What We’re Reading
A few pieces the Collab team came across this week …
Public shaming
How Cape Town dealt with a water shortage:
The city’s website publishes a map showing a street by street and house by house measure of water usage. A dark green dot means your household is well within the restrictions; light green means you’re getting closer to the limit. ‘When we waste water it’s not just something that affects me because you’re contributing to a bigger problem that we’re not being conscious enough and one day our water could be cut off,’ said musician Savannah Brogneri, 25. ‘We have to be aware of how we’re affecting other people.’ The extraordinary efforts have paid off. The city has reduced water consumption by more than half since 2015.
Supply and demand
Shortages of computer science teachers:
The factors at play in the computer science faculty shortage are similar to those in other fields with lucrative job options outside academe – a supply and demand story, but on steroids. To begin, there is relatively low Ph.D. production in computer science. Just 2 percent of all degrees conferred in the discipline are doctorates, compared to 8 percent in the sciences, math, technology and engineering fields overall, based on data from the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Then there is relatively low entry into academe among those computer scientists who do obtain doctorates: just 29 percent, including nonteaching jobs, due to their ability to earn up to five times more in industry on average, according to some estimates.
Supply
California is not messing around:
Long a leader and trendsetter in its clean-energy goals, California took a giant step on Wednesday, becoming the first state to require all new homes to have solar power.
The new requirement, to take effect in two years, brings solar power into the mainstream in a way it has never been until now. It will add thousands of dollars to the cost of home when a shortage of affordable housing is one of California’s most pressing issues.
Deflation
Momentum
Think about the story you tell yourself about yourself.**In all the lives you could be living, in all of the worlds you could simulate, how much did luck play a role in this one?**Have you gotten more than your fair share? Have you had to deal with more struggles than most? I ask you this question because accepting luck as a primary determinant in your life is one of the most *freeing *ways to view the world. Why? Because when you realize the magnitude of happenstance and serendipity in your life, you can stop judging yourself on your outcomes and start focusing on your efforts. It’s the only thing you can control.
Wisdom
Chesky to Bezos: “Jeff, what’s the best advice Warren Buffet ever gave you?”
Bezos: “[I asked Warren,] your investment thesis is so simple…you’re the second richest guy in the world, and it’s so simple. Why doesn’t everyone just copy you?”
Have a nice weekend.