Welcome to this week’s edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Brew a fresh cup of coffee, find a comfortable place, and relax.
Photo: Dr. Bram van den Broek, Andriy Volkov, Dr. Kees Jalink, Dr. Reinhard Windoffer, and Dr. Nicole Schwarz, The Netherlands Cancer Institute
Photo: Christian Gautier, Biosphoto
Winners of the 2017 Nikon “Small World” Photomicrography Competition »
A couple days ago, Nikon announced the winning images for their 43rd annual “Small World” photomicrography competition.
After drawing more than 2,000 entries from 88 countries, the resulting gallery of winners is nothing short of fantastic, ranging from the lovely and colorful to the strange and terrifying. Go check it out.
+ Previous galleries of winning images (dating all the way back to 1975) can be viewed here.
+ Another recent photo competition worth your time (albeit on a slightly different scale, subject matter-wise): 2017 Astronomy Photographer of the Year by Royal Observatory Greenwich.
John Voorhees’ App Story »
MacStories editor and regular contributor John Voorhees (pictured above) just started his first week as an indie. In this piece, he tells the story of how he went from lawyer to writer/podcaster/app developer.
Something about building a product, as ephemeral as the bits that comprise apps are, and seeing other people use it to get their work done opened my eyes to something I didn’t even know I was missing. I sensed that I was immediately and forever ruined from cranking out hours for someone else. It was time to make a change, but it would require patience.
[…]
Friday, I made my last trip to Chicago as a lawyer. It was a strange feeling, but a good one.
Always good to hear of someone else achieving the indie life. Kudos, John! 🎉
Photo: Arnold Exconde
The Pleasure/Happiness Gap »
Seth Godin describes the difference between marketed addiction (pleasure) and mindful living (happiness):
Pleasure is short-term, addictive and selfish. It’s taken, not given. It works on dopamine.
Happiness is long-term, additive and generous. It’s giving, not taking. It works on serotonin.
This is not merely simple semantics. It’s a fundamental difference in our brain wiring. Pleasure and happiness feel like they are substitutes for each other, different ways of getting the same thing. But they’re not.
Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster »
Wanna feel impossibly small? Watch this 2014 video about the mapping of Laniakea, the densely packed supercluster of galaxies which is home to our own Milky Way, along with about 100,000 others.
10 Things I Wish Every Design Student Knew »
Cameron Moll shares some hard-earned career advice for budding designers:
1. The greatest output of your careers will be relationships. When you and I are sitting on a porch in rocking chairs some 50 years from now, I’ll care less about what we produced and much more about how we got there together. Was I a jerk to work with? Did I try my best to understand your viewpoint? Did we bring people along with us in our thinking? Did we mentor others along the way?
Good list.
Be the Last to Speak »
Short video with a bit of great leadership advice by Simon Sinek. One of those little nuggets of wisdom that’ll make you go, “D’oh…I’ve been approaching this all wrong.”
Illustration by The Ringer
Can Tech Startups Do Journalism? »
Alyssa Bereznak of The Ringer takes a look at the brand-backed journalism increasingly being produced by startups:
“Editorial independence” is a relative term, applied differently by the editor of Real Life than it is by the editor of Here. In a way, these tech-media ventures are a natural conclusion to — and even a more honest expression of — the labyrinth of compromises that is lifestyle journalism. They also, like all tech-funded media companies, have the potential to obviate the need for the media itself. What might currently appear to be a startup’s vanity project may very well represent the future of lifestyle content, for better or worse.
I’m not sure how to feel about this sort of thing. On the one hand, it’s obviously all a bit gross, but Elizabeth Spiers — editorial director of Van Winkle’s, a publication funded by mattress startup Casper — does make a valid point here:
“I think we’re kind of past the point where anybody would look at it and be like: ‘Oh, well, that story’s fantastic but I hate it because it’s being sponsored by a brand,’” Spiers said. “That’s kind of irrational given that most media is ad supported. This is just a more direct way of creating ad-supported media.”
Neat Stuff We Published This Week
- Guide: “Five Minimalist Workspace Accessories”
- Typeface for all your retro sci-fi aesthetic needs: Marvin Visions
- American-made nylon watch straps: Worn & Wound ADPT Watch Straps
- Become a Mac ninja: 60 Mac Tips, Volume 2 by David Sparks and Brett Terpstra
Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.