Damian Aspinall heads into the jungle and reunites with his long lost buddy after years of separation. Kwibi , a gorilla, recognized Damian's voice and forces us all to consider how different we really are from other species.

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The best stuff from all around the web; read, learn and prosper.

Dan Savage on the double standard expressed in the reaction to the Gawker outing and the Ashley Madison hack (theStranger)
Six things that cost our government more than the Pluto mission (Vox)
Curbing climate change by turning waste into mushrooms (Medium)
Stowaways and the lawless high seas (NYT)
Meet Tracy Britt Cool, Warren Buffett’s right-hand woman (CNBC)
Interview with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (GQ)
The psychology of telling your kids they can be whatever they want to be (Aeon)

Also... apparently AirBnB now has business-class offerings?

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Many of us have taken a philosophy class or two when we were at university. It was either a droning, mandatory lecture or an enlightening respite from our scheduled major-specific courses. I took two philosophy classes, Intro to Logic and Political Philosophy, and regret not taking more.

The topic is incredibly intellectually stimulating and offers fresh perspectives on a number of different matters; like religion, love, work and death. This Book Will Make You Think does an excellent job of covering an extremely range of philosophers and their philosophies. Touching classics like Socrates and Plato alongside modern minds like Camus, Dawkins, and Einstein. This book, along with The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell offer an excellent opportunity to dip your toe into heavier philosophical works.

Each mind is represented by one of their most famous quotes, followed by a three to six page summary of their life, writings and philosophical framework. In just over 200 pages, I was enlightened on some new philosophies and inspired to learn more. I have moved Camus, Nietzsche, Lao Tzu and Marcus Aurelias to the top of my list of reading material for the coming months. I strongly recommend giving this a read.

Who should read this; Those who are interested in dipping their toes into the world of philosophical writing without the intensive, hyper-focused requirement of analyzing a specific individual work. Anyone considering a philosophy degree or looking to use their mind on a different wavelength than usual.

Who should skip it; Individuals are unwelcoming towards views and perspectives that differ from their own. Philosophy nerds looking for more than three pages on an given philosopher. Stephen is clearly more interested in breadth over depth.

Interesting tidbit; For all you Instagrammers out there, Susan Sontag, one of the few women cited in the book, had a great insight on photography and its effect on human experience. The “consequence of a super-abundance of visual material” represents a danger for humans and society. “Children experience things through photograph prior to actually encountering them in reality and as a consequence, memory becomes a memory of encountering the visual image, not a memory of the authentic sensations of the experience.


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The best stuff from all around the web; read, learn and prosper.

Take this quiz for a better understanding of confirmation bias, government policy and why people hate being wrong (NYT)
Human beings are not as unique as we think we are - what biologists have learned from observing bonobo monkeys (BBC)
Virtual Reality is the porn industry’s $1Bn new frontier (MarketWatch)
The ocean is acidifying at an unprecedented rate (Motherboard)
Quitting my corporate job f_cked my life up (Medium Blog)
The earthquake that could devastate the Northwest United States (New Yorker)
Good advice or advice that sounds good? (Jason Zweig)
We don’t hire Ivy League law school grads (HuffPo)
Legal weed could change the future of sex (Fusion)
Gas powered cars are toast (Bloomberg)


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The beginning of a new week! Keep your head up and your eyes on these links!

Everything you need to know about the Iran Deal, explained by a nuclear expert (Vox)
Both Silicon Valley and Wall Street are excited about Google’s new CFO (Re/Code)
Nine bullet points of doom for ESPN (500ish)
Japan is turning their old golf courses into solar farms (Quartz)
The next generations of the Hubble Telescope are going to be amazing (ExtremeTech)
The post-capitalism era is nearly upon us (The Guardian)
Google and the filter bubble that we now all live in (Aussie News)
I, Racist (Those People)
Maps of US Mass Incarceration (Vox)
12 awesome looking tiny houses (The Meta Picture)

BONUS - Penn & Teller are selling metal Bill of Rights card guaranteed to set off TSA security (P&T)


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Here are some long form reads for you to enjoy on your lazy Saturday

The absolute brilliance of Clickhole explained (Slate)
Talib Kweli explains why he left a major record label and the challenges facing modern music artists (Medium)
An elaborate medical empire was taken down by one brave oncologist (Detroit News)
Life in the Clinton White House as told by the staff that served the family (Politico)
Hannibal Buress is much more than one Bill Cosby joke (The Fader)
Women cleaning up (literal) shit in Canada (Penguin Random House)
The problem of consciousness and the ongoing battle between philosophers and scientists to figure it out (The Guardian)
The Rolling Stone and the temptations of narrative journalism (The New Yorker)
The internet has the capacity to turn us all into hermits. San Francisco offers a view into what that might look like (Medium)
How Warren Buffett profits from poor people in mobile homes (The Center for Public Integrity)


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The best stuff from all around the web, hope you enjoy.


The Dark Mountain Manifesto, the perspective of doomsday preppers (Dark Mountain) BUT, Here are 11 charts showing that the world is getting better (Vox)

Insight and wisdom from the ageless Paul McCartney (Esquire)

How to find the right remote work setup for you (thenextweb)

What is the right amount of sex? It’s different for everyone (NYT)

More and more folks are going gluten-free, here’s why (BBC)

Confessions from a political speechwriter “One of the melancholy facts of political life is that your convictions tend to align with your paycheck” (Washington Post)

What it is actually like to use a Windows Phone (Re/Code)

The FBI and Anonymous, traditionally enemies, are working together to fight ISIS (BlackSphere)

The 37 best websites for learning something new (Medium)

Some simple rules to live by (The Big Picture)



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Summary: Daniel Pink followed up his New York Times’ bestseller Drive, with another book on sales (and another NYT best-seller). The theme of To Sell is Human is perfectly summarized by the title, everyone has to sell, regardless of their professional title. While “sales” positions only account for one out of every nine jobs, folks in many other industries spend a lot of time pitching ideas to superiors or moving colleagues and partners to action. This phenomenon is most prevalent and important in the “ed-med” industries, according to Pink. The fields of education and medical care are both expected to grow in the coming decade and the success of professionals in this field will be predicated on their ability to sell in roles not traditionally.

Educators’ biggest challenge in the era of standardized testing is inspiring students to engage with the material. Too often, students learn enough to pass a test, then forget the material. Effective teachers must learn to sell students on the value of continuous self-improvement, thorough and focused study habits, and the retention of information being taught.  

Medical professionals success will also be predicated upon their ability to sell patients on treatments and rehabilitation programs. A patient that just completed an 8-week physical therapy program will not see lasting benefits if they do not maintain an active lifestyle when they return home. For physicians, simply writing a prescription is not enough. Patients need to buy into the importance of treatment, preventative care, and the reasoning behind their doctor’s recommendation.


Who should read this; Millennials- particularly those without strong intuitive sales skills and those who have never gone through intensive sales training. Anyone entering the fields of medicine or education.

Who should skip it; Anyone who has read more than 10 sales books in the last 3-5 years and retirees. 

Interesting tidbit; Strategic mimicry is something of a brain hack that serves as “a social glue and sign of trust”. Your sales effectiveness will go up if you strategically mimic “accents and speech patterns, facial expressions, overt behaviors and affective responses”

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The best stuff from all around the web, hope you enjoy. 


"I think most scientists must be burying overt recognition of the awful truths of climate change in a protective layer of denial.” The sober perspective of of a climatologist (Esquire)

3-D printing has saved the lives of three children (CBS News)

US government’s misrepresentations regarding school-building in Afghanistan (BuzzFeed)

Solar power is making the transition from luxury to blue collar (Slate)

Extreme sports athletes and entrepreneurs brains work the same way (TechCrunch)

VIDEO - What happened when Portugal decriminalized drugs? (The Economist)

Effects of the San Francisco minimum wage hike on small businesses (National Review)

A foraging adventure in Northern California (NYT)   Want your own Western PA foraging adventure? Contact foraging maestro Adam Haritan


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