💭 Make Better Decisions, Tiktok lawsuit, Monzo Expansion, and more

Deep Dives & Tools 💬

“10 non-obvious lessons I learnt from working directly under Mark Zuckerberg”

10 Productivity Tips for Busy Leaders [Forbes]

From the very basic (delegation approach and rest), to the more nuanced (“two-minute rule”, Eisenhower Matrix, and “calendar distraction time”).

Two Mental Models for Better Decision-Making

Here are 2 mental models to improve your critical thinking and decision-making.

👇 1. Inversion

Conventional wisdom = plan well and consistently to achieve your goals.

But what if the way upward/forward to our goals = think in reverse/upside down? Inversion helps surface one’s assumptions (as well as potential uncontrollable factors), and provides clarity on what not to do. Instead of thinking “what do I need to do for this to succeed”, consider “what needs to happen for this to fail”

E.g. NOT “these are the steps required to hit my goal” BUT “how can I fail to hit my goal - and what do I need to stop doing or prevent from happening”?

🔎 2. Framing

A surgeon relays the same information to 2 patients but in different ways

Patient A: You have a 65% chance of living

Patient B: You have a 35% of dying

Patient A opts in for the surgery, while B opts out.

Framing allows you to tap into bias and inclinations (e.g. loss avoidance). Build your understanding of common biases, and shift your communication + planning accordingly. Aim to incorporate urgency and loss avoidance into discussions: e.g. NOT “we need to do X to gain Y” BUT “if we don’t do X quickly to gain Y, we risk losing Z”.

Update your Resume

Uses AI to analyze the job description and transforms your resume / cover letter in 15 seconds to improve formatting, keywords, and tailored content

How to Dictator-Proof Your Money

How Bitcoin helps to safeguard wealth in developing economies. And how crypto helps dissidents and activists rally against anti-democratic elements. [More]

Any.do: Organise Your Life [Free Forever]

Trusted by 40M+ people. To-do list app that helps you organize your life and stay on top of your tasks - with the ability to also share tasks with others

News & Trends 📢

Google DeepMind launches AlphaFold 3.0 and offers free biological “proteomics-as-a-service”

The firm added a stable diffusion engine to enable the folding of multiple molecules at a time. Google is also offering a limited version of this for free - this is expected to reduce time-to-market and R&D spend for biotech / pharma firms.

[Source]

TikTok sues US Government for its “ban or sell” policy

The US passed a bill to compel Bytedance (Tiktok’s parent) to either sell Tiktok or exit the US market, in 12 months. Tiktok is now suing the US government arguing that this bill violates the First Amendment. It appears that the courts will need to balance First Amendment rights with national security concerns.

[Here’s what happens now]

Zomato (the “UberEATS of India”) launches India’s first crowdsourced weather network to serve its food delivery customers better 

[Source]

Monzo (a UK neobank) raises $190m to fund its expansion plans to the US

With this new funding, the firm is keen to commence its US expansion plans. Monzo’s total funding in 2024 stands at $610 million, with a post-money valuation of $5.2b. This extension round saw participation from existing investors such as Alphabet’s CapitalG.

[Source]

Inside Microsoft’s Xbox Turmoil: Firings, Demoralised workers and Missteps

Microsoft shut down a number of game studios - less than 6 months after it laid off 1900 Activision employees. The firm continues to grapple with a slowdown in Game Pass subscribers and lackluster Xbox console sales. With hardware revenue down by over 30%, employees and fans alike are bracing for more bad news.

MORE NEWS 📰

China suspected of hacking the UK Ministry of Defense

The personal details of around 270,000 troops was compromised. While the Defense Secretary stopped short of publicly naming the state actor behind the cyberattack, all sources point to China’s alleged orchestration. China has hit back branding the claims “malicious slanders”.

[Source]

Why some people found Apple’s iPad “Crush” ad disgusting

LinkedIn launches 3 free “smart” games 
They are addictive, “intelligent fun” and can be completed daily “in under 5 minutes”. Link

Amazon (AWS) to invest $9b into Singapore to grow its cloud infrastructure and services [Source]