Aren’t Biased, We Are – “Determining a decision with an algorithm doesn’t automatically make it reliable and trustworthy; just like quantifying something with data doesn’t automatically make it true. We need to look at our own reflections in these algorithmic mirrors and make sure we see the future we want to see.”
Make Civility the Norm on Your Team – “We all want to come to work and be treated with kindness and respect. Unfortunately, my research shows that there is rampant incivility in most organizations. I found that 98% of the workers I surveyed over the past 20 years have experienced rude behavior and 99% have witnessed it. And the situation seems to be worsening.”
2018 Is Going To Be A Massive Year For Blockchains, The Tech Behind Bitcoins – “You’ve heard of the surging alternate currency, but that’s just a peek at what the underlying technology will enable in the next year.”
Why GE Digital Failed – “Digital transformation initiatives don’t need thousands of people. They need a small team with very little time and very little money. Even worse, GE Digital was saddled with a quarterly P&L, which oriented its business around short-term revenue growth rather than long-term strategic objectives. This setup is the exact opposite of what digital transformation initiatives need to thrive. Large businesses often struggle with setting up these initiatives correctly because it runs contrary to how they structure sustaining innovations.”
Why the Rewards for Ambitious Problem Solving Are About to Get Bigger – “No matter what form innovation takes – short, agile sprints or long-term, grand-challenge investments – innovation is fundamentally about solving problems. And the bigger the problems you choose to tackle, the larger the potential payoff. Pursuing a grand challenge won’t improve your results next quarter, but it might just take your enterprise to a whole new level.”
