The Sunday Five, Vol #36 — The best reads on the web
I read everything, so you don’t have to — August 27th, 2017

#1 Discrimination: Ellen K. Pao’s account of harassment at Kleiner Perkins. Worth reading to understand how discrimination plays out in modern organizations. Perhaps I’ve worked for good companies or I have been blind to this kind of harassment, but awful this is happening in Silicon Valley which is supposed to be one of the most innovative places. Some of the most inspiring people in my career have been women and I wish there were more companies led by those people. The forces Pao talks about prevents that from happening for both good women AND men.
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#2 Unpopular Ideas: This list of unpopular ideas about social norms is thought provoking. So is this one about political systems. Many of these will certainly be popular ideas 50 years from now, its just trying to understand which ones. Also the core thesis of the book But What If We’re Wrong? which is also fantastic. Some fun ones:
- Bathrooms and/or locker rooms should be unisex.
- It should not be considered noble to remain anonymous when donating to charity, because publicizing one’s donation encourages other people to donate
- People worry about overpopulation, but underpopulation is a bigger risk
- Political leaders should be selected at random, rather than by voting
#3 GE: Jeff Immelt outlines how he tried to transform GE. Given the massive size of the company and the challenge of his job, I still think he wasn’t given enough time. Still, it is amazing to see how different the company is from ten years ago when I worked there. Its quite hard to change around the edges, yet GE has an aspiration to live forever and has taken bold steps to make it happen.
#4 Reality: We are living in two different ones — the moment Trump got elected many people’s worldviews shifted immediately. This seems to be concerned by me hearing someone seriously use the word “Trumpnomics” this summer. This split is much more pronounced than our recent past:
#5 Education: A harsh critique of our current educations system: “ Experts in education have never been right, their “solutions” are expensive, self-serving, and always involve further centralization. Enough. Time for a return to democracy, individuality, and family. I’ve said my piece. Thank you.”

