đ Fuel your body this week. Just preferably not with food thatâs 77 years old, like the slice of wedding cake from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philipâs wedding that sold at auction for $2.8k+.
đ§ On the pod: Pausing streaming services is a rising trend thatâs got streaming companies sweating to put out must-see content.
NEWS FLASH
đŚ Red Lobster is trying to come out of its shell: The chain â which is being led by a 35-year-old CEO after bouncing back from bankruptcy â is taking a page out of Chiliâs book, paring down its menu by 20% and introducing new items with viral potential. The restaurant is bringing back its once-beloved hush puppies, along with eight new menu items and a revamped tartar sauce. Will it be enough to capture young consumers while holding onto the 40% of the chainâs customer base who are 55+? Only time will tell.
đ´ Three toys won the long game: My Little Pony, Transformers action figures, and the Phase 10 card game were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame yesterday. The toys, which were among 12 finalists, received the most votes from a panel of experts and the public. Itâs a big deal for My Little Pony, in particular, which was a finalist 7x before finally clinching the win. Hasbroâs plastic ponies, introduced in the 1980s and again in 2003, even beat out Barbieâs sales for several years, so weâre happy theyâre finally getting their moment in the spotlight.
đ Amazonâs new specs: Rumor has it that Amazon is working on a new way to shave seconds off deliveries: requiring drivers to wear AR smart glasses based on its existing Echo Frames that will guide drivers through buildings, offer turn-by-turn directions, and free up their hands. Should this happen, itâs likely years off â sources say the company is still working on the project and may scrap it if it isnât optimal or becomes too costly.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
23andMeannounced it was laying off ~40% of its workforce, 200+ people, and closing its drug development arm as part of the companyâs restructuring.
Waymo nixed its waitlist for LA customers, opening its self-driving taxi service to anyone with its app. But it only operates within 80 square miles of the sprawling city and doesnât do highways yet.
A Dutch courtoverturned a 2021 ruling requiring Shell to slash carbon emissions by net 45% by 2030, saying that while the energy company should limit emissions, there was âinsufficient consensus in climate scienceâ on a specific reduction percentage that a single company is obligated to.
SHAKE ON IT
Negotiation strategies and tactics
âLetâs get a rundown on this important project youâve been working on.â
Donât panic â that was practice.
But the next time we inquire, please donât be huffing and bluffing. Just pull up this project management doc, where weâve already tidied up targets and tasks for everyoneâs convenience. Wow.
A simple, three-part PM template for:
Preplanning
Getting shit done
Analyzing afterward
Another freebie by us, for increased organization.
We are constantly hearing about how isolated people feel, so much so that US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared a âloneliness epidemicâ that predated, but was exacerbated by, the pandemic.
In a recent survey that found the loneliest Americans were between ages 30 and 44, 73% of respondents blamed technology. But are they right?
New York Times reporter Brian X. Chen explored the topic and found the consensus among experts is that tech doesnât necessarily make us lonely, but that lonely people may be using it in unhealthy ways.
Unhealthy how?
Ever feel bad because your friend is posting pics of a gorgeous vacation you could never afford? Well, youâre not alone. Unhelpful behaviors include:
Comparing yourself to others â even though we know that social media encourages people to only post their most aspirational content.
Texting as opposed to more meaningful or consistent communication.
Becoming addicted to or using social media in ways that limit socializing in person.
None of that feels surprising.
People canât tell if their friend who isnât texting back is ignoring them or busy, or if an âOKâ is genuine or pointedly short. We bail on events to binge Netflix, then post about doing so⌠on social media.
So, how do we avoidâŚ
⌠a depressing future where we all sit around ignoring each other while chatting with AI bots on our phones?
Well, for as much as social media platforms are designed to hook us, many also have tools to limit the time we spend on them or what we see.
We can also put the onus on ourselves by:
Committing to regular IRL, video, or phone check-ins with our friends and family.
Regularly scheduling socialization like we do medical appointments, per psychiatrist Dr. Sue Varna via CBS.
Using technology â such as apps that help you find meetups, group classes, or volunteering opportunities â to identify new ways to socialize.
Getting better sleep? Weird, but a study found people who sleep better feel less lonely.
Actually, that makes sense. Who among us has never stayed up too late doomscrolling and cultivating FOMO?
Microsoft Paint? Havenât thought about that in a while. Itâs back, and cooler than ever.
We all know AI jobs are booming, but there arenât enough trained professionals for all those new roles. Thatâs music to the ears of higher-ed institutions racing to fill the void â for a price.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
How long a crow can hold a grudge, according to Dr. John Marzluff, a University of Washington professor who studies human-crow interactions, per The New York Times. Marzluff once wore an ogre mask, captured seven crows on campus, then set them free. He or research assistants would occasionally walk around campus in the mask and note how many crows aggressively squawked in response. At year seven, nearly half of them knew about the bad ogre; over the years, it petered off.
Though notoriously smart, these corvids donât always remember their beefs correctly and have dive-bombed people with similar characteristics in a Hitchcockian case of mistaken identity. We donât know about you, but to be mistaken for a crow harasser would make us very sad.
AROUND THE WEB
đ On this day: In 1979, Philadelphia 76ers center Darryl Dawkins shattered a fiberglass backboard amid a slam dunk, eventually leading the NBA to install shatterproof backboards.
đ Thatâs interesting: The oldest known evidence of a cat âmaking muffins.â
đ My First Million: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan on the sauce that makes YC outperform the rest of Silicon Valley.
âď¸ Thatâs cool: An online journal where words fade as you type, inspiring users to spend more time writing versus editing.
Thereâs been lots of talk lately about the perils and successes of Americaâs full-service restaurant chains, but we want to know where youâre actually dining.
