Five Things — September 2016
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Dear friends,
I hope this letter finds you well. My last few weeks have been hectic as I have been closing my last project in Copenhagen and will now move to London for the next 3 months (give me a call if you are here).
I have decided to create this newsletter to move away from “impulsive sharing” and start to bring more thought and structure to the articles I share. I hope you find this newsletter interesting to spark discussion and discover new things. Its preparation has been fun and good learning experience.
I kindly request you to provide feedback to improve the next newsletters.
Thank you for your time,
Alex
#1 My favourite newsletters
It would only make sense to start this newsletter with a homage to my favourite newsletters that inspired me to create this one (big shoes to fill).
- Tim Ferriss (author of 4-Hour Workweek, start-up investor, best selling author) has the 5-Bullet Friday weekly (duh) newsletter with the five coolest things he’s found (or explored) that week.
- Kevin Rose (Digg founder, ex-Google Ventures) has The Journal monthly newsletter with favourite products, podcasts and articles. Here is an example.
- Seth Godin (author of Purple Cow, marketer, best selling author) has Seth’s Blog almost-daily newsletter with posts from his blog (number 1 marketing blog). One of my favourite posts.
5-Bullet Friday (Tim Ferriss)
The Journal (Kevin Rose)
Seth’s Blog (Seth Godin)
#2 How will Lisbon look in March 2017?
Lisbon’s central avenues are under construction to improve mobility and increase space for local residents and businesses. It started in May and is expected to finish by February 2017. This two minute video shows the major changes with a few mockups. You can view more details on Câmara Municipal de Lisboa’s site, including the architecture plan.
Video (Vimeo, 2 min)
Project (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa)
#3 Understanding Trump’s speech
I may not like Donald Trump and his view on the world, but I have to admit, he is unique. Against all odds and predictions, he became the Republican candidate for POTUS. One of the reasons is the way he talks: his choice of words and short, simple sentences, that even a fourth-grader can comprehend. Several articles and analysis have been written, but this video is still my favourite.
Video (Youtube, 7 min)
#4 How free mobile games are designed to make money
If you look at the top grossing apps on App Store or Google Play they are usually free apps. This video shows how these “freemium” games use behavioural psychology to make you spend more money.
Video (Youtube, 5 min)
#5 Book: How Google Works
Reading through this book, I felt compelled to highlight every page. Eric Schmidt (ex-CEO of Novell and Google) and Jonathan Rosenberg (ex- Google Product Owner, manager of Marissa Mayer at Google) tell their amazing and inspiring story of how they started at Google, after several successful endeavors in other Silicon Valley companies… and had to discard most of the things they had learned.
The chapter about Talent is my favourite. It details the most important activity at Google: hiring. They also coin a new insightful concept, the “smart creative”, an evolution of Peter Drucker’s “knowledge worker”.
Before you buy the book, click through the Slideshare presentation from Eric. If you like it, you will love the book.
Presentation about the book (Slideshare, 54 slides)
Book (Wook, 12.71€)
