‘We Are All Scared For Our Jobs’: GameStop Employees Share Their Circle Of Life Stories
“For a decade now, GameStop has subscribed to a company strategy that they call “Circle of Life.” The idea is that customers should buy games, trade them back into GameStop, and use the proceeds of those trades to buy more games. GameStop’s profit margin for used games is way higher than it is for new games, so it’s always been in the company’s best interest to push used products.”
Really interesting article on GameStop and how they’re essentially forcing managers and stores to sell used consoles and products rather than new ones. I don’t mind buying used, so I never noticed this, but apparently it’s been a serious issue within GameStop.
Wait, other people can take your time?
“Imagine if anyone could just take some money out of your bank account when they needed it. Time’s more valuable than money, yet that’s exactly what people are doing with other people’s time.”
The Signal v. Noise blog is a must-follow. Jason and his team are always publishing some of the most interesting and thought-provoking articles. I liked the above quote because it makes complete sense, yet most of us don’t think of time in that way. We’ll say, “Time is more important than money” but we don’t actually act on that.
The History of Italian Espresso: How Well Do You Know your Coffee History?
“As a result of these new machines, the term “espresso” first entered the Italian lexicon around 1920, in Alfredo Panzini’s Italian dictionary: “Caffè espresso, made using a pressurised machine or a filter, now commonplace.” Panzini remarked that nineteenth-century coffee houses were tranquil places; by the 1935 edition, he noted that they had rapidly become bars for workers. As the strength of the brew grew, evidently this encouraged working men to frequent them in search of that strong caffeine hit.”
“In 1938, the first record of the word “barista” emerged (no, it wasn’t invented in the ‘90s by Starbucks). Before that time, the term “barman” appears to have been the fashionable word. However, with the success of Mussolini and the Fascist movement came a nationalist campaign to “Italianise” common words. Barman, considered too American, was substituted for barista, a more Italian-sounding word. In that way, espresso was further entwined with the Italian identity.”
“For many of us, drinking espresso means tasting excellent coffees with a complex flavour profile, often unobscured by milk or sugar. But for a lot of Italians, it may conjure up fond memories sitting on the small neighbourhood piazza, sipping a cafe latte on a hazy afternoon in southern Italy. Or walking into a neighbourhood bar, grabbing an adrenaline-pumping, robusta-lined shot before heading to work on a cool morning in central Milano. That sense of place, of localness, is an important part of the Italian espresso.”
This article had many great facts about the history of Italian Espresso—I only included a few great quotes. Definitely worth the read (especially if you like coffee).
The Daily Routines of 12 Famous Writers
“I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it — when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands. If you have a limited amount of time to write, you just sit down and do it. You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” – Jodi Picoult
I tend to agree with Jodi on this. I don’t think writer’s block is actually a thing. I think it’s an excuse to not write and be lazy instead. I think it’s definitely true that people can hit a wall, but I don’t think it’s impossible to work through the wall. All it takes is a walk or a change of scenery.
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” – Maya Angelou
For me, oftentimes it’s much easier to write a 10 page essay than a 1-2 page summary. It’s easy to add extra words. It’s not easy to only include what’s necessary.
The Next Big Blue-Collar Job Is Coding
“Miners, it turns out, are accustomed to deep focus, team play, and working with complex engineering tech. ‘Coal miners are really technology workers who get dirty.’”
Being someone who has had jobs that required intense physical labor, and jobs that were more focused on thinking, I think about this topic a lot. It’s interesting how people who work in the tech space automatically assume what they do is more difficult than what a framer does for instance. But show me a developer who can also frame a home? In fact, I think it might be easier to teach a framer to code than the reverse.
Why we choose profit
“Money with strings attached isn’t really yours, it’s someone else’s property that you’re renting on their terms. We prefer to own.”
“Profit is the ultimate shield against BS. When you’re profitable you don’t have to play games, succumb to substitutional metrics, cross your fingers, or grovel for other people’s money, validation, or acceptance. You simply make more money than you spend — and run a fundamentally sound, economics 101 business. When profit’s a requirement, it becomes a lot harder to step in the BS.”
I appreciate this post a lot because today it’s so easy to fall in the trap of thinking because you’re making money, that you are profitable. That is not the case at all. It’s becoming more and more apparent with startups being funded by investors. Sure, you’re making $7 million a year, but how much of that are you actually taking home?
Johnson: Those six little rules
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
An article that covers George Orwell’s 6 rules of writing. Need I say more?
Still ticking: The improbable survival of the luxury watch business
“For those born into the digital age, the prospect of making a watch start may seem as distant and implausible as crank-starting a car or changing the ribbon on a typewriter. But it is precisely this process – the end of a feat of infinitely intricate human engineering – that appeals to the watch connoisseur. It also explains why a fine watch costs so much.”
Such a great piece on the luxury watch market and why it is doing better than ever. I particularly agree that there’s something about wearing a watch that you know won’t ever fail you that is reassuring. Sure, I can check the time on my phone, but why would I when I’m wearing a GMT?
The Absence of Mastery in the Era of the “Instabrand”
“When people refer to me as an expert, I get extremely uncomfortable. I’m really just an interested and initiated observer with some life experience who’s learning and sharing what he’s learned. Not a journalist, not an expert. No way. I haven’t earned it. I’m merely a passionate and informed amateur.”
This has been difficult to me as well. For some reason people think that if you’re writing on a topic that you’re the smartest guy on the subject. Nope. Most of the time I’m just writing about some observations or findings of mine. This doesn’t make me an expert, it merely makes me someone who enjoys learning and sharing knowledge.
What I Learned Sitting on a Porch with America’s Oldest Living Veteran
“‘A secret? No, no secret,’ he said. ‘Just live it.’ Day by day?, I asked. He shook his head. At 110, day by day is too long. ‘Take it day by night,’ he said.”
“It’s fascinating to think that when Richard was born Theodore Roosevelt was president. Overton is the oldest living American veteran now, but when he was born, Henry L. Riggs was still alive. Riggs was a veteran of the Black Hawk War (1832) and he been born in 1812…and Conrad Heyer, the Revolutionary War veteran and the oldest and earliest person to be photographed (born in 1749) was still alive when Riggs was born. Three overlapping lives, that’s all it took to get back to before even the idea of founding the United States.”
Anyone who has survived 110 years and remains happy is someone worth listening to. Take the time out of your day to read this article, and then go watch this interview on Richard.