The Profile: The CEO moonlighting as a DJ & the athletes seduced by brain stimulation
The Profile: The CEO moonlighting as a DJ & the athletes seduced by brain stimulation
Good morning, friends!
Instead of writing a column this week, I’ll leave you with these two photos. Life is pretty cool. Thank you for reading each week and being my Internet friends!
On to this week’s stories:
— The CEO moonlighting as a DJ [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The nicest man in Hollywood
— The athletes seduced by brain stimulation
— The cryptocurrency rebels
— The guide dog school dropouts
— The company hiding its secrets in the Arctic
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PEOPLE TO KNOW.
The CEO moonlighting as a DJ: You know David Solomon as the CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs. But I’m more fond of his alter ego: “DJ D-Sol.” People have wondered whether it’s appropriate for the chief of Wall Street’s most storied institution to be sipping tequila at a South Beach club until 3 a.m. “You know what, it’s who I am, and nobody would tell me not to play golf,” Solomon says. “And why shouldn’t I—because I’m a CEO?” He donates the proceeds from his gigs to drug-addiction-related philanthropies. This is a story that will keep you captivated until the end. (Fortune)
“I think we can do some work to be more admired and respected, and a little less envied and feared.”
The nicest man in Hollywood: Tom Hanks is playing Mister Rogers in a new film, and he’s just as nice as you expected him to be. In this wildly personal profile, both Hanks and the writer (the brilliant Taffy Brodesser-Akner) open up. It has it all: kindness, vulnerability, parenting advice, and why he never plays bad guys. It’s a refreshing piece that is guaranteed to lift your spirits. (The New York Times)
“I recognized in myself a long time ago that I don’t instill fear in anybody. Now, that’s different than being nice, you know? I think I have a cache of mystery. But it’s not one of malevolence.”
The athletes seduced by brain stimulation: The newest development in sports performance? Brain stimulation technology. It can have effects ranging from changing your mood to making you a better sniper. All it takes is a nine-volt battery and a couple of electrodes. The writer tried it on himself, and he notes that the key question whether you’re talking about drugs or technology, isn’t: Does it make you better? It’s: Does it change the things athletes have to do, and the qualities they have to possess, to win? (Outside Magazine)
The cryptocurrency rebels: Binance is the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange with an even bigger idea. It believes in “freedom of money” — that anyone, anywhere, should be able to easily send money to each other around the world.It’s a pretty ambitious goal, and if it succeeds, it could even become a financial layer embedded into the Internet itself. But before any of that happens, Binance needs to figure out the challenges within its own company first. (Decrypt)
“This world is crazier than you think, and I am part of this crazy world.”
The guide dog school dropouts: This is a story that takes you deep into the competitive world of service dogs. There’s something called guide school where dogs learn how to lead people from point A to point B; to stop at curbs, stairs and obstacles; and to detect any change in elevation. But at any point, they can be booted for health problems, lack of confidence, distractibility, barking at bearded men, or being too high-maintenance. Here’s what these “career change” dogs do instead. (Mel Magazine)
“If they don’t make it as a guide dog, maybe they can do another type of service they’re better suited for because of their high aptitude and willingness to work.”
COMPANIES TO WATCH.
The company hiding its secrets in the Arctic: GitHub, the software development platform, stores its secrets in an unusual place: an ice cave in the Arctic. GitHub’s CEO believes that open source software is one of the great achievements of our species, up there with the masterpieces of literature and fine art. So in case of a famine-inducing pandemic or nuclear apocalypse, you can rest easy knowing that the Internet’s open source code is safe. Talk about long-term (cold) storage. (Bloomberg)
“I think the world is fundamentally weirder than it was 20 years ago.”
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