November 2, 2018: Friday News Roundup
We just flipped another page of the calendar… Here in the U.S., daylight savings time ends when we turn the clocks back this weekend, so it’s an extra hour of sleep for us. Today’s roundup features some thoughts on bitcoin, brain-hacking, multitasking, and more.
Bitcoin Turns 10: Still Not All Grown Up
Happy birthday to you, bitcoin! This article explains how the digital currency was originally conceived to be a payments system but has turned out to be something different, at least partly due to “a protracted fight among developers.”
Your Brain: The Next Hacking Frontier
That’s where all this technology is leading, right? A future where nefarious hackers can mess with our minds, “Inception”-style? Here, a tech blogger has rounded up some of the scary possibilities as well as potential opportunities the future may hold when it comes to brain science.
A Decade Of Data Reveals That Heavy Multitaskers Have Reduced Memory
Hey, who needs evil hackers when we’re so good at screwing up our heads all by ourselves. One researcher set out to determine just how destructive media multitasking (i.e., having many media channels open at once and switching between them) is to cognition and focus.
Research: When Getting Fired Is Good for Your Career
Getting the boot at work doesn’t feel great, but it doesn’t have to doom your career either. Indeed, new research found that nearly half of CEOs have suffered at least one career blow-up, such as getting fired. These setbacks didn’t happen early in their careers either. Regardless of your title, you can probably learn something from how these senior execs managed to bounce back.
A Year After Tweets Doubled In Size, Brevity Still Rules
People were kind of outraged when Twitter announced they were doubling the permitted tweet length to 280 characters, but it turns out not to have made a big difference. In fact, tweets are generally as short as ever. The most common tweet length (in English) is 33 characters, and only 1% of tweets actually hit the 280-character limit.