The RFE Era

I spent Fourth of July weekend in Miami. Highlight: The Wynwood Walls where street artists have taken over large swaths of the neighborhood. The "Octophant" above is by Alexis Diaz. 

I've written two things recently.

First, I published a thing about media. I've been obsessed with sites that compete above the daily social media scrum and solve a real problem by publishing content that builds on itself like chapters to a never-ending book. It's a direction I hope to take 99U. I've been calling this strategy Resource-Focused Editorial and its going to be the next generation of publishing.

Second, for 99U I chatted with Bevel co-founder Tristian Walker. I've been interviewing entrepreneurs for six years now, and Walker is one of the most focused I've ever spoken with. In my favorite part of the conversation he speaks about how to find your "big idea." So many people I chat with know they want to start a company, but not quite sure of the product. Sound like you? Walker's journey should be plenty inspiring.

I spoke at the Scion Zoofest Creativity Conference this week, which is part of Zoofest in Montreal. Big thanks to Bitsize for inviting me. Another big thanks to poutine. 

And now, to the links!

With the recent Gawker drama, which isn't worth recounting, media Twitter has been especially hard to handle. In fact, Twitter itself has been a bit of downer lately, though it's a struggle to say why. Fredrik deBoer writes one of my favorite essays of the year that just had me nodding the entire time about the death on sincerity in our online forums and how that is sabotaging our ability to empathize and understand one another. New rule: default to sincerity.  

Marc Andreessen is a founder of Netscape and one of the most notable venture capitalists. His profile in the New Yorker is a must-read for anyone that likes to think about the future of work and technology. In 2007 he published a "Guide to Career Planning" that still holds up today. I spend most of my waking hours at 99U trying to surface good advice, and this is chock full of it. Read it.

Why is everyone in media reading the Awl? For media junkies John Herrman's take on the industry in his column "Content Wars" is a must read. Also, the Awl is a great example of what a publication should be: devoid of outside investment, tightly run, for a very specific audience. The Awl will outlast Vox, Mark my words. (I'll admit: I really didn't "get" the Awl until I moved to New York. I don't know what that says about me. Or New York. This is embarrassing, let's just move on.)

- Reason 5,326 why event-driven content business are better: No one can agree on web metrics.

There's a dating app that only allows women to message first. It's called Bumble and it was created by a former Tinder employee to reduce the, well, unsavory-ness of the typically-male opening salvo.   

Earlier this month an entire U.S. island was taken off of the grid in every way: no internet, no ATM acess, to cell phone usage. The culprit? A broken cable. Saipan's cable is connect to Guam's, which is connected to the SEA-US cable that runs from Southern California to Hawaii to the Philippians. There's an entire industry and art to laying and preserving these cables. And, since its hard to monitor cables thousands of meters below the ocean's surface, they are subject to sabotage and surveillance. 

Upworthy is no longer using the clickbaity headlines that made it so famous (so says its new editorial director Amy O’Leary in this presentation). 

Flag time! Fiji (like New Zealand) is wising up to the pitfalls of the Union Jack and creating a new flag. Here are the 23 finalists.  (Though the new flag may exacerbate ethnic rifts there, says The Guardian)

Official newsletter flag (for now): Bangladesh 
Did you know Bangladesh is the world's eighth most-populated country? Did you know it has a massive ship graveyard? Did you know that the reason the circle in the flag is positioned slightly to the left is so it appears to be centered when the flag is waving? (Palau has the same approach) Get a wonderful 10-minute primer on this nation on the always-delightful Geography Now.

The reason you're positioned slightly to the left is because you're in my heart. Thanks for reading.
-Sean