Top articles of the week | September 23rd

September 23, 2017

Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!

You Are the Product, London review of Books

This was an amazing article about the perils of Facebook. John Lanchester, the author, examines how the social media giant’s motivations are not necessarily beneficial to humankind. I have to admit that his arguments are quite persuasive, as my own thoughts about the platform have been evolving.

The inside story of how Netflix transitioned to digital video after seeing the power of YouTube, Recode

When I worked at Google, I always remember how eloquent Robert Kyncl was (head of YouTube Content). In this article, he reminisces about his time at NetFlix and how YouTube influenced their strategy. This forced NetFlix to adopt a completely new strategy. My favorite line in the article: The most significant consequence of YouTube’s revenue sharing has been the democratization of the job of internet content creator. Every month, we deposit money into the accounts of millions of creators around the world.”

Agility as a Strategy, Oliver Wyman

This article essentially encapsulates what we are trying to achieve at our firm, help organizations gain competitive faster by moving faster. The way to achieve is with the power of agile.

Who Owns Work, and Its Future?, Stowe Boyd, Medium

The future of work is a subject of quite a bit of debate recently. I enjoyed this philosophical article about the actual definition & ownership of work. The author equates work to being a ‘wicked problem’, which is a great essay by the way. The solutions are not evident, the author does a good job at framing the conversation.

Branded in Memory, Signs

This article examines the results of a study, do people actually remember the world’s most recognizable logos and can they draw them? You will recognize every single one of these global logos; the results are extremely interesting.

BONUS: How to crash a rocket, SpaceX – YouTube

This is a great video of all the SpaceX rocket crashes. It takes courage to showcase these in such a public manner.