During the Holidays, our homes tends to see a higher visitor count than usual. When I play the role of host I always make every effort to see to my guests' needs and simplify wherever possible. For my tech savvy visitors I want to keep the wifi password tastefully accessible, so I took a page from this Tixeretne post, and then took a few artistic liberties with the presentation.
VIEW SLIDESHOW: Snapshots from Hong Kong: My 10 Favorite Bites
From February 9 to 17, I visited Hong Kong on a trip sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Make sure to check out my other Snapshots from Hong Kong.
[Photographs: Robyn Lee]
Many of the best things I ate in 2013 were in Hong Kong. And that is why, as the new year begins, I'm reflecting on a trip I took...almost a year ago.
Considering that this list is culled from just a week of limited eating throughout Hong Kong, I know it's missing roughly a hundred gajillion of the best dishes Hong Kong has to offer. Please share your favorite dishes in the comments!
Dessert more your thing? Check out my favorite sweets in Hong Kong!
About the author: Robyn Lee is the editor of A Hamburger Today and takes many of the photos for Serious Eats. She'll also doodle cute stuff when necessary. Read more from Robyn at her personal food blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything.
Lindsaycdavisonjust in cases
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
"THERE'S A VELVEETA SHORTAGE? WHAT WILL I DO FOR ALL MY GOOEY CHEESE NEEDS? OF WHICH I HAVE MANY!"
Shhh [presses fingers against your lips], it'll be ok. First off, not all stores are experiencing a shortage, as reported by NBC News*. But if you can't find Velveeta in your area, make your own! Kenji's easy cheese sauce recipe is an ooey gooey, creamy, tangy dip that's perfect for fries, nachos, and whatever else you want to bathe in "liquid gold."
* My favorite part of the article: "Oh yeah, I've got Velveeta," said Wayde, a manager at an Associated Food Store in Salt Lake City, Utah, who declined to give his last name.
About the author: Robyn Lee is the editor of A Hamburger Today and takes many of the photos for Serious Eats. She'll also doodle cute stuff when necessary. Read more from Robyn at her personal food blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything.
Get the Recipe!Lindsaycdavisonhas everyone seen this show? (orphan black) because it's awesome.
Take me back.
In the real world: Work, sleep, work.
Warner Bros. Pictures / giphy.com
In the real world: Probably a two-week vacation. If you have money. And if you're not tempted to check your email the whole time.
A24 / you-fuckingcunt.tumblr.com
In the real world: Brunch on Sunday, hungover by 6 p.m., feel like you're going to die, remember you have work tomorrow, cry.
Dreamworks Pictures / persephonemagazine.com
In the real world: Cook like an adult or spend all your money on delivery.
Universal Pictures / Via youtube.com
Anyone would be inspired by the story of Nick Woodman, the CEO of GoPro, a $2.5B company that makes wearable HD video cameras. The highlights:
In the late 1990’s/early 2000’s, Woodman blows $4M of VC money on a failed venture called funBugs.com, an ultimately ill-conceived loyalty, sweepstakes, and entertainment website. In 2002, unsure of what to do with his life, he takes off to surf in Indonesia and Australia. He wants to capture live-action shots from his surfboard. The only cost-effective way to do this is by strapping a disposable camera to his wrist with rubber bands. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t work well.
Back in the US, unable to find a suitable camera wrist strap, Woodman sets out to develop one himself. He quickly realizes it would make a better product to include the camera too. Meanwhile, he has no knowledge of cameras. It takes him two years to find and prototype the right camera. He bankrolls his efforts by selling shell necklaces and getting a small loan from his mother. The first camera comes out in 2004. He sells it door-to-door to surf shops. It’s a hit. He then develops a video camera that debuts in 2007. It’s also a hit. In the years that follow, he develops increasingly cool yet affordable cameras with pro-like, wide-angle HD video. By 2013, GoPro, with a mission to “capture life’s most exciting moments,” has the best-selling camera in the world and around $1 billion in yearly sales.
I love Woodman’s story. Beyond its obvious compelling arc, it reminds me of how important it is to live the questions right in front of us—and not waste time looking for big ideas “out there” somewhere else. The questions that annoy, frustrate, or bother us are our greatest opportunities. They poke us and get under our skin. We’re naturally motivated to solve them.
To live a question is to commit to it—to explore it even though we’re not sure where it will take us. We explore it because it’s interesting, meaningful, challenging, and often fun. We also explore it because we know that even if we fail, something good will come from it. We’ll learn something important. Or at least have a great story to tell.
Of course, to get better at living interesting and meaningful questions, we have to get better at identifying them. Inspired by Woodman’s story, I decided to exercise this muscle. Over the course of one day I jotted down all the potentially interesting questions that occurred to me. I didn’t judge or censor them, I just captured them. Here’s my list:
It’s not an earth-shattering list, just simple seeds of ideas. That said, the exercise turned out to be far more insightful than I had anticipated.
First, I didn’t realize how many questions cross my mind each day. I was micro-brainstorming all day—and probably have been my whole life. I’d just never noticed before. Second, the process changed how I saw the questions. The mere act of writing them down reframed them from random thoughts into potential opportunities. It pulled me out of a problem orientation and put me into a solution orientation, which is a more powerful way to live.
For example, I didn’t have to just complain about car seats; I could explore mechanisms for making them easier to install. There might be good reasons why the process is such a pain in the neck. But then again, there might not be. After all, before Woodman developed a wearable camera, there wasn’t a good reason why that didn’t exist yet.
We tend to think that the problems we see are so obvious that people smarter than us must already be working them—so why waste our time thinking about them? But often that isn’t the case. There are countless reasons why seemingly obvious problems go unsolved. One of the biggest reasons is that people best positioned to solve them often have vested interests in not solving them.
Perhaps above all these questions is a larger one—how do we choose which questions to pursue? If I wrote eight questions a day, that would be close to 3,000 a year. You can’t do anything with 3,000 questions. But here’s my hunch: patterns in our questions show up over time. We keep wondering about the same or similar things over and over. And those patterns are gold because they point to our motivation—and quite possibly, our next great exploration.
So here’s my plan. Over the next year I’m going to take 10 minutes per week to write down the interesting questions that cross my mind. At the end of the year, I’ll review the 52 lists for patterns and themes. And by January 2015, I’ll see where I end up. Maybe I’ll have something worth working on.
I’d also love to have more data points. If you’re up for doing this too, send me a note at yearofquestions@clarityconsulting.com. I’ll ping you at the end of 2014 to gather your thoughts on the experience. I’m not sure what we’ll do with the data. At worst we’ll generate some good crowd-sourced insights on the power of questions. At best, who knows, maybe the seeds of a $1 billion idea.
Lindsaycdavisonwho is the girl on the end?
hot damn - elle women in tv issue
brave choice to put mindy kaling in black and white. nice magazining
Heeeeere’s the star of our new cover!
Jimmy Fallon photographed by Annie Leibovitz for our February 2014 issue.
i’ve been staring at this cover for 2 minutes and i still cannot figure out why he’s supposed to be coming out of the ocean.
Lindsaycdavison@andrew...my dad's favorite joke
Politeness Is Rewarded at the Le Petite Syrah Cafe in Nice, France
can i pay 14 Euros and say “Un cafe, dickbag”?
Just a really quick image I threw together as a commentary on American diets - aptly titled Red, White & Goo.
you’re new here, aren’t you
Run, don’t walk, to the Vivian Maier photo exhibit at Galerie Frederic Moison in St. Germain des Pres. The story behind this French au pair in Chicago, discovered posthumously, is fascinating enough, but the images on their own are just jaw-droppingly beautiful.
If lately I do not make posts as often as I normally do, it's just because there's a change in my life and all this takes me a lot of my time ...
Si dernièrement je ne publie pas de posts aussi régulièrement que d'habitude, c'est simplement que pas mal de choses sont en train de changer dans ma vie et que cela me prend énormément de temps...
But do not worry, this will not last for much longer. And in the meantime, I promise to try to do my best to show you beautiful pictures as often as possible to brighten your day! Today I wanted to share with you these few pictures of Sarah's home of A house in the hills. I'm sure you have already seen her stunning living room on other blogs. I fell in love the first time I saw it with this mirror both simple and perfect! When later I first saw her dining room on her blog, I also loved it! In addition she has a beautiful Saarinen table and you know I love this table, I had just talked about it right here. And yesterday I discovered the hallway ... The more I discover this interior and the more I love it. It is exactly the kind of decor that inspires me at the moment and I had to share it with you.
Mais ne vous inquiétez pas, cela ne devrait plus durer bien longtemps. Et en attendant, je vous promets d'essayer de faire tout mon possible pour vous montrer de belles images aussi souvent que possible pour illuminer vos journées ! Aujourd'hui, je tenais à partager avec vous ces quelques photos de l'intérieur de Sarah de A house in the hills. Je suis sure que vous avez déjà vu son superbe salon sur d'autre blogs. J'en suis tombée amoureuse la première fois que je l'ai vu avec ce miroir si simple et si parfait à la fois ! Lorsque j'ai découvert sa salle à manger un peu plus tard sur son blog, j'ai également adoré ! En plus elle possède une magnifique table saarinen et vous savez que j'aime cette table puisque je vous en parlais juste ici. Et hier j'ai découvert son couloir... Plus je découvre son intérieur et plus je le trouve superbe. Il correspond tout à fait au genre de décoration qui m'inspire en ce moment et je me devais de le partager avec vous.
So what do you think? Does this home inspire you too?
Alors, qu'en pensez-vous ? Cet intérieur vous inspire-t-il aussi ?
Images source A house in the hills
Lindsaycdavisonreshare @ ivy
Artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz has never been one to be afraid of pushing the boundaries and his latest project entitled 12 Shoes for 12 Lovers does just that. The exhibition takes a look at the question of love and sex by reflecting on the memory of 12 previous relationships with former lovers who inspired each shoe sculpture. He’s still deep into the project, so here are the first six. We’ll share the next six in a future post.
Above: Shoe1. “Honey” Natasha
Shoe1. “Honey” Natasha
Each sculpture is paired with personal photos and stories where Errazuriz shares details of each relationship, while at the same time opening himself up to people’s judgement. As with all his work, he, “looks to expose contradictions and absurdities that challenge everyday life precepts and address deeply-seated taboos.”
The exhibition will be on display as part of Miami Basel from December 6th – January 6th at the Melissa Pop-Up Miami, 830 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach.
Shoe2. “Cry Baby” Alexandra
Shoe3. “Gold Digger” Alison
Shoe4. “Heart Breaker” Laura
Shoe5. “Ice Queen” Sophie
Shoe6. “Hot Bitch” Caroline
Stay tuned for Part 2 that reveals the last six shoe sculptures…
Lindsaycdavisonscroll down to the big johnson t-shits and coed naked sports tshirts...lol blast from the past
its the holiday season, everyone! so time to fall in love with your best friend’s wife, be really rude to her as a defense mechanism, record creepy videos of her face, show up at her door unexpectedly, make her lie to her husband, and tell her that she’s perfect and then walk away forever!
happy holidays!
Twelve devilish decorations to infuse the spooky spirit into your holidays.
Via the-nightmare-before-christmas.wikia.com
Via 2shopper.com
Via neatoshop.com
Via thinkgeek.com
Lindsaycdavisonreshare from kurt. SO COOL
@ ivy, baisley. Could be good for one of baisley's serial killer lairs ...(lair - is that spelled right? too long in france)
Lucid Stead is an architectural installation by artist Phillip K. Smith III that takes an existing structure in the deserts of Joshua Tree, California and revitalizes it with mirrors, LED lights, and custom built technology to accentuate the beauty of the bare landscape. Aptly referred to as an "architectural intervention," the 70-year-old homesteader shack's weathered and worn stature is transformed into a remarkable vision that makes viewers question whether they are hallucinating.
The artistic, reconstructive project maintains the dimensions of the shack and simply adds an element of intrigue and optical illusion through the addition of reflective panels that echo the surrounding landscape. Smith says, "Lucid Stead is about tapping into the quiet and the pace of change of the desert. When you slow down and align yourself with the desert, the project begins to unfold before you. It reveals that it is about light and shadow, reflected light, projected light, and change."
Lucid Stead website
Phillip K. Smith III website
via [Juxtapoz]
Lindsaycdavisonthis was too distrubing to not sure
twurkey time
Lindsaycdavisonugh, so true. and perhaps ironic since i'm reading it to procrastinate
Lindsaycdavison@ASD. please read this book...i've asked you like 4 times
I actually read Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In over the summer but never got around writing about it.
While I’m not saying I’m on board with EVERYTHING she says, I still think that if you haven’t yet read it, you should - whether you are a man or a woman (I forced my husband to read it). I’m sure there are many more takeaways, but two things have stuck with me.
Do we ask enough?
Sheryl mentions a study out there that say that men will ask for a promotion when they feel 50% qualified for the job, versus women will wait to feel 100% qualified. I don’t believe it’s a man / woman thing, but I have definitely seen people miss out on opportunities because of this. If you see every opportunity as a learning opportunity, why would you wait to be 100% qualified to take it? What’s left to learn?!
Same goes with negotiations. 3 different people have approached me recently to ask my advice on how to negotiate their package for a new role. My number one tip: ASK! What’s the worst that can happen? They say no. As long as you are not arrogant and ungrateful, they will not take away the offer because you’re trying to negotiate. Sounds so easy, but I need to repeat it to myself 100 times when I do my own negotiations, as let’s be honest, it is stressful.
Never be afraid to ask. As long as you are honest and ethical in your demands, there is never any downside, only potential upside. And if you get nothing from it (they say no to the promotion for example), at least you know you got the worst response and it wasn’t that bad, was it?
Bottom line: If someone else got the promotion and you didn’t ask for it, it’s your fault, not your boss’ or the company’s. If you find out someone got hired at the same level as you and they get paid more but you didn’t ask for more, it’s your fault, not the recruiter’s. Take responsibility and ask for it.
The importance of having the right partner.
That one was new for me. Sheryl was able to put in words something I had started to realise a while ago, but never able to articulate. My mom calls it the ‘modern couple’ with a judgemental eye roll and a big sigh.
Instead of re-hashing exactly what she says, let’s go through a recent example.
If you read my last post, you all know what happened with me. Summary: we were living in the UK, I got promoted, I got pregnant, hubby’s job fell through, he found a new one in LA, he moved to LA, I went on mat leave, I moved to LA. I’m now staying at home on maternity leave, waiting for baby to arrive and take an entry-level job as a mom.
My husband accepted the job in LA in June, but was only starting mid-September. I was working full time, while pregnant. What ended up happening? He took over everything house related. At the end of the work day, I would come home to a cooked meal, my laundry done, my errands done and a clean apartment. I swear, by the end, I needed a tutorial to work the washing machine. Then we moved here, he’s working crazy hours and I’m on leave. He passed the baton, and I don’t think he’s touched the washing machine yet. Call me crazy, but isn’t that what an equal relationship is? WHY would I be responsible for doing all the house chores if I’m working and he’s not? But it wasn’t even a topic of conversation, it just happened.
The same way I know that when comes time for me to start work again, we will have the conversation about how to split childcare and house chores. If it makes sense, depending on our situation, maybe I’ll continue to stay home? Or maybe he will? Or probably we’ll both work. Who knows… But what’s important is not what will actually happen, but the fact that all the options are on the table, and I’m not being forced into a corner. That, to me, is having the right partner. And finally our generation is starting to accept it. Our parents’ generation would’ve been judged and if not the partner, social pressure would’ve forced a lot of women back in their corner (probably why they are so prone to judge themselves). I think if we finally achieve some sort of equality in the workforce, yes it’s due to the hard work of women to fight stereotypes etc, but probably also just as much due to the men/partners who support them, fighting a different kind of stereotypes by taking on some of the responsibilities that are more traditionally associated with being a ‘woman’s task’. Let’s not forget that vice versa, some men could be much happier staying at home than being forced to bring home the bacon – so why would we force them into that mould without even having the conversation?
Criticism
Now the most common criticism on Sheryl’s book is that of course, she was born with some advantages – a wealthy, well-connected family, and the ability to have so much support and help at home. Not taking anything away from her success as I’m sure that had she not worked hard, she would not be where she is today. But it is easy to say 'that could never be me because of my circumstances'.
I myself have been throwing that criticism around. However, in exchange for having read Lean In, my husband is making me read this book Mindset: the new psychology of success. I’ve read only about 25% of it, but it’s been making me question the validity of this criticism. Is it just a cop-out for not trying? At the end of the day, isn’t trying, learning and enjoying what you do the definition of success? As opposed to the exact place you end up in the organization? Food for thoughts, I’m not done the book, so more on that later!
I’d love to hear other key takeaways from Lean In. Please share.
Damn you, Internet.
I'd love to give credit to the originator of those pumpkin buns, but I have no idea if the photo was from a magazine, commercial site, or blog. It could have also been a dream. Because even though I don't bake in my sleep, I've been known to dream about bread. Yes, I'm serious.
Combine the egg, sour cream, and water in the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk to combine (this should get it closer to a lukewarm temperature.) Add the rest of the ingredients, except the egg wash and walnuts.
Last year, in my junior-level management class, I showed Sheryl Sandberg’s TED talk, in which she presents the main ideas from her book Lean In. Aside from the fact that very few of my business undergrads knew who she was (seriously? Grrr), it was a great class experience. We had an in-depth discussion about gender and career choices.
We discussed Sandberg’s now-famous observation that many young women choose fields, employers, and career paths with less upside in terms of financial rewards and advancement opportunities because they are thinking ahead about lifestyle. Even though most are still 10-15 years away from marriage and children, they make choices with an eye to leaving room in their lives for their future families.
By doing so, Sandberg argues, they limit their abilities to earn or to rise to positions of leadership – and ironically, many fail to establish the career trajectory that would allow them to better control their work lives.
I believe Sandberg is right. Many of the 19-year-old female business students I have taught have made their future families a major driver of their career plans. Most end up in pretty good jobs, but I wonder whether, by “leaning out,” these talented young women are unnecessarily settling for lower career trajectories. And in our class discussion, it also became clear to me that most of my male 19-year-old business students hadn’t spent five minutes thinking about their future families when deciding on majors and careers. The vast majority were looking at financial success and advancement potential as their key considerations.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing a lucrative path, but I wondered if these young men were setting themselves up for work-family conflict and other challenges later in their lives.
It seems to me that it is just as important that young men learn to appreciate the truth that so many women spot early: that, once one commits to excelling in a demanding career, it becomes hard to scale back without jeopardizing all that one has worked and sacrificed for. Partner tracks and corporate ladders are not known for accommodating those who try to revise the deal. Big-time income also often means financial commitments to such expenditures as private schools or jumbo mortgages on houses requiring upkeep and landscaping. It is easy to get stuck on auto-pilot and continue pursuing a track, even after our lives change and it is no longer what is best.
So, while it is true that neither young men nor young women should close themselves off to certain career paths prematurely, it is equally true that neither should fall unthinkingly into careers that make it far more difficult to pursue other life goals.
As I realized that all my students would benefit from a balanced approach to initial career planning, I also recognized that the need wasn’t limited to them. The rest of us, too, would benefit from a balanced approach to the ongoing management of our careers. Whether it’s the first major step on the career path or the tenth, we should think about the implications for all the factors that have to balance out for a successful life, and whether those in fact need recalibrating. Making a move in light of the full range of considerations would mean thinking about:
These last two may be the most important of all, and the most neglected. In fact, during my class discussion of career choices, the idea that one should look for the best match with one’s talents, interests, and sources of personal fulfillment was simply not raised (until I brought it up, towards the end). Of course, smart students know that they can’t eat fulfillment, and financial considerations are important. But many of us would be happier, perform better, attain more career success, and have a more well-balanced life if we were working in a career that we felt more passionately about and that brought us more fulfillment.
So talk to the young people in your life about the need to lean in, but also about the need to have their eyes open, as they embark on certain paths, to what they are signing on for. And keep thinking, too, about your own choices. Spend an hour or two every six months to take stock of your career and how it enhances or strains the rest of your life. Evaluate where you are, and start making conscious career decisions. Don’t let the sheer force of momentum keep you on a path that no longer leads to the life you will love most.
LindsaycdavisonWOAH - "Psssst. Your Waterproof Speaker Is Right Here."
The Amazon Whisperer
The term Big Data, admits writer Don Peck, "has quickly grown tiresome." But the power of analytics as a mechanism for making decisions about hiring and firing is still growing, and the "application of predictive analytics to people’s careers … is enormously challenging, not to mention ethically fraught." Indeed, the idea that stats may determine whether we'll flourish in careers or be temps forever is both promising and deeply concerning. Peck traces the history of hiring in America, noting that attempts at psychological testing based on "science" in the 1950s were largely abandoned in favor of ad hoc interviews. But we know that favoritism and bias are all too common in these situations. Now that science is making a comeback, Peck explores some of the new ways in which companies will be able to make some of their most important decisions.
One is a start-up called Knack, which uses video games to measure how people function neurologically when it comes to skills like problem solving; the game has been used by Royal Dutch Shell. In 2010, Xerox started using "an online evaluation that incorporates personality testing, cognitive-skill assessment, and multiple-choice questions about how the applicant would handle specific scenarios that he or she might encounter on the job." The color-coded rating (red, yellow, or green) generated by an algorithm helps guide the company in its hiring decisions. The attrition rate fell by 20% in the initial pilot period, and over time, the number of promotions rose. Then there's GILD, which uses data to search out software engineers who might have been missed by traditional forms of recruiting.
In the end, Peck surprises himself: He now believes "that we’re headed toward a labor market that’s fairer to people at every stage of their careers." That is, one that isn’t based on who you know or what kind of degree you have.
First, two sets of stats: Americans are in 10 million car accidents every year, and 9.5 million are their own fault. Second, the Google self-driving car has covered 500,000 miles without causing a single accident, and it can go 50,000 miles on a highway without experiencing a major error. So what's not to love about a car that you can get to work in while playing Candy Crush and not killing anyone? In this lengthy piece on the past, present, and future of the self-driving car, Burkhard Bilger reports on the broad stakeholder issues facing our driving future. One player is the famed Google X lab, where extensive research on two cars — a Prius for regular street use and a Lexus for highways — is aimed at radically changing how we drive.
The company wants to eliminate people’s need to own vehicles — most are used for merely an hour or two a day, and public transportation featuring self-driving cars akin to taxis could shake the entire car industry. "They want to make cars that make drivers better. We want to make cars that are better than drivers," says one Google engineer. "They" — car companies — are also developing self-driving cars, but view automation as a process that helps make driving easier and much safer while maintaining the inherent pleasure many feel in driving a car. Indeed, notes Bilger, "Mercedes builds cars for people who love to drive, and who pay a stiff premium for the privilege." But what about young people who learn to drive distracted, with phones and gadgets at their fingertips? And then there’s a host of moral issues, like whether or not the car should stop or swerve to avoid hitting someone's cat. The technology is getting there — Bilger describes the Google Lexus as behaving "like a dancer in a quadrille" when it meets traffic.
Fast Company editor Jason Feifer wanted a cheap, waterproof, Bluetooth-enabled, rechargeable speaker so that he could listen to podcasts in the shower (we've all been there). He typed his needs into Amazon, and one product popped up: something called Hipe (but was Hipe the brand or the model?). He bought it, and when he had questions, he sent an email, which produced a reply from a mystery man named "Sam." But what was this "Hipe" and who was behind it? The trail led Feifer to Chaim Pikarski, who essentially built a business around Amazon product reviews. Each of his “buyers,” as he calls them — the elusive Sam is one — "scours the web to learn all the features people wish a product had, and hire a manufacturer, often in China, to make the desired version." The buyer gets to name the product — hence the mysterious "Hipe." The company can then compete against speaker companies (or any other type of product manufacturer, for that matter) without needing to become one itself. Pikarski's company, C&A Marketing, is also pretty profitable: sales in nine figures and a 30% annual growth.
And, yes, Feifer eventually got to meet Sam.
China's revision of its one-child policy may be more illusion than reality, but its impact on the Chinese psyche and economy has apparently been significant. Makers of baby formula and diapers saw their shares jump. Same thing for companies that make pianos, because more babies means more little pianists. The Wall Street Journal says 48% of the 79 million Chinese women of childbearing age could be affected by the policy change; if just a quarter of them had second children, there would be 9.5 million additional babies in the next five years. Chinese bloggers have been joking about people’s pent-up desire for more children, saying that on the evening when the news broke, young couples went to bed early.
Despite the economic euphoria and the joshing, China still faces an accelerated demographic decline, Gordon G. Chang writes in Forbes. The one-child policy has led to a lopsided sex ratio, with more boys than girls, and the country's total fertility rate is low, well below what demographers call the "replacement" rate of 2.1 births per female. Many young women today are rejecting Chinese tradition and skipping marriage and motherhood altogether. The cautious, phased relaxation of the policy is seriously inadequate, Chang says; China's demographic trajectory is already set, with the number of young people declining and the elderly population ballooning. —Andy O'Connell
If you've been nursing a few app ideas and wonder what it takes to be a successful independent app developer, listen to self-taught programmer Rob Jonson, who has been releasing apps for a decade. When he looks at big-money app developers who are riding waves of hype and seeking venture capital or big tech buyouts, he wonders "why they didn't just build their app in the evenings, launch it, and see what happens. Most will disappear without a trace, but a good idea that fulfills a need will gradually find a market. And probably has as much chance of hitting it big as any other decent app, with a lot less risk." Jonson has never had employees and spends little on development, design, or launch. He finds that his most popular apps are those that he's developed for himself to satisfy his own needs. And he makes it a point to respond personally to users' emails. "People are surprised and pleased to get an email from the real developer," he says. —Andy O'Connell
Just 90 Companies Caused Two-Thirds of Man-Made Global Warming Emissions (The Guardian)
How Snapchat Plans to Make Money (Business Insider)
What It's Like to Fail (Priceonomics)
Lindsaycdavisonso i dont' understand this meme, but figured andrew would find it funny
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