Hand Me the Paper #8
A newsletter that chomps through PDFs and brings you the hottest content from the very niche world of tech-academia. Bite-sized.
I do a fair bit of reading. I read 52 books last year and am doing it again this year.
Starting this year, I also plan on reading more academic papers around tech and policy. Recording my readings and (sometimes, observations + annotated copies on this newsletter). Please do recommend papers and share your insights!
What I Read This Week:
Knowledge Workers Are More Productive from Home by Julian Birkinshaw, Jordan Cohen, and Pawel Stach in Harvard Business Review. [Link, Link with my comments].
What You Should Know:
The pandemic seems to be a net positive for knowledge workers. Working from home has led us to better manage and prioritise our schedules to favour the most value-added work.
We are spending 12% less time being drawn into meetings.
We are participating in 50% more activities through personal choice.
The number of tasks rated as tiresome has dropped from 27%-12%
The flip side here is that teams are finding it harder to start something new or resolve internal conflicts.
People are also worried about the time spent on their own development. While time spent on education has gone up during the lockdown, that is largely thanks to webinar and course attendance.
That might help build knowledge (debatable) but does not encourage active experimentation and personal reflection that helps us grow.
Data Sufficiency and Graphs (from the source):
What I Have Been Reading:
Music to My Ears:
This conversation in the Vergecast about Section 230. The level of detail around tech policy issues in Vergecast conversations is fantastic. I loved this episode on Section 230. The chemistry between Nilay and Dieter always cracks me up.