Future of work, hammers, and snooze buttons

Hi nerds -

I salute you from Panama City's Tocumen Airport, as I hop on the next sunrise flight back to Miami. Waking up at 5 in the morning is usually painful, but today it had its perks.

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3 brain farts

Houses == apps: Programmers are the construction workers of the software industry. The products we build survive over time when they are constructed with robust yet flexible materials; when they’re set up above strong stacks, receiving constant maintenance and user-driven growth.

They succeed when they’re designed by detail-oriented software architects who keep security, scalability, and performance in their top of mind. They thrive when engineers fight the urge to go straight into the building phase; when they test the features thoroughly before submitting their code.

That’s why if you ever want to build an app of your own, you’re better off speaking with architects and designers first. Software developers just build what’s been spec’d.

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Future of Work: One of the biggest paradoxes in education is that we can only teach what we know, but what we know today won't prepare us for the jobs of tomorrow. According to the World Economic Forum, "at least 54% of all employees will need reskilling and upskilling by 2022."

As demand for automation increases, human-machine interactions feel increasingly natural and devices are only becoming smarter and more accessible. A market for technical skills is brewing and gives rise to the bootcamp model where students grasp a wide breath of knowledge in a modular, fast, immersive way.

But while we can learn the technical at a bootcamp, curiosity, proactiveness, and good attitude can't be taught as easily. Emotional intelligence has a huge professional cost as well; it's just harder to measure.

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Thinking + sharing: The world keeps pushing us to be “normal”, because pretending is easier than defending your “crazy” ideas all day long. But originality is valuable and authenticity pays higher as it compounds.

This is hard to achieve because it requires that:

(1) we're willing to dissect through the hard questions and come to terms with our honest truths,

(2) we're brave enough to share those conclusions with the world.

We think "no one will care", "everyone already knows", but putting your ideas out there is how you gain accountability and accountability is how you leverage your name. We're not selfish by pushing our ideas out in the world often, we're selfish when we keep them to ourselves.

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2 intellectual goodies

"You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site."

~ Frank Lloyd Wright, famous Chicago architect unknowingly talking about the importance of going through a proper UX/UI design process before starting to code.

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"Always avoid hitting the snooze button. That's just training you to oversleep."

~ The Technium, 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice​

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1 funky audio

Played by a London-based Afrobeat eight-piece band called KOKOROKO, this song is the sweet combination of jazzy beats, harmonic voices, and the right amount of foreplay. Great for listening with a partner on a picnic with some cheese and wine.

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& a featured snack

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The idea of adding a new featured snack section came up as I kept stumbling upon products that I thought paired perfectly with the rest of the newsletter's main dishes.

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Today, I'll talk about Readwise, which is by far my favorite app of 2021.

Problem: You consume information all day through different mediums (Kindle, Twitter, Medium, Newspapers, etc) and even though you highlight information, you never really go back to it or know where to find it again.

Solution: Readwise syncs up all your accounts into one main space and automatically exports all info into your note-taking platform of choice and sends you random highlights so you connect with your knowledge.

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Thanks for reading.

As always, feel free to connect by hitting reply and sharing a juicy thought 💡. We all help the curious community grow.

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Best,

Jules 🤸🏻‍♂️