A review of my top 5-article reads this week
Flips open my laptop and decide this post is worth writing for medium despite my reservations.
Here are five articles I’ve read this week which were so mind-blowing, I transcended. Let’s backtrack a bit! In 2019, fresh out of grad school without a burdensome workload, I adopted a new lifestyle- reading lengthy op-ed articles, literature reviews on tech regulation, academic text about autocracy, and eulogies. These succinctly written articles were published, in the best publications, you could think. Hence, I am proud to mention reading them as the most consistent habit I’ve stuck to outside blogging, since 2019. The publications are not limited to Wired, Medium, NYbooks, Paris review, etc.
Today I’ll share my favourite reads for this week.
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
‘Design Thinking: Defending Silicon Valley at the Apex of Global Labor Hierarchies,’ takes us through a storied lane of IDEO’s transformation in the wake of automation. The article describes the steady decline of IDEO as a product company, and how they shrunk in size to introduce a new vision, and company culture which it branded ‘design thinking’ as the reality of market competition (China) came to fore. The write-up included a close analysis of Daniel Pink’s book, ‘A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. The writer alludes to Pink’s work as instrumental in forming the major business approaches for tech companies, within the US.
HOW DO WE OVERCOME TRAUMA
Christine Lee, in her column, opens up about the notion of trauma, taking us through a journey of vulnerability, by metaphorically using lessons from her life experiences on the farm to compare and detail a series of past sexual abuses. As feminist discussions continue to hammer on consent and women’s agency an important takeaway which the author also circles back on, is that women, are not to be blamed for men’s predatory nature and lack of self-control. She emphasises that, despite prevailing abuse in our society, women are still capable of reclaiming their personhood.
THE CONFESSIONS OF MARCUS HUTCHINS, THE HACKER WHO SAVED THE INTERNET
I have never been so stocked by an article, to the point of transcending my physical space, then retweeting and re-quoting my thoughts. This article from ‘Wired,’ narrates the early life of a brilliant hacker, who due to juvenile naivety found himself on the dark side of the web — A path which led him to create pinching and malware codes used to defraud and hold computers hostage. The caveat here and what makes this article brilliant, in its climax, is that Hutchins who started his road to internet fame as a teenager, was undeniably too good, to the point of saving the internet from one of the worst attacks it has recorded. However, readers will understand the ‘blackbox’ of this story once they read ‘Silk Road.’ Simply put, I am still mind-blown by this article.
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
Recently, a famed and legendary artist, Little Richard, passed and since then several eulogies have been written about his person. One central theme which has stood out in every writing I’ve come across was his constant effort in demanding his flowers. These articles noted that for a rock and roll star, Little Richard, whose work heavily inspired the likes of Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Prince, was given little credit for his contribution, to which he spent his later years demanding. For demanding his accolades, Little Richard was tagged ‘conceited’ or ‘loud,’ thus watering down his intentions. This remark pulled from one of the articles rings true. “I think about how easily that loudness can be placated or passed off as something else — dismissed as arrogance, or comedy, or cheered along as entertainment but never reckoned with as truth.” I have been a stan of his song ‘Tutti Frutti,’ and would continue to remember the uniqueness he brought to the music industry, in craft and style.
A New Deal for Big Tech: Next-Generation Regulation Fit for the Internet Age
Not a recent article, but this read comes in handy following the public debate on Jeff Bezos becoming a trillionaire. The author, Chris Yiu, speaks on the prevalent challenges of regulation, in the wake of powers accrued by big tech companies.
*Ok, one more read.
An interesting biography on Franz Boaz, whose work has inspired and continues to inspire a lot of work done in the field of Anthropology- it’s a lengthy but enjoyable piece of writing.
