You Are Not Special Commencement Speech from Wellesley High School

(Thanks, Garo)

The Gift of Siblings

For those of us who have them, they color our characters and shade our lives as much as anything or anyone else. Read more in the NYT. (Thanks, Alessia)

Rajat Gupta’s Lust for Zeros

Read more in the NYT. (Thanks, Alessia)

Some of My Best Friends Are Germs

The first paragraph says it all!

I can tell you the exact date that I began to think of myself in the first-person plural — as a superorganism, that is, rather than a plain old individual human being. It happened on March 7. That’s when I opened my e-mail to find a huge, processor-choking file of charts and raw data from a laboratory located at the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  

As part of a new citizen-science initiative called the American Gut project, the lab sequenced my microbiome — that is, the genes not of “me,” exactly, but of the several hundred microbial species with whom I share this body.  

These bacteria, which number around 100 trillion, are living (and dying) right now on the surface of my skin, on my tongue and deep in the coils of my intestines, where the largest contingent of them will be found, a pound or two of microbes together forming a vast, largely uncharted interior wilderness that scientists are just beginning to map.

Read more in NYT Magazine. (Thanks, Claire)

The Guide To Trading Candy

So true during my childhood! Taxes, haha.

(Thanks, Bren)

World's Best Bartender

(Thanks, Bren!)

Soraya Chemaly: The Problem with 'Boys Will Be Boys'

Soraya writes up her views on parenting styles and how it could impact long-term relationships. Very interesting! Read more in the Huffington Post. (Thanks, Alessia)

The Coke Ad That Could Destroy All Other Products, Especially Coke

Check out the UpWorthy post. (Thanks, Cassie)

Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss

Google uses data and analytic to see what makes the best managers. Read more in the NYT. (Thanks, Jamie)

21 Maps Of Highly Segregated Cities In America

"Racial segregation remains a problem in America, and it's lasting longer than anyone expected.

"Just how bad things are can be determined through analysis of 2010 Census data.

"The average black person lives in a neighborhood that is 45 percent black. Without segregation, his neighborhood would be only 13 percent black, according to professors John Logan and Brian Stults at Brown and Florida State..."

Read more in BusinessInsider. (Thanks, Alessia)

Brain, Interrupted

A couple of my favorite excerpts:

TECHNOLOGY has given us many gifts, among them dozens of new ways to grab our attention. It’s hard to talk to a friend without your phone buzzing at least once. Odds are high you will check your Twitter feed or Facebook wall while reading this article. Just try to type a memo at work without having an e-mail pop up that ruins your train of thought.  

But what constitutes distraction? Does the mere possibility that a phone call or e-mail will soon arrive drain your brain power? And does distraction matter — do interruptions make us dumber? Quite a bit, according to new research by Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab.... 

...In fact, multitasking is a misnomer. In most situations, the person juggling e-mail, text messaging, Facebook and a meeting is really doing something called “rapid toggling between tasks,” and is engaged in constant context switching...

Read more in the NYT. (Thanks, Julia)

Chipping Away at the Glass Ceiling in Private Equity

In the late 1980s, Sandra Horbach, a student at Stanford's Business School, wanted a part in the male-dominated world of private equity. "At some firms, it was very clear that the fact that I was a woman meant I would not be considered,'' Horbach said.

But she persevered and now runs the consumer and retail practice at the Carlyle Group. And Horbach is no longer in a class by herself. More women are slowly moving into senior leadership roles in private-equity firms and a few are even breaking into the executive suite.

But even with recent gains, a wide gender gap still persists. In North America, about 10 percent of the senior employees in private equity are women. By comparison, Wall Street - an industry long criticized for its lack of diversity - has women in 19 percent of its leadership positions. The private-equity industry is trying to address the gender issue, albeit in modest ways.

For instance, Bain Capital began visiting graduate business schools in 2007, with programs geared toward women. This year, 22 percent of Bain's incoming analysts and associates are women, compared with 6 percent in 2010.

Read more in the NYT. 

David Pogue's iPhone was stolen. After he let the world know on Twitter, a search ensued. Here's his story in the NYT. (Thanks, Mom)

Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now

Mind blowing that he is the FIRST openly gay male athlete in major American sports.

Read more in Sports Illustrated. (Thanks, Gloria)

Bright Screens Could Delay Bedtime

Using a tablet or computer in the late evening disrupts the body's melatonin production.

Read more in Scientific American.

Diagnosing the Wrong Deficit

Could what looks like A.D.H.D. be a sleep disorder in disguise?

Read more in the NYT. (Thanks, Claire for finding of my favorite articles of the year!)

Doodle 4 Google 2013 is Open For Submissions!

And one of my favorites:

See more at the Doodles4Google website.

Thanks, Jules

Testosterone not allowed: London's first private women’s club

Check your egos, and your men, at the door -- Grace Belgravia is for "impressive women" who want their minds stimulated. And "angels" to care for them.

Read more in the WSJ. (Thanks, Kaie)

Dove Real Beauty Sketches - Men

Parody on the Dove Ad:

99 Life Hacks to make your life easier!

Check out the Tumblr for the rest of the hacks. (Thanks, Mel)

Boy and French Bulldog Are Best Friends (Picture Gallery)

See more at DailyPicsAndFlicks. (Thanks, Jules)

With Charity for All by Ken Stern

The IRS approves more than 99.5% of all charitable applications, creating some 50,000 new charities a year—many of them fraudulent.

"Readers of a certain age will remember tedious elementary-school experiences with Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E, founded in 1983. There was just one problem: D.A.R.E. didn't work. Long-term studies have shown that the program produced no meaningful reduction in drug use and in some cases actually made kids more likely to use drugs.

"As Ken Stern documents in With Charity for All - his survey of what ails the US nonprofit sector - stories like D.A.R.E.'s are common. From one-person startups to powerhouses like the Red Cross, charities have plenty of good intentions, slick fundraisers, and promotional "happy sheets," but they often fail to solve social problems.

"Stern would like to see an investor mentality applied to the charitable sector, and he cheers organizations that take a venture capitalist's approach to analyzing and funding nonprofits. He also wants donors to insist on measurable results."

Read the book review in the WSJ. 

The life of a young consultant: PowerPoint Rangers

Consultancies supply young urban talent to firms in the boondocks.

Read more in the Economist . (Thanks, John)

The Lethality of Loneliness

We now know how it can ravage our body and brain. Read more in the New Republic. (Thanks, Chrissy)

Pumpcast News, Part 1 - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

(Thanks, Jules)

Summer reading: Innovation and product development

Top Innovation books

• Brooks; The Mythical Man Month
• Ulrich; Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities
• Kelley; 10 Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
• Clayton Christensen; The Innovator's Dilemma
• Epstein and Shelton; Making Innovation Work
• Gouillart; The Power of Co-Creation
• Lockwood; Design Thinking
• G. Moore; Dealing with darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution
• Jonah Lehrer; Imagine - how creativity works
• Martin; Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage

Top product development books

• Morgan/Liker; The Toyota Product Development System
• Boothroyd/Dewhurst/Knight; Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly
• Weelwright/Clark; Revolutionizing Product Development
• Ben Rich; Skunkworks
• Charles Fine; Clockspeed
• Henry Petroski; Design Paradigms
• Bill Moggridge; Designing Interactions
• Ulrich; Product Design and Development
• Alan Ward; Lean Product and Process Development

(Thanks, Jim)

Management consulting: What I think I do

VIDEO: Women exaggerate everything right? Two grown men go through a labor simulation!

See more at Shock Mansion. (Thanks, Olivia)

This 17-Year-Old Coder Is Saving Twitter From TV Spoilers (Spoiler: She's a Girl)

Jennie Lamere was the only woman to present at a Boston hackathon. She won it.

Read more at MotherJones. (Thanks, Cassie)

50 Peaceful Things

“Peace is not something you wish for. It’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~Robert Fulghum

Read the list of 50 at TinyBuddha. (Thanks, Claire)