What You Need to Know Today: November 18
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
Seeing opportunities where others see obstacles. “The fact that 41 percent of millennials are cord cutters, and their favorite content is not coming from traditional networks, this was a real opportunity to bring together content they want on a platform,” Brian Angiolet recently told Business Insider. Angiolet is the mastermind behind Verizon’s new go90 app (which I covered here). Two things separate go90 from Netflix, Hulu, and other rival streaming services: 1) episode runtime 2) demographic. go90 is targeting millennials, which is no surprise the average episode runtime is 5-7 minutes. Another advantage to airing such short episodes is it cuts down production time — which means faster turnout of original series. Dominating the original programming space is a top priority for go90, which said it hopes to add 50-55 new series by the end of this quarter. Here’s a look at the future of go90.
What’s worse than passwords? Your fingerprints. If you think fingerprint security is safer than typing out a password, you’re wrong.
F.lux meet Drift. Yesterday, I delivered the bad news that F.lux — your sleep-hygiene-obsessed friend’s favorite app — was asked to shut down by Apple. This sparked an email from our ETR tech wizard Mark who shared this cool new gadget. #NoBlues
Google+ is back… Remember when we thought Google+ was put to bed? Well, it’s back. G+ got a full redesign. Here’s everything you need to know.
CAREER
Why Uber is not disruptive but Netflix is. Clayton Christensen author of the 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma coined the term “disruptive innovation.” In a recent Harvard Business Review article, the father of disruption used Uber as an example of what he considers NOT to be a disruptive company. Oh, snap! Bottom line: In order for a business to be disruptive, it must gain a foothold in a low-end market that had been ignored by the incumbent in favor of more profitable customers, Christensen writes.
The high cost of networking at business school. “Columbia students who join the wine club or the gourmet club go to the priciest New York City eateries, said Eng. Professional clubs, of which Eng is a member of five, offer valuable networking opportunities with companies and typically charge a few hundred dollars in annual membership fees, plus the price of ticketed events, he said. Then there are the trips. Students at Columbia and other schools use school breaks to travel the world.”Bloomberg ranks the most expensive networking at MBA schools.
A question to ask yourself, today. “So a few days back a friend, a really smart friend, wanted to show me a tool he uses for conversion tracking. Sounds interesting. –Very. So what’s the problem? –I didn’t care about it. Haha, what? –It was a tool that takes seconds to put into a site. From then on it’ll show you everything from what users click on, what parts of an article they stop reading, and a host of other stuff. Wow. –Think about how useful it would be to have a tool to tell you where people get bored and click off of your writing. Consider how much more effective your blog would be. Absolutely. –Wrong. How?” Jon Goodman shares with us another wildly entertaining conversation with himself. This reminds me of Craig’s advice, “You need to get rid of the time-wasting activities in your day and focus on the activities in your business that will “move the needle,” as ETR’s Matt Smith likes to say.”
LIFESTYLE
Why did this guy charge a $170 million painting to his AmEx? For the points. Duh.
Thank yous are the new “check-ins.” “It struck me that he had a key ingredient to success that I simply did not have and still have trouble doing. He picked up the phone and called me and said Hello. He did the “check-in.” I had lost him millions. I had stolen his best employees. He meets thousands of people a year so had no reason to keep in touch with a loser like me.” James Altucher talks about the most successful person he knows. The other day I was thinking about some of the lessons I’ve learned from successful people I know and this one in particular stood out from the rest. The first time I opened a thank-you card in the mail, I realized the power behind a simple act like this.
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#NOWYOUKNOW
The Surprising Benefits of Sarcasm
From Scientific America
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence,” wrote that connoisseur of wit, Oscar Wilde. Whether sarcasm is a sign of intelligence or not, communication experts and marriage counselors alike typically advise us to stay away from this particular form of expression. The reason is simple: sarcasm expresses the poisonous sting of contempt, hurting others and harming relationships. As a form of communication, sarcasm takes on the debt of conflict.
And yet, our research suggests, there may also be some unexpected benefits from sarcasm. Continue reading.
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