Strictly Curious Newsletter №61

News

Leadership: Why extrovert CEOs may be bad for business. Extroverts can be more prone to overconfidence and cause poorer financial performance. Link

Innovation: Brexit is ‘pressing snooze’ on innovation. Link

China digital consumer trends 2019: Discovering the next wave of growth (by McKinsey & Company). Link

Creativity: Can the design of a building improve the creative output of its occupants? Link

Europe’s top tech startups: Sifted’s team of reporters across the continent dig into the data, strategy and challenges behind the most important and dynamic startups in Europe. Link

Nobel prize: The Noble prize in Economics goes to groundbreaking anti-poverty researchers. In the last 20 years, development economics has been transformed. These researchers are the reason why. Link

Startup teams: Forget what they told you about building startup teams. Look at data instead. Contrary to popular belief, historical data suggests that larger founding teams have better chances to build successful startups. Link

Private Equity: Private equity takeovers of listed companies hit jobs hardest. Academics considered impact of US buyouts over more than three decades. Link

Data curiosity: How to cultivate an inquisitive workforce. Link

Startups: Silicon Valley is trying out a new mantra: Make a profit. Start-up investors are warning of a reckoning after the stumbles of some high-profile “unicorns.” Now turning a profit is in. Link

News and social media: College students who go off Facebook for a week consume less news and report being less depressed. When users stop getting news from Facebook, they don’t necessarily start getting it somewhere else. Link

Marketing: Influencers are changing the face of commerce for good. Link

Venture Capital: Startups with at least one female founder raised 21% more in venture capital funding than companies with all-male teams. Link

Life: Having a dog cuts your risk of dying by 24% according to a new study of 3.8m people. Link

Blog Posts

Artificial Intelligence: The ultimate learning machines. The future of artificial intelligence depends on designing computers that can think and explore as resourcefully as babies do. Link

eSports: Don’t fear the rise of Fortnite and other video games — they bring young people together. Mental health worries dominate headlines about gaming. But esports millions of fans aren’t feeding an addiction, they’re seeking kinship. Link

Interesting Numbers

Cloud: Google Cloud Worth $225 Billion. Link

Mobile games: The mobile version of videogame franchise “Call of Duty” racked up 100 million downloads in its first week. Link

Video: These are the most innovative designs

Designers have spent decades facilitating our over-consumption. But all that cheap, fast design has a cost, and the environment is suffering because of our everyday habits. The 2019 Innovation by Design Awards honor the designers and businesses solving the problems of today and tomorrow, by either reducing our carbon footprint or reminding us of our consumerism. Here are some of the most innovative designs of 2019.

Detours

Mapped: The World’s Top 10 cities in 2035 (Projecting the world’s most important cities, using three key metrics: GDP, Population and GDP growth). Link

Space suits: Earth’s highest fashion. Link

Eating habits: People eat more when dining with friends and family because…? Link

Sleep: What happens to your body on no sleep. In short, nothing good — and just one bad night can trigger a cascade of scary side effects. Link

Retail Therapy

Smart fitness device Mirror launches one-on-one personal training. Get personal training in your home, sans personal trainer in your home. Link

Contemplation

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”

(Arthur Schopenhauer)

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Have a great week,

Costas