Week 37, 2017

This is the inaugural WIRTW, so the list is going to run a bit long, but bear with me — I assure you will not click away from this list without learning something. I’m quite selective about what I recommend, so know it’s not going to be a wasted link.

Let’s get into it!

• Satya Nadella Rewrites Microsoft’s Code

  Fast Company
  His name may not be as familiar as his predecessors, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, but Satya Nadella has quietly restored the shine (and valuation) to Microsoft. Unlike the other two, I’d love to sit down and just talk with him. I think this paragraph early in the article sealed it for me:

  The place looks more like a neighborhood bookshop than the command center for the third-most-valuable company on the planet. “I read a few pages here or a few pages there,” Nadella says, in his typically understated manner. “There are a few books, of course, that you read end-to-end. But without books I can’t live.”

• ‘You Can’t Shop Here’

  Esquire
  Plus size men’s clothes that are fashion forward? Say it ain’t so! I may have to take this to heart when I develop my sewing chops!

• AI Is Inventing Languages Humans Can’t Understand. Should We Stop It?

  Fast Company
  Are we paranoid (enough)?

• Instagram Is Pushing Restaurants To Be Kitschy, Colorful, And Irresistible To Photographers

  The Verge
  The article is relatively non-judgmental… but to me this is fantastic. Am I alone among non-Millennials to think this?

• What It Feels Like Being A Trans Person Serving In The Armed Forces

  BuzzFeed
  A graphic interpretation of one man’s journey through the military and afterwards.

• The Famous Easter Island Heads Have Hidden Bodies

  Forbes
  Who knew?!

• Why a New Orleans Museum Displays a Can of Water

  Atlas Obscura
  The headline is a bit disingenuous — it’s less about a specific can of water, and more about the fact that tens of thousands of cans of water are ready to be shipped to disaster areas.

• She thought she was Irish — until a DNA test opened a 100-year-old mystery

  Chicago Tribune
  Readily-available DNA testing has brought up so many questions, but this is a fascinating story about disentangling history from the narratives we taught.

• The Hijacking of the Brillante Virtuoso
  

  Bloomberg
  A freighter worth $100-million in ship and cargo gets hijacked — cut and dry, right? Not even a little.

• The Crow Who Never Learned to Fly, and Then Taught Herself

  Atlas Obscura
  Let me be the first to say at the very least anthropomorphizing is dangerous to both animals and humans. With that disclaimer, go ahead and try not to find this story about perseverance utterly fascinating.

• Welcome to Paradise: Batteries Now Included
  

  Grist.org
  There have been times in California where solar power has generated more than half of the available power for the state… for a relatively short period of time during the day. There’s also times when California Independent System Operator has had to give away solar-generated electricity because we have too much. The solution is storage, but it’s never been tried on the scale we ultimately need. So how about a small scale? Read on…

• The best fonts to use on a resume, according to typographers and designers

  CNBC
  Spoiler alert: not Comic Sans

• The Braves’ New Ballpark Is An Urban Planner’s Nightmare

  Deadspin
  An examination of the socio-economic ramifications of where the Braves decided to relocate.

• ‘Money fell from the sky’: At the doughnut shop across from the Americana, the mall workers rest and dream big

  LA Times
  Finally, one of the most fascinating character studies I’ve read in a long time. Next time I’m in LA you better bet I’m stopping here.