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Airbnb will build a new tech hub in Atlanta

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From Protocol:

The company chose Atlanta for its future growth for one explicit reason: In order to meet its hiring goals for technical teams with a diverse range of perspectives, the company needed a location that produces diverse and creative talent and would continue to attract more. No other city could surpass Atlanta’s potential to do that, Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s senior vice president for global policy and communications, told Protocol.

The fallout from Covid-19 accelerating work from anywhere has a large number of California-based tech companies looking for other places to search for talent. Atlanta has a ton of ingredients – relatively low cost of living, good weather, good local talent pools and a very diverse workforce – that make it appealing to any company looking outside of SF for talent.

With Trump’s Acquittal, The Fragility Of America’s Democracy Is Even More Clear

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From FiveThirtyEight:

The Democrats, already divided in some ways on ideological grounds on issues like Medicare for All, now have another big question: How do they try to defend American democracy against rising anti-democratic forces largely centered within the GOP? That debate is likely to center on to what extent Democrats should adopt more hardball tactics to try to reduce GOP power, including steps such as getting rid of the filibuster or adding justices to the Supreme Court. That debate will also have an electoral dimension, as the party must figure out whether conservative voters wary of Trump and Trumpism constitute a big enough bloc to make it worthwhile to court them, even if that means sidelining some of the policy goals of the party’s more progressive wing.

Democrats gave Republicans every opportunity to disavow Trump and move on to retake their party but they’ve chosen not to. Given where polling stands for Republicans on Trump, impeachment and who they would vote for in a 2024 primary, it seems that they’ve chosen not to “retake” their party because they don’t want to.

I miss having a center-right party in the US.

Distributed-First Is the Future of Work at Spotify

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From Spotify:

The future of how we work has been a popular topic inside the walls of Spotify for a while now. Our leadership team has long championed the idea that digitalization and globalization are massive drivers for a more flexible workplace that better suits both our band and our business.

Add another company to the list. One interesting tidbit is their focus on paying NY/SF salaries no matter where the employee chooses to live. I’m really curious to see what the Covid year does to our industry as well as current tech centers like NY and SF.

Reminders App is All I Need

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From The Brooks Review:

During the week of Thanksgiving 2020 I upended my task management life and moved away from Things (which I have been using for a while) and moved all in with Reminders.app.

Interesting take by Ben on how Reminders hits the mark for him over more-fiddly options like OmniFocus and Things. I’m a big fan of using Things but there are definitely times where the relative simplicity of a native app like Reminders appeals to me.

Why doesn’t “Look Around” cover more areas?

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From Justin O’Beirne:

If Apple is unable to algorithmically identify POI information in static images (taken in ideal weather conditions), then how will Apple successfully augment reality?16

And what happens if Apple’s rumored AR headset is ready before its map is?

The short version is that it appears that the sheer volume of POI data in the US is slowing down the rollout of look around. And if that’s the case, Apple is really going to struggle to keep these enhanced maps up-to-date, let alone roll them out in a timely manner. I really love the overall Apple Maps look & feel but I do find myself using Google Maps for most POI searches / quick trips and Apple Maps more for longer car trips where I already know the gist of where I’m headed and want traffic/time info (and a nicer looking map). I don’t think Look Around is a “killer feature” but the underlying lack of trust in their POI database is going to be a problem if they can’t get it sorted out.

On another note, these articles by Justin O’Beirne are so fun to read. I love how he builds toward a conclusion with tons of examples and really nerds out on the map data he’s got access to.

I Subscribe to Way Too Many Newsletters…These are my Favorites

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From Matt Birchler @ Birchtree:

I haven’t done a good List of Things I Like post in a while, so here goes! Here are some of the newsletters I subscribe to and enjoy basically every time they hit my inbox. And by doing this, I realized…wow, I subscribe to a lot!

This is a great list of newsletters to subscribe to if you’re a tech/design/gaming focused person.

Ever since I switched to Feedbin and can subscribe to newsletters with a custom email that then shows up in my RSS reader (thereby skipping my inbox entirely), I’ve really gone all-in on newsletters. I spoke about this a bit last year, when I tried to replicate some of HEY’s screening functionality by forwarding a ton of stuff to Feedbin and I can report it’s working great.

Everything New in the iOS 14.5 Beta

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From Macrumors:

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 updates, and while the new software serves as a deadline for when app developers must comply with App Tracking Transparency rules, there are also a handful of other changes worth noting.

The headline feature is the ability to unlock your phone with a watch when you’re wearing a mask. It’s also nice to see Apple getting into the habit of shipping features when they’re ready instead of rushing to get them all out at once. 

whitehouse.gov

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As with all new incoming administrations, The White House website has been updated.  Lots of little details stand out, like accessibility enhancements around text size, dark mode and viewport accomidations.

Also, since it affects us all, I recommend you check out the covid-19 plan page. Lots of great detail in here around how the administration plans to tackle the pandemic. Specifically, the parts around overall guidance and treating lockdowns like a “dial”, spelling out the rollout plan so folks know when/where they can get vaccinated

None of this is novel at all. It’s all pretty common sense stuff but I’m hopeful to see clear, consistent communication from our state and national leaders.

The Sedition Caucus

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The New York Times has compiled a list of the Senators and Representatives who objected to certifying the results of the election.

We should not forget these cowards who insist on objecting to this election. None of them explicitly asked for what happened, but they are complicit in the events at the Capitol because they’re consistently misleading their base with lies & conspiracy theories because they think it’s politically advantageous to keep that group riled up. Senator Romney said it well yesterday – true leadership is telling hard truths.

Barry Loudermilk, my representative, is on the Sedition Caucus list and I look forward to working tirelessly to run him out of office.