Blog AF

Today I discovered an amazing LinkedIn feature that I did not know existed. It is called “Connections In The News”.

With the subject “News about Aaron Dallek” sitting in my inbox, LinkedIn’s email really intrigued me. Clicking through took me to a New York Times article about Opternative, the startup where I used to work, and where Aaron is CEO. Quite simply, LinkedIn parsed Aaron’s name from the piece, and notified me that one of my contacts was mentioned in it. How the software distinguishes between various people named John Smith, or whether it tries at all, is unclear to me, but the feature provided me with a pleasant surprise.

• Why Google 'Thought' This Black Woman Was a Gorilla
  Note to Self
  
• Trickle Up Economics
  Fred Wilson
  
• The Benign Deficit
  Chris Dillow
  
• Take an Eye Exam on Your Laptop
  Jennifer Jolly - NYT
  
• Small Data: Why Tinder-like apps are the way of the future
  Janel Torkington
  

• 1099 as antitrust
  Steve Randy Waldman
  
• The Growth Fairy Model
  Mark Thoma
  
• Airbnb and San Francisco
  Sam Altman
  
• Jeb Bush is the ultimate anti-internet candidate
  Trevor Timm - The Guardian
  
• Making the Case for Permissionless Innovation
  a16z Podcast
  
• Amazon’s $23,698,655.93 book about flies
  Michael Eisen
  

My apoligies for the lack of links on Friday. Hopefully today’s set makes up for that.

• Platforms, distribution and audience
  Benedict Evans
  
• Connect the dots
  Exponent (Podcast)
  
• Jeb Bush's Claims and Reality
  Mark Thoma
  
• Stupid Apps and Changing the World
  Sam Altman
  
• Paradoxes of Control
  Chris Dillow
  
• The Next Thirty Years
  David Warsh
  
• Why I Fucking Hate Unicorns and the Culture They Breed
  Mark Suster
  
• The Risk of a Billion-Dollar Valuation in Silicon Valley
  Andrew Ross Sorkin - NYT
  
• Experience: I mine for 100-year-old jeans
  Michael Allen Harris - The Guardian
  
• What shape is the internet?
  Noah Veltman
  

• Disconfirming e-Books
  Ben Thompson - Stratechery
  
• Is it ethical to sell complimentary copies of textbooks?
  Frances Woolley
  
• What Happens Next Will Amaze You
  Maciej Cegłowski
  
• A Sweet Surprise Awaits You
  99% Invisible (Podcast)
  
• Darkode
  Radiolab (Podcast)
  
• The Strange Economics Of Open-Source Software
  Phillip O'Toole
  

I am amazed by the fact that Caltrain ridership tracks the Nasdaq. This is the kind of relationship that I would never think about on my own, but once I read it, it clicked and makes perfect sense. I wonder if similar correlations can be found for other cities and their public transit.

• Silicon Valley’s Economic Indicator: Caltrain Ridership
  Georgia Wells - WSJ
  
• How Econ Got Crime and Punishment Wrong
  Noah Smith - Bloomberg View
  
• Religions Are What People Make Them
  Paul Krugman - NYT
  
• Rate Rage in 1932
  Paul Krugman - NYT
  
• Across the USA by Train for Just $213
  Derek Low