Jerry Useem, “Power Causes Brain Damage“
“Which gives a neurological basis to what Keltner has termed the “power paradox”: Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.
That loss in capacity has been demonstrated in various creative ways. A 2006 study asked participants to draw the letter E on their forehead for others to view—a task that requires seeing yourself from an observer’s vantage point. Those feeling powerful were three times more likely to draw the E the right way to themselves—and backwards to everyone else (which calls to mind George W. Bush, who memorably held up the American flag backwards at the 2008 Olympics). Other experiments have shown that powerful people do worse at identifying what someone in a picture is feeling, or guessing how a colleague might interpret a remark.”
Avi Dan, “Madison Avenue Muse Rediscover the Cult of Personality“
“It wasn’t always like this. Advertising used to be glamorous. It was the rock and roll of the business world, the closest you could get to becoming a Hollywood superstar. Now, it’s a business of cubicles and “pizza Fridays.””
I think it’s a good thing advertisers have been brought back down to Earth.
News from Google
- Google’s robot.txt parser is now open source: removes some of the ambiguity around readability of robot.txt files, especially larger ones.
- UK regulator says real-time bidding violates GDPR: Huge if it has regulatory implications since it would force Google to reconsider how they sell ad space.
- Google deprecates social knowledge panel markup support: If once we were able to explicitly markup our business social media accounts to display them on the knowledge panel, now Google will ignore that markup and choose which profiles to show on their own.
Cyrus Shepard, “All Links are Not Created Equal: 20 New Graphics on Google’s Valuation of Links“
Which links move the needle?
This is nice, easy-to-read guide on how links do and don’t pass value, and how they may even devalue.
Greg Sterling, “Privacy Issues May Be Hurting Smart Speaker Market Growth“
After Amazon admitted that its employees are listening in on customer conversations through their Alexa devices, it’s no surprise that people are becoming a bit more cautious about their use.
It’s not just about corporations spying on us. According to survey results quoted in the article, 63% of people who use their devices less often cite anxiety over losing personal information to hackers. In an age where the rich and powerful are losing their private photos to hackers, it’s a reasonable fear to have.
What are your thoughts?