February 2024

Hi! How's your February going? My 3 year old daughter started preschool last week (after 3 years of my husband and I taking care of her full-time, while also working remotely full-time ??) and it felt like such a major step, like we were dropping her off at college!

Her starting preschool had me thinking a lot about the different ways we all learn, work and are our most productive, so here are the 10 best things I've read this month on those subjects:

How to Learn like Jimi Hendrix: an excellent post from Alex M H Smith on the value of observational learning, or bottom-up vs. top-down knowledge:

"Do not defer only to authority. Do not deny the validity of your opinions. Do not dismiss your own experience."

Somewhat related: Good advice from Joy Chen

Are we in a Productivity Boom? ( 纽约时报 )

Has ChatGPT been helping your productivity? Some 62% of professionals reported using generative AI tools at work, up from 27% in November when ChatGPT was launched. (via Glassdoor )

Workplace DEI Isn't Dead: 3 Trends Driving DEI Investments in 2024, from Heather Tenuto , CEO of The Muse .

This fantastic piece on NBA insider Shams Charania by Reeves Wiedeman is actually from October, but I read the print issue of New York Magazine on a plane ride this month. His career trajectory as an NBA Insider is a perfect reflection of the way not just media, but technology, communication & social media have evolved over the past 10 years:

"It’s possible to follow Charania’s career over the past decade and trace the shifts in sports media — from blogging, to tweeting, to a venture-capital-funded start-up, to being gobbled up by the Times, to an embrace of gambling. As for what’s next, Charania is loath to prognosticate. He has a tendency to revert to the practiced media-trained-speak of an athlete in a postgame press conference. “I just have tunnel vision,” he told me on several occasions. The uncertainty of Twitter’s transition to X, and what role it might play in the future of sports journalism at a time when social media has stopped driving traffic to websites, wasn’t something he had spent much time considering. “All I can do is keep my head down and focus on myself,” he said."

Speaking of which... it'll be fascinating to see how this shakes out: New York City Sues Social Media Companies (via Axios )

Employers are now figuring out the obvious, when it comes to Childcare Benefits at Work:

“Covid was a blessing in disguise,” Jessica Chang said. “Employers realize that no longer is child care just a social issue but a business issue. When you have trouble attracting and retaining employees, it affects your bottom line.”

For Gen Z, a job is just a job:

"After witnessing millennials being sold on the false promise that landing a job and clocking in the hours would lead to a steady climb up the career ladder and pay scale, and all the chaos that wrought, Gen Zers are much less apt to entrust their futures to their employers."

?? Lastly, with International Women's Day and Women's History Month fast approaching in March, here are 6 video ideas that any company can use to celebrate.

That's all for this month. Thanks for reading! ??