Why Shuttering AmazonSmile Was a Mistake

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Why Shuttering AmazonSmile Was a Mistake   Amazon recently canceled its AmazonSmile program, which allowed customers to designate a small percentage of their purchases on Amazon to a charity of their choice. Amazon made the decision because it felt the program’s impact was spread too thin and didn’t provide a great benefit to any charity. The authors of this article, however, have conducted research shows that “giving-by-proxy” programs have important indirect effects on giving behavior, and that Amazon neglected to take this into account in evaluating the impact of AmazonSmile. The authors also argue that companies can boost the impact of their giving-by-proxy programs by choosing just one high-impact charity (or at most just a few) and simply opting customers in. Continued here

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Do You Want to Get Promoted?   But actually getting promoted takes more than a job well done. Even if you are a high performer who takes initiative and surpasses your goals, you often still have to convince your manager that you deserve to level up. This starts by having a conversation and making a compelling case for what you want and why you deserve it. Continued here

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Marico's Chairman on Innovating Across Every Part of the Business   When the author launched what would become Marico as a division within his family’s business, Bombay Oil, it was with product innovation: Instead of selling edible oils in bulk to other businesses, it would sell in smaller, branded packages directly to consumers. Eventually the division became a separate entity, which is now one of India’s largest homegrown CPG companies. Its growth has depended on constant innovation—around not just products, packaging, and pricing but also supply chain, talent management, and business models. Over the past decade Marico has branched out into services with its Kaya skin-care spas, pioneered the use of premium hair oils, and added savory oats to Indian diets. Through the Marico Innovation Foundation, Mariwala also promotes innovative thinking outside the company, supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs in their efforts to scale up new ideas. The key to doing that well, he says, is to be ever curious about customer needs, to create a flat hierarchy that rewards risk-taking, to learn from every failure, and to constantly prototype, experiment, refine, and retest. Continued here

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You're a Leader Now. Not Everyone is Going to Like You.   As a manager, almost everything you do will have the potential to trigger conflict. You have to make decisions that not everyone is going to like and you can only do that if you get comfortable with conflict. The best place to start is with your own team. The next time you find yourself avoiding a difficult conversation, use these five lenses to remind yourself why you must get over your fears and get on with it. Continued here

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Validating Product-Market Fit in the Real World   To test new products, most companies rely on creating “minimum viable products” and testing customer feedback, or conducting focus groups or marketing surveys. There’s another method companies should try: “heat-testing,” or testing consumer reaction to online advertisements. Heat-testing is revolutionary because it takes place in the real world. Unlike focus groups or surveys, which rely on what consumers say, people who click or like an ad are demonstrating actual behavior and interest, which can be a more powerful form of feedback. Continued here

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30 Years Ago, the Best Example of an Unforgettable Internal Memo for Company-Wide Distribution Was Written at... Microsoft?   Mike Murray's famous "Shrimp and Weenies" memo is a great example of a memo written for people, by a real person. Continued here

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3 Essential Questions for Any Leader   New, overwhelmed, or frustrated by leadership challenges? Stop and ask yourself these 3 questions. Continued here

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Guiding Your SEO Agency Team to Enterprise Client Success   Does your vision involve bringing in more enterprise-level SEO clients or landing bigger contracts? If so, here are three strategies I've picked up over the years that have allowed me to guide my SEO agency team to enterprise client success. Continued here

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Is It Time to Rethink Your Productivity?   I’ve tried every app, notebook layout, and thought exercise out there — and there are a few I’ve come to love. But testing all these different strategies has also made me realize that productivity isn’t everything. There’s no magical to-do list that can cure burnout. And there’s no productivity hack that’s more helpful than getting some rest. Continued here

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Not Everyone Can Achieve Work-Life Balance. Here's Another Approach   It's time to debunk the illusion of work-life balance. Our work and personal lives are intertwined. Continued here

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Credello: Small Business Tax Changes to Know for 2023   Small businesses face many challenges in today's economy, and tax changes can have a big impact on their bottom line. Here are five key tax changes to know for 2023. Continued here

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Tiffany Yu: How to help employees with disabilities thrive    What can we do to make workplaces more welcoming to people living with disabilities? Representation advocate Tiffany Yu shares three ways that employers can change and tap into every worker's skills and gifts. Continued here

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It's Time to Close the Opportunity Gap for Students of Color   Going to school was even more jarring. Ku started classes just two days after landing at Newark International Airport, and her teachers were unprepared. They didn’t know how to offer support to Ku and her siblings, and as a result, tended to leave them in the margins. Ku recalls one memory during 6th grade when a classmate turned to her to ask for help. The teacher saw and said, “Why are you talking to her? She doesn’t even speak English.” Continued here

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'Mrs. Davis' Gets AI Right—Because It's a Comedy   In a pop culture universe full of sadistic, world-ending AI, Mrs. Davis seems like a breath of fresh air. The app-based antagonist of the new Peacock series of the same name, Mrs. Davis exists to crowdsource acts of service and, through billions of earbuds worldwide, has become the omnipresent voice inside the world's collective head. She awards in-app wings to her most avid and benevolent users—including those who pledge to end their lives early in service of her glory—and (as Mrs. Davis viewers learn later in the show) she has a rather specious origin story.Of course, Mrs. Davis also drives non-users mad, whether they're anti-tech holdouts or just abstaining because they fear her light shining too brightly on their innermost thoughts and impulses. One of those holdouts is Betty Gilpin's Simone, a nun who's literally married to Jesus and who was raised by a couple of no-good magicians working the Reno strip. After being constantly hounded by Mrs. Davis for reasons that are too spoilery to reveal here, Simone sets out on a quest for the Holy Grail, having struck a deal that, if she finds it, she can cause the app to cease operations. Continued here

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What it takes to make a suit fit for the Moon   In 2025, when Nasa's Artemis III mission returns humanity to the Moon, billions of eyes will focus on two astronauts. And what they're wearing. Although the astronauts will undoubtedly bounce, rather than sashay, upon the lunar surface.The geeks among us already had a glimpse of what's in store after a recent preview in Texas, at Nasa's Houston Space Center. There, a new spacesuit prototype made its debut for a new era of lunar travel. Continued here

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How A.I. Will Change Your Brand's Relationship With Advertising   Artificial intelligence is expected to bring serious innovation to the next generation of digital advertising. Continued here

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Which Amazon Echo or Alexa Speaker Is Best for You?   If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDAmazon’s family of Alexa-enabled devices is vast. From the spherical Echo to the swiveling Echo Show 10, you can get Alexa into your home in many ways. These devices can answer your questions, help you order essentials, set timers, play all sorts of audio content, and even function as the control hub for your growing smart home. These are our favorite Echo- and Alexa-compatible speakers for every home and budget. Continued here

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Arnold Schwarzenegger's 5-Word Mantra for Super Human Focus and Concentration   A focus principle that 'saves' him every single day. Continued here

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Unlock the Leadership Power of Autonomy   How empowering employees at work leads to increased productivity and job satisfaction. Continued here

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A Final Plea From One of Netflix's Abandoned DVDs   I've seen democracy decay, wars begin and end, convertible cargo pant-shorts rise and fall, and babies conceived feet away from me—while I sat unnoticed. As people watched me, I've heard them call me "dogshit" more times than I can count, or snore, or mutter to their loved ones, "what the hell are we watching?" or "I'm sorry, but Kevin Costner is absurdly hot in this." I spent most of my life in a cold warehouse, patiently waiting to be loved, but I've been everywhere. I've been licked by toddlers. I spent two months in 2003 under an empty box of Papa John's in a flophouse in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Over one Saturday in October 1999, a family of eight in Billings, Montana, watched me four times back-to-back. They didn't even eat or go to the bathroom. It was weird, but it was the best day of my life. I am a Digital Versatile Disc, a copy of the 1997 post-apocalyptic flop The Postman (8 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). I am a proud soldier in Netflix's ranks, and I am about to die. Continued here

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How Corporate Venture Capital Can Drive Startup Growth   Reasons to move beyond traditional VC funders. Continued here

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Reporting Cyberattacks Will Soon Be Mandatory. Is Your Company Ready?   Mandatory reporting regimes are coming to many countries in the next few years, whether businesses support the idea or not. While the details vary, these requirements are intended to increase the government’s visibility regarding the scope, scale, and intensity of malicious cyber activity in their countries. The business case for such reporting from the government’s perspective is clear; no government currently has the incident information it needs to protect its national security, economic prosperity, or public health and safety in cyberspace. For companies, however, what they get from these regimes is often unclear. But if the regulations are set up properly, businesses could reap clear benefits. Therefore, the business community must take this opportunity to shape these reporting regimes into a structure that will not only benefit governments and society, but individual businesses at the same time. Continued here

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The Supreme Court Has Delayed Its Abortion Pill Decision   The legal saga over the abortion pill mifepristone isn’t over yet. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court extended its own deadline to decide on the fate of the drug until Friday by just before midnight Eastern Time. The pill will remain on the market for at least the next few days. The Supreme Court’s decision on access to the pill will likely be the most important ruling on reproductive rights since the court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Continued here

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How Indians are watching Succession after HBO ditched Disney   The American television network pulled its entire content library from Disney+ Hotstar because it couldn’t work out a renewal deal with Disney.Disney+ Hotstar was the only platform for Indians to legally watch HBO’s popular shows like The Last of Us, House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, and Silicon Valley, among others. Though HBO has announced its streaming service, Max, it’s yet to finalize a launch date for India. Continued here

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You Cannot Be Serious! How to Use Humor to Boost Your Career   Use this double-edged tool to look smart, not stupid. Continued here

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The Castaways Who Built a Town From Their Wrecked Ship   Captain David Cheap emerged from the native dwelling carrying a pistol. The men continued to look at him doubtfully, as if they had found out some secret about him. After less than a week on the island, he was in danger of losing their trust as they realized the full extent of their predicament. Not only were the three boats unable to weather a long journey; they were too small to carry most of the castaways. And even if they located tools and materials to build a larger vessel, it would take them months to complete the task. They were stuck here for the foreseeable future, with winter approaching, and they were already showing signs of physical and psychological deterioration.Cheap knew that unity was paramount to their survival, intuiting a principle that science would later demonstrate. In 1945, in one of the most comprehensive modern studies of human deprivation, known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, scientists assessed the effects of hunger on a group of individuals. During a six-month period, 36 male volunteers—all were single, fit pacifists who had shown an ability to get along with others—had their calorie intake cut in half. The men lost their strength and stamina—each shedding roughly a quarter of his body weight—and they became irritable, depressed, and unable to concentrate. Many of the volunteers had hoped that self-abnegation would lead them, like monks, to a deeper spirituality, but instead they began conniving, stealing food, and coming to blows. “How many people have I hurt with my indifference, my grouchiness, my overbearing perversion for food?” one subject wrote. Another subject shouted, “I’m going to kill myself,” then turned on one of the scientists and said, “I’m going to kill you.” This person also fantasized about cannibalism and had to be removed from the experiment. A report summarizing the results of the study noted that the volunteers were shocked at “how thin their moral and social veneers seemed to be.” Continued here

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Did Instagram Just Kill Linktree?   Thirteen months ago, Linktree, the link-in-bio company that allows creators to collect links to different platforms in a single, easily digestible page, announced its latest funding round. The $110 million of investment from financial backers including Index Ventures and Coatue Management put Linktree in a pretty enviable position: It was valued at $1.3 billion.Just over a year on, things look different. On his Instagram account, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram users can now add up to five links to their bio on the app. “Probably one of the most requested features we’ve had,” he wrote. Continued here

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A Two-Minute Burnout Checkup   Burnout is the result of chronic stress and, at work, that stress tends accumulate around your experiences of workload, values, reward, control, fairness, and community. If any are lacking or out of sync, you may be headed toward exhaustion, cynicism, and the feeling of being ineffective. When taken regularly, this short assessment can help you gauge whether you’re on the path to burnout, and where you should focus your attention to make beneficial changes.If you’re facing a similar situation, let me share a few things I wish I had known earlier. First, I’ll outline the basics about the signs of burnout and the aspects of our work that tend to cause it. Second, I’ll share a two-minute burnout checkup I created to monitor my own mental well-being and to make sure I don’t reach the point of burning out again. Continued here

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May Sarton on Writing, Gardening, and the Importance of Patience Over Will in Creative Work   Each month, I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor has made your own life more livable in the past year (or the past decade), please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference.The matter that we know — the stuff we can see and touch — comprises a mere 5% of the universe. All the rest is dark matter. We can’t see it, can’t touch it, can’t discern what it is made of or how it came to be. And yet dark matter is what holds galaxies together, what keeps the regular matter in place so that we may live. I believe every creative practice is like that — only a small fraction of it we can see and touch in the works of art we can point to, made possible and alive by all the invisible devotions and despairs that animate the maker’s life, that fill the days and hours, that occupy the heart and the hands. These private practices are anchors of sanity vital to the public work, for they are vital to the soul from which creative work springs. Continued here

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50 learning and development quotes to motivate and inspire   As organizations look toward learning and development leaders more than ever to help upskill workers, improve retention, navigate major transitions, and gain a competitive edge, it’s all too easy to get burned out. But it’s important to not forget the powerful, personal and professional impact of this work. This collection of learning and development quotes from influential business leaders, former presidents, philosophers, and others can serve as a reminder of the meaning and purpose behind all we do. Continued here

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The Hacker Who Hijacked Matt Walsh's Twitter Was Just 'Bored'   The hacker who claims to have compromised the Twitter account of right-wing commentator Matt Walsh last night says he meant no harm—though he was clearly in a position to exact some. The whole purpose of the attack, he says, was to stir up controversy and sow chaos on Twitter. Walsh's account first appeared compromised Tuesday night after a series of out-of-character posts appeared on his feed. They included jabs at fellow conservative media figures, including colleague and Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro. In a tweet directed at Shapiro, the hacker, who goes by the alias Doomed, wrote: "You Know What You Did, You Are A Closeted Homosexual And Hide Behind Being Jewish." Continued here

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4 of the hardest unsolved problems in philosophy — and some possible solutions   Philosophy has come a long way since Thales argued the universe was made of water. Philosophers have produced new ideas that enrich the world around us, give us a better understanding of the universe we live in, and help us find the good life. However, philosophy is often more about the questions and methods than the answers — and in some cases, old problems remain unanswered. Here, we look at four unsolved problems in philosophy and for each we ask these questions: Why is the problem so difficult? And why are the proposed solutions so unsatisfying? Continued here