THIS JUST IN: Bread is good for you
The Mission Newsletter, 8/27/18
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee
The Future of Computing
Episode 5 of IT Visionaries
In this episode, we are joined by Alexandra Wright-Gladstein, CEO and co-founder of Ayar Labs. Ayar Labs has developed new electronic-photonic integrated circuits that move data using light instead of electricity. 💡⚡️
Alex shares exciting insights about the future of computing with light, and how the technology she’s building at Ayar labs is revolutionizing data transfer.
Listen to Episode 5 of IT Visionaries.
IT Visionaries is your #1 source for actionable insights, lessons learned, and exclusive interviews with trailblazing IT leaders. Subscribe to IT Visionaries today and prepare to start living in the future.
News That Matters
Wait, bread isn’t poison?!
A roll a day keeps the undertaker away.
According to new scientific facts, people who ate a moderate amount of carbs (we’re talkin’ bread, pasta, and all the glutens) lived four years longer than those who restricted their carb intake and one year longer than those who ate a heck ton of carbs.
Go to the mattresses
Casper
+ Purple
+ Eight
+ Tuft & Needle (We’ll discuss “naming your mattress company” in a later newsletter)
+ Tulo
+ Allswell
+ Tomorrow Sleep
+ 171 additional online mattress brands
= $29 billion industry
Online mattress company Casper snagged a whopping $239.5 million in VC backing making it the godfather of the online mattress mafia. Will the power last? You’ll have to keep an eye on your Instagram ads to find out!
Get cozy in that cubicle
Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh sits in a cubicle. Meg Whitman was famous for having one at eBay. Former Intel CEO Andy Grove sat in one, too.
When it comes to design, thinking inside the box can be a positive. Studies are piling on proving open offices are a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. Research shows workers who spent their 9-to-5 in a common office space experienced measurable declines in health, job performance, emotional stability, mental acuity, and even interpersonal relationships.
Though open offices often fostered a symbolic sense of organizational mission, making employees feel like part of a more laid-back, innovative enterprise, they were damaging to the workers’ attention spans, productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction. Compared with standard offices, employees experienced more uncontrolled interactions, higher levels of stress, and lower levels of concentration and motivation.
Join us at SIGNAL!
SIGNAL celebrates the developers, the builders, the innovators, the doers, and the dreamers who are reimagining how the world communicates.
Be a part of it with us! Go to signal.twilio.com and get your ticket for 20% off by using the promo code: MISSION20.
10 bonus points if you use this term in a sentence today
Zero is kind of a hot number in the construction industry these days and Spokane, Washington is drawing some double-takes. The city recently broke ground on the largest net-zero building in the nation. (That’s construction talk for “a building that consumes all of the energy it produces.”)
“Energy efficient buildings are so important to our future, because buildings currently use 40 percent of our energy as a nation,” said Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
“Lit” is officially dead
While the meme world is searching for a suitable replacement, JUV Consulting is offering the services of its 14 to 22 year-old employees to brands desperately attempting to resonate with Generation Z. Co-founded by CEO Ziad Ahmed (19), COO Nick Jain (19), and board member Melina Guo (19), the Brooklyn consultancy firm is on a mission to save marketing, and maybe the world.
“‘Lit’ isn’t really cool anymore,’ said Ziad Ahmed. ‘Even though a lot of us still colloquially use it, if a company did it, that’s cringey. Because lit, our parents now know it.’ On the other hand, he said, ‘if you were to, in a tweet, use a word like ‘hella,’ no one’s going to be like, that’s so cringey, because that’s just how we type.’”
Hella dope advice.
Say yes to another glass of ginger ale
The tiny Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics just landed on top of Forbes’ second annual list of the nation’s Top Two-Year Trade Schools.
It’s virtually unknown outside the aviation industry, but its alumni outearn students from two-thirds of Forbes’ highest-ranked four-year colleges at a fraction of the price.
Currently, the aviation workforce is aging out, and with a diploma from PIA those in the industry say you’d have to try not to get a job.
The Best of Who We Are Talking To
On the latest episode of The Mission Daily, Chad sits down with venture capitalist and scientist Laura Deming. Together they discuss Laura’s past as a scientist and how she got her start funding organizations that help prevent aging.
“One of the biggest life hacks I’ve encountered is being incredibly, incredibly thoughtful about what stimuli enters the brain. Being thoughtful about the things you allow yourself to be influenced by can really change behavior.”
Thanks again to our friends at Twilio for sponsoring The Mission!
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