What You Need to Know Today: August 12
Your Early to Rise daily briefing. Today, rumors of a Facebook breaking news app, why praising Elon Musk is bad for innovation, how not to pitch a billionaire and more.
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TECH
These jokes will burn you out. The 71-year-old cartoon editor for the New Yorker says the average tenure of his assistants is barely a couple of years because he keeps burning them out (Bloomberg). You’d be burnt out too if your job was having to sift through 5,000 caption entries a week. Bloomberg explains how the New Yorker is testing out AI technology to see if they can teach robots what’s funny.
Rumors of a Facebook breaking-news app. Facebook is working on a stand-alone mobile news application that seems to be part of its Facebook for Business initiative. This product, which sounds similar to Twitter, seems to be different from Facebook for Work, an initiative that was announced late last year, says Business Insider. Full story.
Tech’s Great-Man myth. “The idea that particular individuals drive history has long been discredited. Yet it persists in the tech industry, obscuring some of the fundamental factors in innovation.” Why praising Steve Jobs and the Elon Musk’s of the world is undermining tech innovation.
CAREER
Rare video-interview with The Godfather. ETR editor, Craig Ballantyne aka The Godfather has been on holiday for the past week and a half. During his stay in St Petersburg, Russia, The Godfather sat down for a rare video-interview with Income Diary’s Barry Dunlop. In the interview Craig reveals what chief skills every new entrepreneur should learn, why there’s nothing wrong with getting rich quick, what he thinks of the Russian Federation and more. From Russia with love, here’s the full video-interview.
+ Dill with it: The one thing that makes living in Russia a terrifying experience.
“A 10 billion dollar business that I am not an investor in.” That is FOMO, says Alex Blumberg, CEO of StartUp. Alex recently interviewed angel investor Chris Sacca, an early investor in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, and Kickstarter for his podcast. You can listen to the full episode “How Not to Pitch a Billionaire” here. Something that struck me while listening to the episode was the idea of selling your business to investors as you would sell any product solving a problem. To get your prospect to take action you need to elicit an emotional response. What’s the most powerful emotion? Fear. And what do most investors fear? They fear the fear of missing out (FOMO). When you’re asking for capital, you need to exploit FOMO by pitching your idea with enough conviction investors feel like they will be missing out, if they don’t get in on the ground floor.
Why women should negotiate like Tony Soprano. There’s a scene in the Sopranos where Tony Soprano is betting on horses with a couple friends. You can watch it here. When the horse, Tony and his buddies picked, wins the race they all congratulate Tony for his recommendation. Ralphie, one of Tony’s associates, pulls out a stack of cash and starts peeling off bills to give Tony as thanks for the winning pick. What Tony does next is something women (and men) could all learn from. Tony sticks out his hand and leaves it there, not saying a word, just looking down. Ralphie feels awkward, and starts to peel off more and more bills as Tony stays quiet. New research shows silence is one of the most powerful negotiation tools women can use. Don’t say I neva taught you nuthin’.
LIFESTYLE
LA is throwing shade to protect its water supply. California is getting desperate enough in its historic drought to deploy the ultimate weapon: Balls. Shade balls, writes Fusion.
Shade balls are tiny plastic black spheres that are dumped into reservoirs as a conservation and protection measure. Here’s how they work.
The most millennial reason for not going to a nightclub. A study in the UK found that millennials are not going out to nightclubs as much, because they prefer listening to curated playlists at home, like Spotify, hah. This just in! Millennials also prefer watching pre-recorded sports events versus sitting courtside… Because, you know, live sports where you can’t fast forward play stoppage for commercials sucks…;)
#NOWYOUKNOW
From the NY Times
Tuesday was the first time in Major League Baseball history that all 15 home teams won on the same day.
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