My Favorite Bit this week was about resisting the glamorization of quitting your job to become an entrepreneur. Despite finding success on her own entrepreneurial path, the author works to put her decision in perspective and recognize the various privileges that allowed her to do so. Living an entrepreneurial life doesn’t make her a better person than those whose life situations would never allow for such a choice.
The American Healthcare system is known around the world as both one of the best when it comes to cutting edge procedures, and one of the worst when it comes to the cost and unnecessary use of those procedures. One big driver of high medical costs is the fact that there are few evidence-based processes for doctors to use when recommending procedures and, unlike in countries with state-managed medicine, there are few institutions with the ability to impose cost controls that would incentivize identification of expensive and poor outcome interventions. Improvements in and integration of health data systems would make it easier for doctors to connect the dots between seemingly unconnected symptoms and rare illnesses and help to gain further insight into the human body by allowing researchers to discover, for example, how a person’s microbiome (gut bacteria) could reliably predict how their body would process different types of bread.
Improvements in Business technology have allowed for major disruptions in the way that people are able to buy and sell goods and services and tech start-ups are often based on “disrupting” an entire industry. The market for accommodations was disrupted by AirBnb which provided access to local, downtown experiences for young, urban, wealthy travellers which had the unintended consequence of driving up rent in desirable urban locales for people who live there. The internet has also expanded access to cheap manufacturing in developing countries to individuals around the world who can develop their own brands to market and sell generic goods while outsourcing the production and distribution aspects of the business. Despite all of these digital changes, much of the world’s economy is still driven by natural resources, manufacturing, and other commodities.
Learning to read is a fundamental developmental milestone for a young person as their brain reorganizes itself to allow for “accessing language by sight, which means it builds on architecture that is already used for recognising visual patterns and understanding spoken language.” Another key Parenting challenge is helping your child to develop the diligence, perseverance, and motivation necessary for exploring and mastering new skills throughout their life.
Finishing off your week in review is a Hodgepodge of articles that take a look at the workplace sexual harassment awareness videos with realistically sleazy situations, why admitting a weakness makes you more likable (and how it can be used for innovative marketing), the ongoing battle between tech companies creating maps for driverless cars (and how no one wants Google to win again), and Tim Ferriss’ story of overcoming suicidal depression and the tools he uses to maintain a positive mindset.
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Have a great rest of your week!