VC: Why I Hate Unicorns and the Culture They Breed

The question is whether a focus on achieving $1 billion 'unicorn level' valuations for every startup will ultimately stifle innovation.  JL

Mark Suster comments in BothSidesoftheTable blog:

My fear isn’t whether these companies will be valuable in the future. Many will. Many won’t. That’s how markets go. My concern is that culture of unicorns has created a generation of entrepreneurs & investors looking for short cuts.

Software Sifts Photos For Most Clickable

As we have seen repeatedly since the glory days of dotcom-era metrics like 'stickiness,' attention does not necessarily translate into sales. But in a crowded visual marketplace, differentiation is a benefit.

Presumably until everyone is using the same tools and producing similar graphics which then cancel each other out. JL

Elizabeth Dwoskin reports in the Wall Street Journal:

New software promises to enhance the power of online imagery by indexing and prioritizing pictures that grab attention. These tools are for online businesses eager to boost measures of engagement such as clicks, comments and time spent on a page. Users were viewing, liking, and commenting on photos 30% more frequently than before.

Understanding How Mood Affects Productivity - and Doing Something About It

The more we learn about the brain and personality and moods, the more we begin to understand how policies driven purely by traditional considerations of  organizational management may, in fact, cause enterprises and the people in them to underachieve.

The reality is that performance is influenced by a host of factors not explicitly quantitative, but which may have a direct, causal impact on operational and financial outcomes. As the following article explains, moods, like so many other factors that affect behavior, are not random. Policies designed to reflect data about people's response to time of day or year, to weather, light or heat may improve productivity. Those that ignore such considerations may not.

The larger point is that enhancing knowledge about human factors and then acting on what is learned may be among the most cost-effective means improving both employees' experience and the probability of achieving desired organizational outcomes. JL

Michael Grothaus reports in Fast Company:

Empirical evidence has shown negative mood is associated with reduced cognitive performance and flexibility. Understanding when negative moods happen most often could help boost productivity in every office in the country.

Do Cars Actually Need Even More Technology?

More technology may or may not make driving safer and better, but knowing more about what information is available, who may manage it and, ultimately, who owns it, is going to have to be part of that equation. JL


Farhad Manjoo comments in the New York Times:

The faster we upgrade our roads and autos with better capabilities to detect and analyze what’s going on in the transportation system, the better we’ll be able to find hackers, cheaters and others looking to create havoc on the highways.

Should Congress Let Wealthy Foreigners Buy Citizenship?

In return for citizenship, the US gets... financing for more high-end office buildings and luxury apartments most Americans can't afford? JL

Alana Semuels reports in The Atlantic:

When domestic financing for construction projects was tough to find, developers look(ed) overseas for financing.There were 700 visas issued in 2007; in 2014, for the first time, the program reached its quota of 10,000 visas and had to stop accepting applications. The quota was reached again this year. Chinese investors are the vast majority using the program

How Tech Times Have Changed: Going After Dollars Rather Than Minutes

But then minutes were only ever proxies for dollars anyway. It's just that the demand for return on investment has gotten more impatient. JL

Sara Tavel reports in Medium:

Back in 2012, there were a lot more winners amongst the companies going after minutes. Now, there have been more successes focused on going after consumer dollars. In a zero-sum world of only so many minutes in a day, blank spaces to absorb those minutes must come from cannibalizing other minutes

What Is the Worst Part of Working at Google?

The Quora format poses a question and then people answer. In this case, many are current or former Google employees. Their answers are illuminating in that the 'issues' they cite are more theoretical or philosophical or psychological than existential.

But then maybe that's a useful window into a significant portion of jobs in this economy.  JL

Quora comments:

Tiny number of wave creators, huge number of surfers.