Thursday, May 05, 2022

Neeraj Arora Of WhatsApp



Former Facebook, WhatsApp Employees Lead New Push to Fix Social Media HalloApp is among new companies trying to reshape online discourse



About The first real relationship network. ..... A completely new category. A simple, safe, and private place to connect and share what matters in your life, with the people who matter to you. In complete privacy.

HalloApp is a private ad-free social network from two early WhatsApp employees The app bills itself as the “first real relationship network” .... There are many parallels between HalloApp and WhatsApp: the app is designed for group or individual chats with close friends and family, the only way you can find people is by knowing their phone number, the messages are encrypted, and there are no ads...... Arora was WhatsApp’s chief business officer until 2018 and a key figure in negotiating the Facebook deal. And Donohue was WhatsApp’s engineering director for nearly nine years before he left Facebook in 2019. ...... the antidote to traditional, engagement-driven social media, or “the 21st century cigarette.” ...... Acton, who now funds the encrypted messaging app Signal, famously tweeted “#deletefacebook” during the height of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The First Real-Relationship Network Real conversations happen in private........ As it turns out, treating people and relationships as “media” has massive ramifications. It has turned social media into digital malls. ........ Where you hoped to find your friends, instead you found ads, bots, likes, filters, influencers, followers, misinformation, and more. Where you hoped to have meaningful conversations, instead you found yourself falling down the rabbit hole of blinking red notifications and an algorithmic feed of meaningless content. Where you hoped for a safe space to keep in touch with your siblings, family members, neighbors, and friends from college, you found content from people you’ve never met before—the whole thing feeling invasive, even creepy. ......... To have private conversations with the people closest to you, your only option has been through 1:1 direct messaging platforms. In most cases, these direct messages lived on social media networks that were still “listening.” Mention cameras or going fishing and suddenly the ads in your feed would change. And while you chat back and forth, other sections of your screen light up and flicker like lottery machines, tempting you to click back into ad land and scroll just a few more times. In a best-case scenario, the platform might be a stand-alone messaging app, but would be owned by a larger social network using it to mine user data. ...... Social media, as it stands today, makes sharing real moments with real friends impossible. ...... No ads. No bots. No likes. No trolls. No followers. No algorithms. No influencers. No photo filters. No “feed fatigue.” No misinformation spreading like wildfire.

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Tuesday, May 03, 2022

News: May 3



It's official: Zoom kills creativity
How to Write a Cover Letter only one in two cover letters gets read ....... catch the attention of the hiring manager or recruiter with a strong opening line. If you have a personal connection with the company or someone who works there, mention it in the first sentence or two, and try to address your letter to someone directly. ....... Hiring managers are looking for people who can help them solve problems, so show that you know what the company does and some of the challenges it faces. ........ Then explain how your experience has equipped you to meet those needs. If the online application doesn’t allow you to submit a cover letter, use the format you’re given to demonstrate your ability to do the job and your enthusiasm for the role. ....... For many, the most challenging part of the process is writing an effective cover letter. ........

Before you start writing, find out more about the company and the specific job you want.

....... carefully read the job description, but also peruse the company’s website, its executives’ Twitter feeds, and employee profiles on LinkedIn. ........

you shouldn’t send a generic one

. ....... “Think about the culture of the organization you’re applying to” ......... “If it’s a creative agency, like a design shop, you might take more risks, but if it’s a more conservative organization, like a bank, you may hold back.” ........ If at all possible, reach out to the hiring manager or someone else you know at the company before writing your cover letter ....... You can send an email or a LinkedIn message “asking a smart question about the job.” That way you can start your letter by referencing the interaction. You might say, “Thanks for the helpful conversation last week” or “I recently spoke to so-and-so at your company.” .......... While your résumé is meant to be a look back at your experience and where you’ve been, the cover letter should focus on the future and what you want to do ...... Because of the pandemic there is less of an expectation that you’ll be applying for a job that you’ve done before. “There are millions of people who are making career changes — voluntarily or involuntarily — and need to pivot and rethink how their skill set relates to a different role or industry” ........ You can use your cover letter to explain the shift you’re making, perhaps from hospitality to marketing ....... lead with a strong opening sentence. “Start with the punch line — why this job is exciting to you and what you bring to the table” .......... don’t rehash your résumé. ....... always address your letter to someone directly. “With social media, it’s often possible to find the name of a hiring manager” ........ Hiring managers are looking for people who can help them solve problems. Drawing on the research you did earlier, show that you know what the company does and some of the challenges it faces. These don’t need to be specific but you might mention how the industry has been affected by the pandemic. ....... there are two skills that are relevant to almost any job right now: adaptability and the ability to learn quickly. ........ there are two skills that are relevant to almost any job right now: adaptability and the ability to learn quickly. ....... if you supported your team in the shift to remote work, describe how you did that and what capabilities you drew on. ........ “When you don’t get hired, it’s usually not because of a lack of skills,” says Glickman. “It’s because people didn’t believe your story, that you wanted the job, or that you knew what you were getting into.” ........ Hiring managers are going to go with the candidate who has made it seem like this is their dream job. ......... “I’d love to work for your company. Who wouldn’t? You’re the industry leader, setting standards that others only follow.” ......... he often cuts outs “anything that sounds like desperation” when he’s reviewing letters for clients. .......... Much of the advice out there says to keep it under a page. ........ “It should be brief enough that someone can read it at a glance.” ....... ry to find someone to whom you can send a brief follow-up email highlighting a few key points about your application.

Fears of new front in Ukraine war Russia has suffered "staggering" military losses, according to British intelligence, with 25% of invasion units rendered "rendered combat ineffective.”....... Moscow’s offensive in the eastern region of Donbas is “plodding” and making “minimal progress” ..... The EU is getting closer to a deal on phasing out Russian oil imports ....... The United Nations said the number of Ukrainian refugees could hit 8.3 million by the end of the year. ........ Russia’s destabilization of Ukraine positions it to achieve a high degree of leverage and control over a significant share of global commodities ranging from food to strategic minerals ....... Putin may announce a “general mobilization” of the Russian military on May 9th. ....... The Kremlin likely seeks to leverage its partners in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to evade Western sanctions. ........ Western sanctions may need to target Russia’s partners in the CSTO and Eurasian Economic Union to prevent Russian sanctions evasion. .

The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received

Twitter really isn’t the digital town square, but it might as well be the newsroom coffee counter Just 23 percent of American adults use Twitter, far below the 81 percent on YouTube, the 69 percent on Facebook or even the 31 percent on Pinterest and the 28 percent on LinkedIn. .......

Jony Ive vs. the Apple ‘accountants’ “After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul.”

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Monday, May 02, 2022

News: May 2

Airbnb's unmatched WFH policy? . Airbnb just announced that its approximately 6,000 employees can work remotely from any location — without taking a pay cut. ...... It's also hoping that its new policy will start a trend of so-called digital nomads being able to work from any of its long-term rental properties across the world. .



Northern Data's Bitcoin Mining Fleet Adds 21,000 ASIC Rigs, Firm Holds $168M in Crypto Assets The newly added machines increased the company’s hashrate from 2 exahash per second in February to 3.95 EH/s by the end of March.



Twitter really isn’t the digital town square, but it might as well be the newsroom coffee counter Just 23 percent of American adults use Twitter, far below the 81 percent on YouTube, the 69 percent on Facebook or even the 31 percent on Pinterest and the 28 percent on LinkedIn. ........ realize how Twitter could also empower distributed abuse), its self-promotional possibilities (which can turn self-destructive when editors fall for bad-faith campaigns to attack journalists who fail to perform like story-sharing automatons on Twitter), and for the way its brevity allows us the chance to pretend we’re headline writers for New York tabloid newspapers. ........ it’s become a valuable online substitute for the work chit-chat that once took place at a newsroom coffee counter–or, after work, at a nearby bar. ......



The Countdown Memorandum Doubling down on the future of American industry ......... The most successful technology companies of our time—Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple—have all been around for decades, and this is not a result of the personal computing or internet revolution alone. ....... Rather than participate in individual technological revolutions, generation-defining businesses instead leverage evolutionary thinking to grow over decades and transcend multiple revolutions. Evolutions entail lasting but accelerating change. ....... the audacity and intention to monopolize an industry; the willingness to continually reinvest profits into research and development; the open-mindedness necessary to undergo self-reinvention in response to changing technological and societal tailwinds; and an incisive vision, birthed from strong leadership and a powerful culture. ........ Two years prior to the launch of the iPhone, Apple was primarily a personal computer company. Apple was also barely one of the 100 most valuable companies in the world. As an example of self-reinvention, it is now worth well over thirty times more just fifteen years later, with personal computers (i.e., Macs) now being the least revenue-generating vertical of its core business. Almost every product Apple has launched in these fifteen years has since become a category-defining piece of hardware that exerts monopolistic market pressure, from the iPad to the Apple Watch to AirPods. ........... Apple has only been able to rapidly develop these product lines off of the decades of physical, technological, and cultural infrastructure it had already established, thanks to its evolutionary thinking. Each new product was developed with the wisdom gained from previous ones. .......... Leveraging these ideas will accelerate progress in both yet-to-be-disrupted multi-trillion dollar physical industries like construction and energy and ones already undergoing so-called revolutions, like aerospace, defense, cybersecurity, and manufacturing. .

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Alex Milligan: Bootstrapping

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Friday, April 29, 2022

Elon Musk: Fragile White Male

Elon Musk is smart. Elon Musk is hardworking. Elon Musk is an iconic tech entrepreneur. But I don't think he is worth 300 billion dollars. The equity formula where a Satya Nadela takes a 200 billion dollar company from Steve Ballmer and turns it into a trillion dollar company, but Bill Gates gets to keep all the money is a sham.

I am for a wealth tax.

Elon Musk does not even own a house. He does not want to own a house. But let's be generous and give him a housing allowance of 10 million dollars. You can get a mansion for that kind of money in Texas. Texas is no Park Avenue. For food, and clothes, 10 and 10. Ticket to Mars, another 10. Miscellaneous, since my imagination fails me, 60, for a total of 100 million. And another 900 million so he may launch a foundation at some point.

Who needs more than a billion dollars to live on?

I understand you need voting rights. You don't want to end up in Jack Dorsey's position where Board members bully you around. But that is what forking is for. As soon as your net worth goes north of a billion, there is a hard fork. The stock splits into two. We The People get all the money, you keep all the voting power. That's what I am talking about.

I would like a better Twitter. Who doesn't? But I have this nagging feeling we could have taken clean drinking water to every human soul with a few billion donated to Charity: Water. Or a piece of legislation funded by the wealth tax. We could have ended homelessness for the full check. Too many veterans are homeless.

I can't believe Elon Musk spent 44 billion dollars just to be able to bring Donald Trump back on the platform. Where are your priorities, Elon?

If Elon Musk brings Donald Trump onto Twitter, Tesla shareholders should revolt!

That man Trump belongs in jail. Democracy gives you many rights, but it does not give you the right to engage in violent insurrection to bring down that very democracy. That is a no no. People go to war for liberty. Enforcing laws is a small thing to ask.

I think Elon Musk is very smart, very hardworking, very innovative, but also very white male. His being a white dude is not at all irrelevant to his success. I think that might be 90% of the mixture. He thinks it is more like 19%. That is why he spent about 19% of his big fortune to take over a platform to let the crazies out, to borrow a phrase from John McCain, the last of the Mohicans, or decent Republicans.

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