Never go full Spacey

Remember when, during episode 1 of season 2 of House of Cards, Frank Underwood goes the entire episode without his trademark breaking of the fourth wall? And then at the end, just when you think he won't do it anymore, he does? Well, friends, I didn't forget about you. Perhaps you think I had? Welcome back.

Two weeks ago, we produced our seventh 99U Conference here in NYC with speakers like 3D Robotics founder Chris Anderson, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield, MoMA Head Curator Paola Antonelli, and many many more. You can read our recaps here. There, ThinkUp founder Anil Dash challenged the audience to share who "opened the door" for them in their careers. Why? Because not only is it nice to thank those that helped you, it shows others your path. So, I took his advice. Here's my latest: I Had Help.

I also recently spoke about "rethinking the career" at the See Change Conference in Minneapolis. You can check the reactions here. It's a talk I've been working on for more than a year now, with the hopes of better arming us all to navigate the new career landscape. Big thanks to the kind folks at the conference who told me their career story afterward.

To the links!

Is having a good work/life balance "unmanly"? HBR investigates. The Metafilter discussion of this piece is heartbreaking. One story: 

At one point my wife had to have emergency surgery resulting in me missing a client visit a 5 hour flight away, the president of the company actually asked me if it would be OK to to use the excuse "too hung over from partying with clients" because it would be culturally more acceptable. He did and it was.

In other troubling gender-related news, a small number of male congressmen have banned one-on-one meetings with their female employees.

One of the main arguments in my "rethinking the career" talk is that jobs are created and destroyed in a matter of years, so how can any of us plan years into the future? Imagine this college student's surprise when she discovered the job she studied in school doesn't exist anymore (sorta).

Sharing your salary is the last great taboo. But why? Also, I wrote about the company that has complete salary transparency for 99U. And what if minimum wage at your company was $70,000? Alternative take: If we think minimum wage should be higher, shouldn't we just do it ourselves?

Despite all the technology in the world, there are still a select group of "Uncontacted Peoples" who have yet to join modern society. The scariest? The Sentinelese, who inhabit a small island off the coast of India. They once murdered two fisherman who drunkenly wandered into their waters. When a helicopter went to the island to identify the bodies, the Sentinelese scared the copter off. With bow and arrows. 

The life of a professional social media manager for a sports team: "You can 'win the internet' for an evening or lose your job." Remember: people used to be blacksmiths. 

This month, Chipotle announced it removed GMOs from its food. But we realists know a marketing ploy when we see one: no one has been able to prove that GMOs adversely affect your health. An EU report [PDF] to study the long term effects of GMOs on humans found "it can be concluded that the foods and feeds derived from these GM crops are 'as safe as those derived from traditional crops.'" 

(also: America needs to get over its weird and misplaced fascination with Scandinavia.) 

When living under Prussian rule, the Danes were forbidden from flying their flag. So they selectively bread a "protest pig." Two of my favorite things: vexillology and subtle protesting!

Geography/History corner: Oceania edition. The Polynesians must have been the grittiest, bravest, and most curious people ever. Check out their migration pattern. Can you imagine sailing into the abyss of the Pacific and hoping to find another really tiny island with limited resources? With a freaking canoe? A reminder: you can position a globe's perspective over the Pacific and it looks like this—and that's where these people lived and thrived. One method that helped: they learned how to create maps of water using nothing but sticks. 

A good general life policy: Do things with your friends. But if they aren't having it, do it by yourself anyway. Related: how to be alone. Related related: I challenge you to go see a movie alone. It's actually wonderful (and no one judges you for getting cookie dough bites).

We've scanned over 100,000 galaxies and have found no evidence of advanced alien life. Though, the researchers based this on the lack of "Dyson Spheres" (structures that surround stars to harvest their energy), which is oddly specific and assumes that aliens would for some reason do the EXACT same thing that we imagine they would in science fiction. But I'm no scientist.

What's the deal with Millennials? They can't commit to anything! Well, actually... Millennials have sex with fewer partners. And job-hop less than previous generations. Sooooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Kickstarter might revolutionize the world. But sometimes, when you give money to complete strangers to make a product they haven't started on yet... exactly what you think will happen, actually happens.

If you're not moving up in your career, it could be because you're too scared to ask for things. It's worth digging up this classic: are you an asker or a guesser?

You're the best, I don't need to guess.
- Sean