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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Browser daily newsletter [20 Feb 2013]

20 February 2013

 Best of the Moment

Social Work In The Tenderloin Will Kill Something Inside Of You

Blake Butler | Vice | 19 February 2013

Interview with San Francisco social worker. May leave you feeling a bit queasy, but that's part of the point. "The first thing is getting through the door at 9 AM. We usually have to step over clients or random strangers passed out on the benches from drinking and/or using since God knows when. The smell is the first thing that hits you"

Clayton Christensen Wants to Transform Capitalism

Jeff Howe | Wired | 19 February 2013

Fine interview. Best part: Christensen's account of meeting with Andy Grove. Who takes two minutes to grasp Christensen's argument about disruption from below, and turn it into a business plan: "What you’re telling me, Clay, is that we have to go down and kill them, set up our own business unit, and launch our own low-end competitor.”

The Oxford Comma And The Internet

Angus Croll | Angus | 19 February 2013

"Writing online is so nearly effortless that reading (not to mention reflection, deliberation and thought) has become a chore in comparison. It's easier to jot off a patronizing, indignant or self-aggrandizing missive than it is to take the trouble to read the whole article or give fair consideration to the author's perspective"

What Data Can't Do

David Brooks | New York Times | 18 February 2013

Times readers will have admired this column already. Recommended here for those who have yet to see it. Scientists and professionals relish the possibilities of "big data" for making more exhaustive models of the world, and thus making more reliable decisions But data has its limits: it's not good with values, qualities, or complex problems

Here's Who Will Win The Oscars, And Why

Joe MacLeod | Awl | 19 February 2013

"Sound Editing: I'm gonna say Zero Dark Thirty because they open the film up with just sound, and even though there are Members of the Academy who know why a movie should win for best Sound Editing, most of 'em don't, so they are just gonna pick the one where they remember some sound"

American Death In London

Sarah Bee | NSFW Corp | 18 February 2013

A father's death, in a British hospital. Not all bad. "The doctors are amazing. They are frank, they are kind, they are judicious. They negotiate the treatment of an almost-lost cause deftly and delicately. They respect life and death equally, and they allow death to take over the second they see that inducing life to continue would be abominable"

Video of the day: How To Become Pope

Thought for the day:

"The natural benefit of a cell phone, laptop, and other indispensable modern items is the joy one gets finding the object after losing it. Lose your wallet full of credit cards and you will have a chance to have a great day" — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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