Welcome to the revamped Pink newsletter.
For years this newsletter has been irregular and irreverent. Now it will just be irreverent. I’ll be delivering this missive every other Tuesday, with each edition hewing to the same format: 3 things that have caught my attention recently — along with one Pinkcast, a super-short video on working smarter and living better.
3 THINGS: Crunching numbers, washing dishes, and creating a user’s manual
1. Book
My favorite summer read — so far — is Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data and What the Internet Tells Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. The author, a PhD economist and former Google data scientist, argues that the one place we’re truly honest isn’t with our friends and family, but in our online searches. And what our searches reveal about us is fascinating and often alarming. This is one of those books I’m still thinking about weeks after turning the final page. (Buy it at Amazon, BN.com, or IndieBound).
2. Perspective
Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema worked a shift as a dishwasher at a Houston restaurant and wrote about his transformative experience. The work is grueling (“Note to self: Hot water on habanero oil creates tear gas”), but it’s so critical to successful restaurants that a surprisingly large number of dishwashers move up the ranks in the business. Now that I’ve caught a glimpse of this hidden world, I’ll never look at restaurants the same way. (Article: At the heart of every restaurant.)
3. Idea
Sometimes I hear an idea and clonk myself on the head for not thinking of it myself. That’s what happened when I read a Quartz article about people who write one-page “user manuals” to help their coworkers and teammates work with them more effectively. Since human beings are terrible mind readers, “thirty minutes spent writing a manual can save hours analyzing and predicting what your colleagues like and hate.” I’m going to try this one. (Article: Completing this 30-minute exercise makes teams less anxious and more productive.)
PINKCAST: Why that lucky T-shirt might actually work
In the latest Pinkcast (Season 2, Episode 1), I explain why lucky objects and pre-game rituals might not be so crazy after all.
You can watch the 138-second video below.
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Cheers
Daniel Pink
P.S. Last week, on Facebook and Twitter, I revealed the cover of my new book. If you missed it, you can see it — and pre-order the book — here.