Remote work may be good for efficiency but it's deadly for team-building. So, just as the development of multi-location businesses led to the creation of the middle manager, whose role was to keep far-flung operations coordinated, the rise of hybrid in-office/remote work will require a new profession. - MSN (The Atlantic)
"Throughout history, those willing to sacrifice for cause and comrades ... have often prevailed against more powerful forces that mainly rely on material incentives such as pay and punishment. ... Yet little scientific attention is paid to understanding why this is so or what to do about it." - Aeon
Well, they're also good for stealing a sense of wonder, or any sense of self-reliance in the wild. But hey, also, "Do not eat anything just because a plant ID app doesn’t say it’s toxic." - Slate
And when mice are in it - specifically, when they're not getting enough glucose - their brains stop processing details of vision. The study suggests humans probably have this mode as well. Tunnel vision? Real. - Wired
Let us now praise things that bring us joy, like the person who determined to walk across the United States in a cartoon bear suit, and succeeded in his goal. "A good meaningless goal is an act of protest against the self-optimization hamster wheel." - The Atlantic
It’s an irony that arguably the most radical movement in European thought should have been appropriated by the conservative forces of the market, but it’s also predictable. - Aeon
Toleration involves putting up with something that you would rather not be the case. This doesn’t have to involve moral disapproval: perhaps you just can’t stand your colleague’s taste in music. But toleration is likely to be especially hard when what you experience is moral disapproval. - Psyche
Experimental psychology and data science would be used to develop clearer (and sometimes counterintuitive) recommendations for improving users’ lives. Bestselling books were written in this genre. - Hedgehog Review
Admirers agree with you “even if you say something totally crazy.” And that’s bad: “You need people who can tell you what you don’t want to hear." Being admired for our accomplishments is pleasant, but it can also inflame our vanity and distort reality in ways that leave us worse off in the end. - The Atlantic
"Current AI systems hold up a mirror to our online minds. Like Narcissus, we can get lost gazing at the reflection, even though it is not always flattering. We ought to ask ourselves: Is there more to these algorithms than mindless copy? The answer is not straightforward." - Nautilus
In a world flooded with such new devices, it is not at all surprising to find that many people now are not even aware of any aspiration to self-knowledge beyond what may be revealed by the AppleWatch or the Fitbit. - Unherd
So far, scientists have learned that, generally speaking, anesthetic drugs render people unconscious by altering how parts of the brain communicate. But they still don’t fully understand why. - Nautilus
“Platform co-ops offer a more democratic and equitable alternative to traditional companies, and they have the potential to create good jobs, boost local economies, and increase resilience in the face of future shocks.” - Wired
If COVID-19 has been an X-ray of society’s fracture points, scammers have not only looked at the film but pressed on the wounds. Since the start of the pandemic, both prophylactic and postexposure measures have been rife with fraud. - Harper's
It turns out that Francis Fukuyama doesn’t like what history’s end has wrought. Liberalism has been corrupted by bad actors on all sides who have lost faith in its tenets: free speech, universal tolerance, and human equality. - The Baffler
