Hi there!
Welcome to the first issue of The Other Side. The Other Side will be a weekly newsletter, delivered to you every Sunday. The curation will be the best articles, twitter, videos, thoughts, ideas, and inspirations that I find. Specifically, in the field of Technology, Philosophy, and Self Development.
I recently published my latest article about Why Community Works and How It Can be a Double-Edged Sword. A glimpse of why people like to be in a community, the positive, and negative view of community. You should check it out if you want to see the ‘other side’ of community.
Without further ado, I hope you like the first issue!
Technology
[#Article] The TikTok War by Ben Thompson
Ben Thompson is one of the best business technology writer that I have ever seen. Why TikTok is very successful? Ben lay out the basics principles:
To summarize:
Humans prefer video to photos to text
TikTok makes it easy to create videos, ensuring a massive supply of content (even if most of the supply is low quality)
TikTok relies on the algorithm to surface compelling content, and is not constrained by your social network
Ben also laid out an interesting ideas to think about. TikTok is a data vacuum cleaner, seeing all the activities that the user do. That is why the algorithm is very strong in making the user sticks. As TikTok is a chinese company, where do all of the data go? The China government. That is why the United States is planning to ban TikTok.
You should read the article to better understand that banning TikTok is not about only economic, but also ideology war between the United States and China.
Philosophy
[#Article] Tradition is Smarter Than You Are by The Scholar’s Stage
Why humans are the most dominant species as of today? We would argue that our brain power is the key. Our rationale thinking is what make humans decide what to do and not to do. Turns out, rational thinking is not the key to success.
If rational thought is not the key to our success, what is?
This article argue that tradition is one of the key to human survivals. A simple example by Joseph Henrich:
His favorite example of this are European explorers who die in the middle of deserts, jungles, or arctic wastes even though thousands of generations of hunter-gatherers were able to survive and thrive in these same environments. If human success was due to our ability to problem solve, analyze, and rationally develop novel solutions to novel challenges, the explorers should have been fine. Their ghastly fates suggest that rationality may not be the key to human survival.
This is an interesting article to see a different perspective on how a rationalist and an anthropologist see the societies.
[#Twitter Thread] Struggle between Capital and Labor by Li Jin
A must read to see the current manifestation of Karl Marx’s classic essay on Wage Labour and Capital. Seeing the different perspective of how Apple acts like a government that imposed tax to its developers.
Self Development
[#Article] Why Asians Aren’t Drowning in Debt (But North Americans Are) by Roxine Kee
Roxine Kee is a fellow student in Write of Passage. She has presented the idea of how different culture have a different mindset really well in her article. Asian parents tend to teach their parents how to save money, live a low key life, and love your family.
I am half Chinese and half Indonesian, that is why this article really resonates with me. You can see the other side perspective of how asian thinks in general.
They taught me that true wealth is about having the cash and the financial skills to pay off your credit statement in full each month, not just the minimum. Never just the minimum.
[#Twitter Thread] Embracing Feedback for Self Development by Dan Rose
Dan Rose experience the effectiveness of feedbacks. A great lessons here is to not be afraid to give feedback to your peers. It has a life changing effect if the person can receive good feedback, and implement the feedback for self development.
Thank you! See you at the next issue!
Juan
Love your insights! I would love & can’t wait to get your weekly newsletter ;)
I really like the mix from different categories. And one idea that piqued my interest is that anthropologists have a different answer on survival. That article is on my reading list.