Radiation fact of the day
2023-06-10
The natural rate of background radiation at the US capitol is above the acceptable threshold for a nuclear power plant.
Via Jack Devanney
jdilla.xyz
Leadership and performance in the NBA
2023-06-09
On the relationship between leadership styles and performance, using NBA coaches and NBA players as the data set:
Specifically, experiencing abusive leadership at any point across the 6 years of the study shifted the trajectory of player performance downward. By moving beyond static relationships and demonstrating career-long performance effects, this finding extends inferences about abusive leadership from prior research. Giving added importance to this finding, the task performance measure was derived from objective performance data (rather than supervisor ratings that typify prior research), and the measure of task performance (i.e., player efficiency) is routinely used within the industry for major personnel decisions (e.g., hiring, salary, renewal).
Here is the paper.
This feels like a giant warning sign to me: look at how much impact positive management can make. Look at how much abusive management costs. If coaching style matters this much for NBA players, how much more important is parenting style?
Engagements in America
2023-06-08
"Instead of 2.8M engagements this year, we're expecting 2.4M."
— Squawk on the Street (@SquawkStreet) June 8, 2023
Signet Jewelers CEO Gina Drosos tells @SaraEisen, @carlquintanilla and @davidfaber that $SIG expects the lull in engagements to pass by the end of 2023. pic.twitter.com/LPhpEcUy6v
Things I learned from this: * The typical couple takes 3.25 years to go from meeting to engagement * The industry is in a lull, caused by the pandemic: just 2.4m couples are expected to get engaged this year (vs. 2.8m last year)
Thinking back, I began dating my wife 3 years and 1 month before we got engaged.
The cost of a new ladder fire truck
2023-06-05
I'm not sure why this caught my eye, but it did. Our local city just agreed to purchase a new ladder fire truck, a steal at just $1,449,853.
I'm not sure if I would've predicted more or less.
The Stack Fallacy
2023-06-03
By Anush Sharma. There's a lot of good stuff in here that I'll just quote directly:
Stack fallacy is the mistaken belief that it is trivial to build the layer above yours.
Database companies believe that SaaS apps are “just a database app” — this gives them false confidence that they can easily build, compete and win in this new market.
In a surprising way, it is far easier to innovate down the stack than up the stack. The reason for this is that you are yourself a natural customer of the lower layers. Apple knew what it wanted from an ideal future microprocessor. It did not have the skills necessary to build it, but the customer needs were well understood. Technical skills can be bought/acquired, whereas it is very hard to buy a deep understanding of market needs.
Product management is the art of knowing what to build. The stack fallacy provides insights into why companies keep failing at the obvious things — things so close to their reach that they can surely build. The answer may be that the what is 100 times more important than the how.