Weekly Digest of Must-Read Articles (13.09)

Every week we read tons of articles, browse through a variety of editorials and long reads to find the 10 most interesting pieces you can’t miss on any occasion. This week you’ll find out how to cope with burnout and how to find inspiration at work. You’ll learn why gratitude is important for a leader and how to stop vanity marketing killing your startup. At last, you’ll understand what Chandler Bing does for a living and how it affects you. Read all of this and more in our new weekly digest of 10 articles we’d like you to like.

What Malaysia Can Teach America’s Aging Leadership. – The Atlantic

“During tonight’s Democratic debate, three septuagenarian challengers will vie for the chance to take on a septuagenarian president. Or, as the 94-year-old prime minister of Malaysia might call them: whippersnappers.

It’s not unusual for kings or dictators to reign until they fall victim to Father Time. The politburos of China, Vietnam, and the former Soviet Union have generally been gerontocracies. Until the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, every few decades Saudi Arabia saw a transition from an “old guard” to an only-slightly less aged “young guard”. But examples of oldsters winning office in a democracy are more difficult to come by.” Read the article.

What to Do When You Feel Uninspired at Work. – The New York Times

“It’s an inevitable part of having a job: At some point we all feel a little uninspired. Maybe you’re not crazy about a new project, or you just can’t pump yourself up to finish something that’s been dragging on, but you know when the feeling hits, and it can feel like a block on your ability to get things done.

And that’s O.K.! It’s generally a solvable problem, and it’s rarely the end-of-the-world scenario it can sometimes feel like.” Read the article.

Why Gratitude Makes Leaders More Effective. – Entrepreneur

“Gratitude, while allowing you to embrace your accomplishments, also keeps your ego in check. That’s because appreciation will enable you to realize that without assistance from others, you wouldn’t be as successful. Maybe it’s because you have a spouse who was your primary source of support and inspiration. A business partner provided you with the finances to launch your business. Or, thanks to their hard work and dedication, your business idea has become a reality because of your employees.” Read the article.

The Content Crossroads: Supernatural Success at the Intersection of Ideas. – Copyblogger

“In between the 13th and 17th centuries in Florence, Italy, the powerful Medici family ruled the land. Some believe that the Medici family was at one point the wealthiest family in all of Europe.

The Medicis used their power and wealth to support poets, philosophers, scientists, architects, painters, and sculptors from all over Europe and elsewhere. Talented people of diverse disciplines converged on Florence to enjoy the patronage of the Medici family, which established a creative and cultural crossroads in Tuscany’s capital city. This creative convergence kicked off a little something called the Renaissance. You may have heard of it.” Read the article.

On Chandler Bing’s Job. – The Atlantic

“By Friends’ fourth season, years in the making—one of the jokes the show had been running pretty much since it made its premiere in September 1994. No one knows how Chandler Bing makes his living. That includes, quite often, Chandler himself. The women may have correctly answered several of the quiz’s deep-cut questions about the guys’ childhoods and sexual experiences and personal idiosyncrasies, but there’s an aptness to the fact that, when it comes to Chandler, they are unable to answer a question so basic that it doubles, at this point, as a cliché: What does he do?” Read the article. 

Youtube Creators Are Turning the Site Into a Podcast Network. – The Verge

“Several YouTubers — including Logan Paul, Marques Brownlee, and Emma Chamberlain — have launched podcasts in the last year. They’re all available through traditional audio platforms, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but many also offer video versions that live on dedicated YouTube channels where they’ve become incredibly popular.

These creators have figured out how to make podcasts work on a platform that wasn’t designed for them, leveraging YouTube’s search algorithm to meet new audiences, make more money, and expand into a medium that’s expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

Despite being a video-focused platform, people are increasingly coming to YouTube to look for podcasts. A recent survey of Canadian adults found that 43 percent of people “went to YouTube for podcasts in the past year.” That put YouTube ahead of Apple Podcasts (34 percent) and Spotify (23 percent).” Read the article. 

‘I Can’t See How My Ads Work If I Can’t Target People’: Confessions of a Marketer. – Digiday

“The chief marketer at a global advertiser fears their marketing is about to become undone by the crackdown on cookies. In our latest edition of Confessions, in which we exchange anonymity for honesty, a marketer revealed they would have to spend eye-bulging sums to remold their ad tech stack to handle cookie-less targeting.” Read the article. 

OpenRTB Is Coming to Out of Home. Now What? – OAAA

“When the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab released the newest version of the standards that define programmatic transactions, known as the OpenRTB 3.0 specifications, it was the largest overhaul of RTB since the start in 2010. And significantly, for the first time the revamped bidding guidelines expanded to include digital out of home (DOOH). So, a defined programmatic spec is coming to our medium.” Read the article.

How to Stop Vanity Marketing From Killing Your Startup. – TechCrunch

“Vanity marketing is a tempting investment for a company. It’s got some vague, ephemeral yet satisfying results — you’ve got a big party, you’ve got a wrapped Humvee, you’ve got something cool to point at, and perhaps you’ll achieve the mythical “virality” that gets a particular thing 10,000 shares or retweets.

You’re popular — a non-specific yet incredibly sexy thing that theoretically would mean that investors would talk to you, or reporters would speak to you, or that you’ve “made it.” It’s a result of the fact that many markets don’t have the level of scrutiny of, say, a sales team applied to them — marketing’s this big, powerful juggernaut where many people survive just by not getting fired.” Read the article.

Six Questions to Ask Yourself When Reading About AI. – Quartz

“To begin with, there were no actual robots involved, and no actual jobs were remotely at risk. All that really happened was that Microsoft made a tiny bit of progress and put out a press release saying that “AI…can read a document and answer questions about it as well as a person.”

That sounded much more revolutionary than it really was. Dig deeper, and you would discover that the AI in question was given one of the easiest reading tests you could imagine—one in which all of the answers were directly spelled out in the text. The test was about highlighting relevant words, not comprehending text.” Read the article.