Design:
Motorola is partnering with iFixit to provide repair tools for their products, a once common practice for companies, but a remarkably rare one today.
Roadmapping the Future:
Fiction is a common tool for prototyping and prophesying possible futures. We linked to an article last week about the staleness of cyberpunk dystopias, so this reading list from Jay Owens of fresher future genres is well-timed.
Up In the Air:
Communication:
Two stories of what happens when modern day communication tools like social media or online gaming chat intersect with state power and violence: one about the (allegedly state-sponsored) twitter mobs that regularly went after Jamal Khashoggi, and another about how SWAT teams are duped into being agents of annoyance or even death by internet bullies.
Archiving:
Contrary to popular conception of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts and architecture, their world was not built in Spartan white, but bold technicolor. Whether or not museums should present the full polychromatic versions remains in debate.
Bias and Brains:
A study looking at behavior that is stereotypically coded as masculine or feminine suggests that feminine-coded behavior disadvantages entrepreneurs in business contexts, regardless of their gender. Such a study seems to echo other research identifying bias in the workplace, including the so-called 'sexuality pay gap' that indicates lower average pay for gay men compared to their heterosexual peers, and higher wages for lesbian women versus their straight counterparts. The Harvard Business Review article suggests that because much of professional life is performative anyway, one ought to shift their personal style to combat this bias, which feels like an absurd suggestion. Workers should be able to bring their full self to work, and paid proper money and attention based on performance, not gender, style, or some other aspect of personhood.