Medium; AI for social good; Product thinking
💡Think
Hey, how cool were those pictures from the James Webb telescope this week?
Did you know that the images are taken with an absence of colour, and a team manually add colour using...Photoshop? I'm not kidding, they add filters to the images to try and retrospectively colour the images that return from the telescope.
If you'd like to see this with your own eyes, here's a 2 minute video.
Everything we do now is in a filter, folks 😉
📷 Look
📖 Read
❶ Why Medium failed
Do you use Medium.com? I used to be a biiiiig fan of it, both from a writing and reading perspective. I had a subscription for 2 years, but it never felt like I was actually reading much; not great. Their CEO backed out this week, leading people to think that maybe it has run its course. This post is a bit of a deeper dive into why it has "failed", even though it's still turning over a healthy amount of revenue.
❷ Using artificial intelligence for social impact
Most of the time, we hear about AI for either fun stuff (gaming, entertainment), or silly stuff (a face filter on Snapchat), but what if we took it a bit more seriously and started to think about how it could positively impact us all? This article is quite practical in tone, but addresses concerns like the ethical and political implications of an AI world, and addresses the (thankful) concern that AI has failed to replace creativity...so far.
❸ On product thinking
Another practical-ish post here, but well worth your time if you want to develop a critical and analytical approach to building good products. It's written by Julie Zhuo, was a huge driver of growth in the early days of Facebook, before it became horrible. It encourages us to ask good questions, interrogate solutions, and observe.
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Bonus round
I was a guest at an event last week where I ran a workshop and they kindly wrote up an article with the conversation from our introduction about me, who I am, and what I do
I'm looking to interview designers for my 8px Magazine project. Want to get involved?
🎧 Listen
The Uber Files
Seriously, you've got to listen to these. It's a three part series taking a look at how messed up Uber the company is, and has been since its inception. From the arrogant CEO, to the legal lobbying they employed on a global scale, to the drivers being paid less than minimum wage. It's harsh, but well worth the listen.
Listen to this podcast series (3 episodes)