What You Need to Know Today: March 3
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
Anonymous hipsters adding value. For most of us, our days of scouring the deepest corners of MySpace for fresh new music ended when we graduated from middle school. But for some, the search for hot new tracks will never end… or at least until they find real jobs. JK. You’re familiar with Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists. Now, Spotify wants to push you outside your comfort zone by expanding its Fresh Finds playlists — hipster-curated weekly playlists. Great use of hipsters IMO.
Google testing pocket payments. Pretty soon all you’ll have to do is think about buying something and it will show up on your doorstep. Google’s latest is a payment app that works with your phone in your pocket. You say, “I’ll pay with Google.” Your credit card says, “Thank you.”
+ Has Donald Trump ever used a computer? Gizmodo’s Matt Novak makes a mildly compelling case.
CAREER
The truth about leadership and Trump. “People who fetishize leadership sometimes find themselves longing for crisis,” says Joshua Rothman. “They yearn for emergency, dreaming of a doomsday to be narrowly averted.” It appears our love affair with great leaders is doing us more harm than good. Joshua Rothman explains why leadership is overrated. Talk about timely.
A day in the life of Leo’s assistant. “Sometimes, I would pretend that he was the stereotype of an entitled celebrity and when he would ask me to do something, I would bow and in a beaten-down voice say, ‘Yes, sir, anything you like sir, anything else, sir?’ and he would laugh and tell me to knock it off,” said Kasi Brown Leonardo DiCaprio’s former assistant. The Huffington Post caught up with Brown and talked about her days working for DiCaprio, how she got the gig, and more.
LIFESTYLE
Next time you’re watching Netflix look for this… “Somewhere in the first five minutes of a well-structured screenplay, someone (usually not the main character) will pose a question or make a statement (usually to the main character) that is the theme of the movie. ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ this person will say or ‘Pride goeth before a fall’ or ‘Family is more important than money.’ It won’t be this obvious, it will be conversational, an offhand remark that the main character doesn’t quite get at the moment — but which will have far-reaching and meaningful impact later. This statement is the movie’s thematic premise,” says Blake Snyder. Steven Pressfield looks at the thematic premise in Breaking Bad. See if you can guess the theme before clicking through.
Question for Craig. In case you missed it, ETR editor Craig Ballantyne’s 10-3-2-1-0 formulahas been spreading like wildfire. Inc., The Telegraph, and Lifehacker, to name a few, have all written about it. As with any new, radical idea, come questions. One of my favorite questions, simply because I find it funny, is people’s reluctance to cut off alcohol three hours before bed. To be clear, it’s mostly millennials asking. I’m sure Craig has a good answer. Heck, we all know the answer. If you want to be successful, sacrificing short-term gratification, like partying every weekend, is a no-brainer. But here’s another option for those weekends you just can’t miss: Start drinking earlier. Not only will this save you money at the bar, adding to your net worth, your hangover the next day won’t be as terrible, assuming you follow the 3-hour rule.
#NOWYOUKNOW
How the Internet Flips Elections
“Google decides which web pages to include in search results, and how to rank them. How it does so is one of the best-kept secrets in the world, like the formula for Coca-Cola,” says Robert Epstein.
You know when you were a kid and your science teachers made you watch videos showing all the subliminal advertising brands use? Well, there’s a new type of mind control, its called Search Engine Manipulation (SEME, pronounced ‘seem’). Read more here.
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