LIFE

Overcoming the 5 biggest distractions

Whether at work or in life, these distractions keep you from successfully achieving your goals…learn what they are & how to overcome them!

APPS

Snapchat making mobile payments 'fun'

Partnership of Snapchat & Square to create a new way for people to send & receive money – Snapcash! Currently only available in the US…

TECH

From Social to Professional: Facebook at Work

Breaking news… Facebook is creating 'Facebook at Work' so you can Facebook at Work!

PSYCHOLOGY

How do we find meaning in life?

The question we all (or at least some) ask ourselves – article with lots of interesting links to research around the topic

METHODOLOGY

Why Agile does not scale

Is it true or not that agile doesn't scale? Dan North give his answer speaking at the opening keynote of Better Software Conference.

FUN

Junior Designers vs. Senior Designers

A visual representation of the difference in the mental process of a junior and a senior designer (but probably this can be applied to every working context).

DESIGN

What is Product Design?

Why this frequently misunderstood field is in need of a proper definition, what does "being a designer" means today, and why a mind shift is needed.

MUSIC + ART

I Won’t Let You Down

An EPIC new music video from OK Go featuring hundreds of choreographed umbrella-weilding dancers. Absolutely a must see, believe me 😉

SCIENCE

Rosetta Comet Landing Live

Watch live coverage of the Philae lander, the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet. Probably the most important space mission, after the moon landing.

DESIGN

A weird little lesson on color, in rainbow order

Via Tom Warren
Want to hear some weird stories about color? Have a look here!

SCIENCE

Inside the ISS – 18,000 M.P.H. with Reid Wiseman

While NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman takes us from the very back of the International Space Station to the front (nearly 200 feet) he travels almost 450 miles around the Earth.

PROGRAMMING

On the ambitious but bumpy road to AngularJS 2.0

Guardian senior developer Séb Cevey summarises and shares his views on the design of the upcoming 2.0 version of the popular web application framework.

RECRUITING

How to interview a designer with the perfect design exercise

Some good tips on how to test a designer's skills (not so straightforward as asking for some standard coding patterns, right?).

VIDEO

Things Cats Do That'd Be Creepy If You Did Them

Some fun to start the week with a smile. Not only for the cat lovers.

PRODUCT DESIGN

On Building Products People Actually Want to Use

Interesting interview with Garrett Camp, who's created Uber & co-founded Expa, on building and developing products.

TECHNOLOGY

Football Futurology: the effect of technology

How could technology change the way the game is played in the next decades?

PSYCHOLOGY

The emotion that lasts 240 times longer than others

Which emotion takes an average of 4 days to pass, and why? Interesting to look at the rest of the emotions as well…

APPS

Why 'dumb' apps are so popular

The ultimate battle between virality and functionality…attention vs. utility!

one more for the day…

The John Lewis Christmas ad!

SCIENCE

Upgrading the Brain

Interesting results from asking people what aspect of their brain they would enhance if given the possibility – which one would you choose?

CULTURE

Guinness Record in Mexico for Day of the Dead

via Jonathan Davidoff
Biggest number of women 'Catrinas' (a representation of a female grim reaper/death) – 509!

TECH

10 things in Tech you need to know today

From translating calls in real time, to iPad "pros" rumours coming out… The scoops of the day!

DATA / CULTURE

Favourite parts of books from data

These are the passages most people connect with & love — data collected from Kindle / Amazon from popular highlights!

SCIENCE

Sci-fi film Interstellar leads to new scientific discovery

How the making of a blockbuster movie has led to a new scientific discovery about the nature of black holes.

WORKING

One Year at Namshi

“Being a good coder is not enough to be a developer, it’s just part of the job, there is more”. Well said, Cirpo!

DESIGN

Inside the Design Team at Fjord

"When it comes to user perception, visual appeal is more important than usability. " Wow, that is boldness!

WTF

'runnin

An hypnotic, totally non-sense video. But you could watch it for hours, and never stop to smile looking at the guys running.

THINK

Dare to disagree

via Fabio Fabbrucci
Most of us instinctively avoid conflict. This TED talk shows us how good disagreement is central to progress.

AGILE

Screw fast feedback

via Alberto "Ziobrando" Brandolini
If you are not going to use it or act on it, then why bother to get a fast feedback?

PRODUCTIVITY

Stop chopping yourself to pieces

Via Blai Pretdesaba
Some tips on how to better manage your time, avoid interruptions, foster your creativity and productivity.

MEDICINE

How do pain relievers work?

A short TED talk about the basic physiology of how humans experience pain, and the mechanics of the medicines we've invented to block or circumvent that discomfort.

DEVOPS

The Setup: Managing an Army of Laptops with Puppet

The new hires on-boarding and setup process at Github, fully automated and configurable using smart technologies (and a very pragmatic approach).

PSYCHOLOGY

Unconscious Bias at Work

How our (unconscious) bias negatively impacts our decision making, especially when it comes to the working environment. And women in technology.
A #mustsee video.

PSYCHOLOGY

Why we're all terrible at buying things

How do you decide what to buy? Some insights by Dan Gilbert into the psychology of decision-making when buying.

TYPOGRAPHY

The cool accidental typography of satellite imagery

"Aerial Bold" – brilliant name. You can show your support by backing their Kickstarter here!

APPS

Google has a new App to reinvent Email: the Inbox

Bundles, Highlights, Reminders, Assists, Snooze – everything you've ever dreamed of (or not).

DATA

Music & IQ: does your music taste say how smart (or not) you are?

Interesting correlations (yes, just correlations) between test scores & band / artist preferences. Not judging anyone…

RESOURCES

30 Simple Tools for Data Visualisation

Easy to use tools and interfaces for visualising data. Be sure to check the comments section as well for additional links!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Taking the Plunge

On the fear of taking the plunge, and the thought that maybe, to get started, wading is the way to go.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Joy of Missing Out

JOMO, the new FOMO – quite an interesting concept…

PSYCHOLOGY

The Science of Personality

Great film on personality by Hogan Assessments – with Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Dr. Robert Hogan, Adrian Furnham, & other authorities in the field!

DESIGN

The Berlin Wall is Going Back Up

Interesting upcoming installation of 8,000 glowing white orbs along 10 miles with footage, personal stories & memories of people who lived on each side & whose lives were affected.

TECH

10 Things in Tech You Need to Know Today

Privacy, wearables, ads…the whole lot. Love the set of links / news – though there are more recent IBM news you may have read about this morning (Headlines like 'IBM is collapsing' – dramatic!)

FRONT-END

Primed and Ready to Go

"It’s absolutely essential to treat front-end development as part of the design process. However, the (foolish, artificial) line between design and development “phases” gets in the way of true collaboration between disciplines." – Dixit.

OPEN-SOURCE

Sheesh…

"Next time you’re impatiently waiting for an update to a piece of FOSS, read this before shooting your mouth off." – @telemachus

DESIGN

New identity for the city of Porto

An incredible project to re-define the visual identity of an entire city. Have a look at the iconography, and how it can be applied to every architectonic aspect and urban element. Simply amazing!

LEARN

The Best New Books On The Creative Economy

A selection of must-read books about the dramatically changed roles and responsibilities of leadership and management in the emerging "creative economy".

TECHNOLOGY

What the Future of Robots Reveals About the Human Condition

“I find it touchingly poetic to think that as our technology grows more advanced, we may grow more human.”

WORK

How I fell into the rabbit hole

Life and work at the distributed wonderland (that is Automattic, the company behind WordPress). On how people and culture are at the roots of every good and healthy company.

TOOLS

ASCII Art for the masses!

via Daniele Esposti
No more tedious sessions on drawing ASCII art with Vim, with this tool you can be a ASCII artist in a couple of minutes! (Warning: by the way if you use it you cannot be considered a complete geek)

THINK

Why Talented Creatives Are Leaving Your Shitty Agency

A strongly opinionated (and sometimes taunting) article on the reasons behind the “exodus of talents” from lots of London agencies. It's worth a read, if you are a manager: prevention is better than cure 😉