Feed: Narrating My Work

You can only massage the data so much

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 18:13:44 GMT

Over the last decade, numerous studies on the impact of phones and social media on children, including a “study of studies,” have concluded that social media is good for some kids, helping them find like-minded individuals. It’s mostly neutral for many kids and problematic for only a very small group (studies suggest less than 10 percent). It’s not that social media causes mental health problems in that group. Rather, those struggling with mental issues—and who can’t find help elsewhere—often turn to social media to cope. Getting them actual help would be a solution. Cutting off social media, without anything else, could make their situation worse, rather than better.

Tax breaks to hire local journalists approved in New York, a national first

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 18:04:29 GMT

"The incentive is intended to help the struggling local news industry... the tax break, which will designate $30 million a year to the program, called the Local Journalism Sustainability Act... eligible outlets [can] receive a 50 percent refundable credit for the first $50,000 of a journalist’s salary, up to a total of $300,000 per outlet."

I don't care if you're at a BigCo

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 06:55:53 GMT

I don't care if you work at a big company or are an individual developer. I care if you can make a contribution toward interop on the open web.

First trials have begun for multiple sclerosis

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 06:53:30 GMT

Physicians already treat blood cancer with the engineered cells, called CAR T cells. But these living drugs are not yet approved for use in other diseases. “We’re in uncharted territory here,” says James Chung, chief medical officer at Kyverna Therapeutics, a biotechnology firm in Emeryville, California, that is leading the charge to use these cells for multiple sclerosis.

Assertion and Evidence points (sample)

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 13:07:52 GMT

But for Americans in the 2020s, solitude, anxiety, and dissatisfaction seem to be rising in lockstep. Surveys show that Americans, and especially young Americans, have never been more anxious about their own lives or more depressed about the future of the country. Teenage depression and hopelessness are setting new annual records LINK every year. The share of young people who say they have a close friend has plummeted LINK. Americans have been so depressed about the state of the nation for so many consecutive years that by 2023, NBC pollsters said LINK, “We have never before seen this level of sustained pessimism in the 30-year-plus history of the poll.”

2,900 newspapers have closed or merged since 2005

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:50:20 GMT

By far the greatest damage to the news ecosystem over the past 20 years has been at the local level. Nearly all of the 2,900 newspapers that have closed or merged since 2005 have been small weeklies, according to researchers at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Fear of 2023-24 being another extinction-level event for the news industry.

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:49:35 GMT

The outlook for 2024 seems especially cloudy to Sewell Chan, the editor in chief of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit publication that has been held up as a sustainable news-business model. Chan told me that the past year has been as gloomy for the news industry as 2008–09, the start of the Great Recession, when a number of titles went under. “I fear 2023–24 could be another extinction-level event,” he said.

Is American Journalism Headed Toward an ‘Extinction-Level Event’?

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:42:58 GMT

From the story:

I won’t fault him for being unwilling to write checks,” Matt Pearce, a Times reporter who is head of the newspaper’s union, told me, referring to Soon-Shiong. But, he added, “we don’t seem to have a clear theory of the case as a business. We need to execute on a strategy. And we don’t have one.” (Soon-Shiong declined to comment for this article.)

Religious 'Nones' are now the largest single group in the U.S.

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:27:20 GMT

When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check 'none.'

A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated – a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is "nothing in particular" – is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They're more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).

Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew's new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically.

Requiring that its leads are fanatic about details, facts, and analysis

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 17:08:46 GMT

JPMorgan's DEI approach mimics that of any other line of business, requiring that its leads are fanatic about the details, facts, and analysis, Dimon said, stressing a point I’ve made ad infinitum in past raceAhead newsletters. “Your heart can be in the right place, but if you don’t really think about the execution stuff, you’re gonna fail.”

Oops! Replacing Workers With AI Is Actually More Expensive, MIT Finds

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 05:33:14 GMT

As detailed in a new paper, the team examined the cost-effectiveness of 1,000 "visual inspection" tasks across 800 occupations, such as inspecting food to see whether it's gone bad. They discovered that just 23 percent of workers' total wages "would be attractive to automate," mainly because of the "large upfront costs of AI systems" — and that's if the automatable tasks could even "be separated from other parts" of the jobs.

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 05:29:25 GMT

Trust your gut.

Citigroup Cuts Managing Directors as Layoffs Continue: Report

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 20:46:52 GMT

In a call with managers, Citi chief executive Jane Fraser said the bank will reduce its headcount by 5,000 in the current reorganization, and will cut an additional 5,000 staff from selling businesses, a source told the publication. Another 10,000 employees will be let go from support roles, including technology and operations.

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 20:42:28 GMT

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Sat, 20 Jan 2024 20:41:53 GMT

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 20:41:43 GMT