Discoveries 3

       2 minute read

A collection of things found…always updated occasionally.

We know what we know about Cahokia because Americans built a highway through it. The law that created the interstate highway system in the 1960s included funding to investigate archaeological sites that would be damaged, which meant scholars had funding and a mandate to study Cahokia.

A thought provoking piece on colonialism and the ancient civilizations in North America. Discovered in the St. Louis area, Cahokia, a city inhabited in 1250 by some ten to twenty thousand Native Americans.

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50 behind the scenes pictures of the original Star Wars cast.

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Quickly send your own photos as snail-mail postcards via text with Postacard. Cool technology and concept. Is it a viable business idea given we can text the pictures directly for free?

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The most innovative products—the ones that truly change the world—are almost never understood at first, even by really smart people.”

Are you willing to be misunderstood, potentially for years or decades, in order to change the world? When You Change the World and No One Notices.

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Nir Eyal discusses how to improve your focus by removing distractions in the video: Un-Hooked: Increasing Focus in the Age of Distraction [17:20].

  1. Kill unwanted notifications. This is a big one. I have my phone configured so that only text messages and phone calls trigger an audible ring/vibration. Likewise, I disable the popup notifications on my computer for Outlook, Slack and other messaging apps.
  2. Don’t use digital gadgets in meetings…you checkout and aren’t getting/giving any value. This is why I stopped taking my laptop to meetings several years ago, opting instead for an old-school Moleskine notebook for my notes.
  3. Boost creativity and productivity by sheltering yourself (or employees) from distractions with timeframes specifically set aside to ignore email/messaging. I’ve tried to make this a habit over the years and, admittedly, I’m still working on it. The times I do ignore Outlook/Slack/etc. to focus on real work, I usually feel substantially more productive.
  4. Know your investment. Just because something is free to use, doesn’t mean there isn’t a cost. Our time and attention are the costs; arguably, the most valuable things we possess.
    1. Make it more difficult to access by logging out between use, closing the browser tab, and burying the icon app a few screens deep so you have to scroll a few times to get to it.
    2. Use attention/retention tools (Forest, Pocket, and Freedom).

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Be purposeful in your process. I love GapingVoid’s art and messages.

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Michael Wolfe provides an honest (and quite comical) explanation in layman’s terms: Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3?

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