What We’re Reading

Here are a few good articles the Collaborative Fund team came across this week.

Privacy

I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more about this:

Earlier this year, a couple of Russian programmers released an app called FindFace. It lets people take pictures of complete strangers and then almost instantly find them on social networks. See a pretty girl or guy on the street? Snap a pic, get to know them.

Outlier

This is a great interview with Elon Musk:

SL: Are you sort of crazy? Are you lucky? What is it?

Musk: I’ve been thinking about that lately. I wonder. I think I probably am a bit crazy, but maybe that’s a healthy sign. At the point at which you conclude you’re not crazy at all, then you probably are.

Sustainable

Google is a powerhouse in renewable energy, and is setting the standard:

Last year, Google consumed as much energy as the city of San Francisco. Next year, it said, all of that energy will come from wind farms and solar panels.

The online giant said on Tuesday that all of its data centers around the world will be entirely powered with renewable energy sources sometime next year.

Free time

This, from an interview with Michael Lewis about his new book on Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, is spot-on:

Tversky in particular “had this preternatural ability to never do anything he didn’t want to do,” Lewis explains.

“He would look at his mail, and if he didn’t want to open it, he’d toss it in the garbage can. He had a what can they do to me? rule. If they can’t do anything to me, I’m just going to throw this stuff away.”

His advice for anyone looking to get out of doing anything they didn’t want to do is simple: It could be “a board meeting or a TV show,” Lewis explains. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about making up an excuse for not being there. Just get up and start walking, and it’s amazing how quickly your mind will formulate the words as to why you have to leave.’”

Efficiency

This whole post on Steve Anderson is great, but this line stuck out:

Ten years ago you needed $5 million to start [a business]. Today you need $70 and some coding skills.”

Generations

This chart, from the Wall Street Journal, is the most important piece of economic data I’ve seen in a while, and explains part of recent political trends:

BN-RD331_CHETTY_9U_20161208111711.jpg

Have a good weekend.