Weekly Roundup: 8 Feb 2015

The world keeps moving faster and faster. It’s increasingly hard to filter out the most important 'signals from the noise' with the time we have available. Below is a summary of the most interesting and relevant topics that have passed through my signal filter over the past week.


One of the most interesting debates right now is if in fact the traditional web as we know it is dying. With the rise of smartphones, mobile apps are becoming incredibly ubiquitous, and walled gardens are only getting bigger and bigger. The dynamic between visiting a website in a browser, and turning to apps for tasks is changing.

In this first article, Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff provide two concurrent Us vs Them insights into how apps are taking over the traditional website. 

Native App or Web App? This comparison checklist provides insight into the positives and negatives of both formats.

"If in five years I’m just watching NFL-endorsed ESPN clips through a syndication deal with a messaging app, and Vice is just an age-skewed Viacom with better audience data, and I’m looking up the same trivia on Genius instead of Wikipedia, and “publications” are just content agencies that solve temporary optimization issues for much larger platforms, what will have been point of the last twenty years of creating things for the web?"

The Awl explores the app debate through the lens of media companies.


Want to work at Tesla? A good place to start is to have worked at Apple. Why Elon Musk is so focused on stealing the Apple mojo, and why its cars are trying to be more "iPhone than a Ford".

Speaking of Tesla, anyone who bought a Model S just woke up to a faster car thanks to an over-the-air firmware update, similar to what happens to your phone. If you are not building evolving platforms, you might be left behind in the dust, literally.


This could be one of the most important articles for business owners to read right now. 'Why do managers hate agile?' provides one of the best explanations of what this new way of operating translates to, and why if you are not seriously considering adopting its practices, you might not be long for this world.


A great example of agile, out of the box thinking combined with the power of platforms over traditional products can be seen in new startups tackling the problems of poverty in Africa. Watching new approaches to the financial industry are a good case study on rethinking entrenched industries.


Traditional Quick Service Restaurants (QSR's) like McDonalds are under serious threat from the most unlikely of places - Fast-Casual restaurants like Shake Shack and Chipotle. With Shake Shack pulling an IPO of $1.6 billion, having a strong purpose, superior product and leveraging technology are seriously powerful keys to competitive advantage. 


Want to add a new decision making strategy to your mental model toolkit? Try using the Power of Noticing.


Scientists have discovered ants handle complex adaptive systems in a very interesting way - by using an organic algorithm to help forage for food that operates almost exactly like the Internets TCP/IP protocol. 


Lastly, check out this poem from Jason O. Gilbert that is a perfect insight into the A to Z of Internet culture right now. For all of your JK and XD enjoyment.