don't panic labs reading list

DPL Reading List – February 15, 2019

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| February 15, 2019 | in

Here are some of the new and interesting articles we found this week.

Mozilla to use machine learning to find code bugs before they ship – “Clever-Commit analyzes code changes as developers commit them to the Firefox codebase. It compares them to all the code it has seen before to see if they look similar to code that the system knows to be buggy. If the assistant thinks that a commit looks suspicious, it warns the developer. Presuming its analysis is correct, it means that the bug can be fixed before it gets committed into the source repository. Clever-Commit can even suggest fixes for the bugs that it finds.”

Improved Self-Awareness Can Make You a Better Leader – “Most leaders believe they know themselves much better than they actually do. That’s the problem with self-awareness — it has several benefits, but few people enjoy them. Self-awareness has a more positive impact on your leadership ability than an MBA. Self-awareness is directly correlated with team performance, according to another study. A high level of self-awareness not only contributes to career success and effective leadership — it also improves your bottom line.”

5G Networks, as Explained Using a Coffee Shop Metaphor (Plus What You Need to Know in 2019) – “Waves at the 5G end of the spectrum are easily interrupted — by trees, rain, and even fog. And it makes sense. Getting closer to the middle of the spectrum means you’re getting closer to visible light, which can’t go through trees either. These waves (frequently) need to hop from one access point to the next, at closer range, to get to their end destination without dying en route. So while 4G requires two or three modern cell phone towers (big coffee shops), 5G requires between 15 and 20 small cells (small coffee shops) to cover a small city.”

How to Manage Your Fear of Public Speaking – “You may not be aware of these specific physical responses, but when you get up in front of an audience, you can tell you’re unhappy. Moreover, you may find yourself deeply concerned about being judged for your ideas or your delivery. The good news is that you can take 12 simple steps to make the adrenaline effects of public speaking less severe and to combat your own internal monologue about how people will receive your talk.”

How Audio Could Bring Us the New Einstein – “I’ll be honest, I didn’t really start thinking about this alleged importance, until my friend told me exactly this: For the first time in history, the spoken word has the same reach and arguably as much power as the written word. I’m not sure I fully understood what she meant, but something about that sentence hit me with the rare and deeply cherishing feeling that I had just heard a whole book’s wisdom eloquently compressed into one sentence.”

How to be a better listener in a world where everyone’s talking – “We tend to value speaking over the ability to listen — particularly in leadership positions. But when you listen carefully, you have the opportunity to gain new perspectives and learn the things you don’t know you don’t know.”

You Can Be a Great Leader and Also Have a Life – “So perhaps, if we are to change, what we need are fewer breathless articles about inhuman and insane CEO schedules that ignore the costs to health, families, and ultimately, innovation and business productivity. And we need to hear more stories like that of Alexrod, Hickox and Rowe. More about CEOs like David Solomon, the new head of Goldman Sachs who takes yoga classes with his daughter, led an effort to reduce punishing work hours, calls colleagues when they’re working too much to tell them to stop, and regularly performs and records electronic dance music as DJ D-Sol. More about how leaders like YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki can run a $100 billion company and still be home for dinner at 6 p.m. with her kids.”