DPL Reading List – January 26, 2018
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
Inside Amazon Go, a Store of the Future – “Inside is an 1,800-square foot mini-market packed with shelves of food that you can find in a lot of other convenience stores – soda, potato chips, ketchup. It also has some food usually found at Whole Foods, the supermarket chain that Amazon owns. But the technology that is also inside, mostly tucked away out of sight, enables a shopping experience like no other. There are no cashiers or registers anywhere. Shoppers leave the store through those same gates, without pausing to pull out a credit card. Their Amazon account automatically gets charged for what they take out the door.”
As AI Makes More Decisions, the Nature of Leadership Will Change – “Does all this suggest that leadership is radically different in the AI age? No, but there are two key distinctions. First, leaders’ hard skills will continue to be eclipsed by smart machines, while their soft skills will become ever more important. Second, while timeless leadership traits like integrity and emotional intelligence will no doubt remain important, leaders in the AI age need to be humble about others’ contributions, adaptable to the challenges that get thrown into their paths, steadfast in their vision of the ultimate destination on this path, and constantly engaged with the changing world around them.”
Nintendo is making a bunch of weird DIY cardboard toys for the Switch and they’re awesome – “Labo is both unlike anything Nintendo has made before, and something that feels distinctly Nintendo. The company has a history of exploring trends in unique ways, like with the exercise game Wii Fit, or the Brain Age series of puzzle games, inspired by the work of neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima. Labo similarly takes something very of the moment – the idea of giving kids a better understanding of the technology that surrounds them – and fits it into an unconventional and playful package. Labo isn’t going to teach children how to code, but it could very well be the starting point for getting them interested in being more than a passive consumer of technology.”
Some Basic Rules for Securing Your IoT Stuff – “Throughout 2016 and 2017, attacks from massive botnets made up entirely of hacked IoT devices had many experts warning of a dire outlook for Internet security. But the future of IoT doesn’t have to be so bleak. Here’s a primer on minimizing the chances that your IoT things become a security liability for you or for the Internet at large.”
Designers who play with words – “Design thinking is nonlinear. Writing can help harness your scattered ideas and make sense of them. Like organizing a closet, it’s a process that involves finding and compiling the right groupings of ideas. Put your favorite explorations on this shelf, or hang your open questions over there.”
How you can build your own VR headset for $100 – “I then got interested in VR and with my friends we agreed that it would be really cool to create our own world in VR where we could spend time after school. But facing the fact that an Oculus was $700 at the time, we decided to build our own headset.”
In a Distracted World, Solitude Is a Competitive Advantage – “The volume of our communication, and our unfettered access to information and other people, have made it more difficult than ever to focus. Despite this reality, there is another truth: Opportunities to focus are still all around us. But we must recognize them and believe that the benefit of focus, for yourself and the people you lead, is worth making it a priority in your life.”
