Iterate Weekly - Issue 77
This week we're jumping in the time machine to revisit Iterate Weekly 25. How are things looking 1 year later?
Welcome to issue 77 of Iterate Weekly!
This week we are doing something a bit different. It’s partly out of necessity as we’ve been dealing with some (apparently non-COVID) illness recently at Iterate HQ. First, my 3-year-old daughter had me on heavy Dad duty while she was home from daycare, then it caught up to me the past few days too. I’ll spare you the details, but my daughter is better and I should be back to 100 percent in the next few days.
However, it struck me also as the perfect time to try something that I’ve been thinking about lately. The Iterate community has grown quite a bit over the last few months, and many of you weren’t subscribers a year ago. So I thought it would be fun to revisit our post from the third Tuesday of September last year. Issue 25 really feels like yesterday!
Really everything here is still relevant one year later which was amazing to see. Sure, the “Metaverse” is much less of a foreign concept these days, and Norm MacDonald didn’t just die. But if you didn’t read these stories last year, you’ll still learn a lot this year, and still, RIP Norm. If you did read it last year, thanks so much for sticking around and supporting my work, I’d really appreciate a like! And we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming next week.
-Chris
Tech
The metaverse is coming
This story really excites me and scares the hell out of me at the same time.
Are you familiar with the term “metaverse”? No, we’re not talking about fiction from comic books here. I mean creating virtual worlds in which we exist. This concept is becoming especially popular right now in the world of remote work.
Employees are sick of being on Zoom meetings all day tethered to their desks staring blankly at their screen trying to feign interest or make off-centered eye contact with bosses and subordinates. Tech companies are capitalizing on this. Software is quickly popping up that offers a more life-like virtual world for employees to exist in.
As a remote worker myself, I can see the benefits when this is done properly. When I worked at CreativeLive (in San Francisco), we had a really cool setup in our kitchen that acted as a portal to our sister office in Seattle. It was a simple rig with a camera attached to a TV mounted on the wall with a Chromebox running Google Meet software. But it allowed for employees in different cities to have random encounters throughout the day. Usually, it was just a wave or a virtual high five, but it was a nice way to build camaraderie outside of the physical world.
Do I want to strap on my VR set every day from 9-5 and enter into a virtual office space to awkwardly make small talk with my co-workers? No, that sounds like torture. But I would be open to hopping it to a metaverse happy hour or social gathering to make it feel less stiff than a bunch of talking squares in a Zoom window.
Companies like Rec Room, Stageverse and Facebook’s Horizon are making great progress here. It may seem scary now, but it could feel really normal in a year or two.
Learning
Kids learn more with physical exercise
This story wasn’t particularly shocking to me, but I wanted to share it anyway.
A recent study finds that kids perform better academically when they are adequately challenged in their physical education (PE) classes. The findings are even more pronounced when looking at their grades in math.
What exactly does that mean? Well, it’s less about forcing kids to run laps in gym classes every day (although as a runner, I think this isn’t a horrible idea!) but more about offering the right activities. Things like dancing, martial arts, and competitive team sports can offer the right amount of cognitive load to match the physical exertion.
This is just another win for exercise really. But more than that, let’s hope this motivates schools to put more thought and budget behind their dwindling physical education programs.
Health
Is Peloton Outdoor the best running coach?
I’ve spoken about my love for Peloton before. But I’m really not the devoted spin class type. The Peloton bike in our house is mostly reserved for my wife. However, I find myself taking Peloton’s Outdoor running classes all the time.
This article (from Peloton’s own blog) pulls back the curtain a bit to explain just how the audio courses are created. While I understand the limitations of actually recording the audio outside, I was a bit bummed out to learn that the instructors are actually running indoors on a climate-controlled Peleton Tread+ treadmill while we’re out braving the elements (ok, Northern California rarely has weather elements) on our runs.
Since high school, I’ve been a dedicated runner. It’s hard to motivate yourself to do track workouts or timed efforts without teammates or a coach. I do group runs in the neighborhood or local trails whenever I can, but they are mostly social affairs. When I’ve been in need of actual coaching and running motivation, I’ve found it with Peloton Outdoor.
They offer running classes of varying lengths with interval and HIIT (sprints) options as well. They even have walking classes if you’re just getting started or need something mellow on a rest day. There are classes themed around music genres just like they offer with the spin classes too.
What used to be a once-in-a-while novelty for me is becoming a regular occurrence that has really improved my running. If there are any runners out there, I highly encourage you to try an audio running class. And maybe the best news? You don’t actually have to buy an expensive bike or treadmill to take these classes. All you need is a Peloton digital subscription.
Grab Bag
Should salaries be made public?
I’ve often found it interesting that we can easily look up the salaries of professional athletes. In some sports, it becomes part of their identity. The NBA has “max players”. These are the guys who are making the maximum amount of money per year based on the current rules and salary-cap structure. Max players are obviously treated differently than guys who are getting paid the “veteran’s minimum” salary.
So what if this logic started to apply to other industries? There is a growing trend for employers to be more transparent about their salaries. This Business Week article explains how legislation is in the works to mandate this practice in some states. The ramifications of this could be huge.
In the past, job applicants had vague guesses about how much they were worth. Some websites like Glassdoor.com attempt to shine a light on the problem, but it relies heavily on employee submissions that aren’t always accurate. I’ve even seen some job sites post “salary estimates” based on questionable data that I’ve personally experienced being way over or way under what the job was actually paying. And obviously, the location of the employer may be the biggest factor in how much they’re willing to pay.
But remote work is changing this. The article calls out Colorado as the first state in the US to require that all job listings in the state include a salary range. If a job is hiring a remote employee (who may live in Colorado) they must disclose the salary in order to abide by the law. This will obviously take some time to become commonplace, but it’s certainly on its way and it should be a great thing for employees everywhere.
Quote of the Week
“The best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Content Recommendation
Colin Jost - A Very Punchable Face
A few months back, my wife listened to Colin Jost’s fantastically titled audiobook “A Very Punchable Face”. She insisted that I listen to it as well.
I had some other books to finish first, but I finally got around to it last week. And it did not disappoint. If you aren’t a fan of Saturday Night Live (shame on you), Colin Jost has been the head writer and co-host of “Weekend Update” for several years. The book is filled with hilarious stories about his upbringing in Staten Island, his journey as a Harvard graduate, a stand-up comic career, and his long tenure on SNL. It’s a great read or listen for any fan of comedy
Along the same lines, I want to offer a secondary recommendation and RIP to the late, great, Norm MacDonald. Norm was also the host of SNL’s weekend update from 1994-1997. Note that Norm didn’t have a co-anchor. That job seems so much harder to do alone, I don’t see SNL going back to a solo anchor anytime soon.
Norm was on SNL as I was just getting old enough to start watching and his Weekend Update style was always my favorite. If you’ve never seen his movie “Dirty Work”, I’d suggest checking it out. It’s certainly crude and some of the humor won’t hold up. But I never understood why it wasn’t given the same acclaim as some of the other dumb humor movies of the 90s.
RIP Norm.
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Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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Nice issue Chris. I've never thought about the workplace use case of metaverse. But it makes perfect sense!
Hope things get better soon, Chris!