The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score

Risk means 'shit happens' or 'good luck

Let’s close on a lighter note and a story that some of you surely have been waiting for. Vanity Fair’s Andrew Buss with “‘It’s Either Going to Be Really Funny, or They’re Going to Be Horrified’: An Oral History 

of Superbad.”

STEVE GREEN SMILES: Japan wants young adults to drink more to save alcohol industry.

   Reading suggestions 

       At The Guardian they: "asked 14 writers, editors and publishers to tell us their current favourites from around the world", in Page turners: the most exciting new fiction from Africa, Latin America and South Asia

Denzel Washington Honors Playwright August Wilson At The Opening Of The Wilson House

"The August Wilson House is not a museum. Instead, the restored space is a community center that will offer artist residencies, gathering spaces, fellowships and other programming for up-and-coming artists and scholars. There is also an outdoor stage." - The New York Times

The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score - The New York Times: “Across industries and incomes, more employees are being tracked, recorded and ranked. What is gained, companies say, is efficiency and accountability. In lower-paying jobs, the monitoring is already ubiquitous: not just at Amazon, where the second-by-second measurements became notorious, but also for Kroger cashiers, UPS drivers and millions of others. 

Eight of the 10 largest private U.S. employers track the productivity metrics of individual workers, many in real time, according to an examination by The New York Times. Now digital productivity monitoring is also spreading among white-collar jobs and roles that require graduate degrees. 

Many employees, whether working remotely or in person, are subject to trackers, scores, “idle” buttons, or just quiet, constantly accumulating records. Pauses can lead to penalties, from lost pay to lost jobs…”

VentureBeat: “While many industries have seen a decline in venture capital investment, the blockchain space has continued to enjoy funding. Blockchain startups have found strength in the rise of NFT use casesalongside the convergence of blockchain and other emerging technologies like 5G, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI). 

 Gartnerpredicts the business value generated by blockchain will increase, reaching $176 billion by 2025 and $3.1 trillion by 2030. In addition, Grand View Research estimates the global blockchain technology market will grow at a rate of 85.9% between 2022 and 2030. With the blockchain market capitalization poised to skyrocket in the next few years, investors continue to pour billions of dollars into blockchain and crypto startups.  

Although the blockchain industry is currently seeing one of its harshest crypto winter seasons, its promise hasn’t stopped burgeoning. As the metaverse gains more inroads into the broader enterprise, investors continue to tap into the endless potentials of blockchain, moving its application far beyond cryptocurrencies, NFTs and any other singular unit. 

A report by PwC on the outlook of the blockchain industry notes it as a technology enabler with an unrivaled capability to improve the business processes in the enterprise while simultaneously lowering the cost of trust. These advancements are touted to result in a greater return on investment (ROI) for first movers and the businesses they serve…”

The New York Times: “Now using tech can help make travel less chaotic and more comfortable, and assist in avoiding customer service snafus. Anyone who has gone on a trip in the past year probably has a horror story. 

Canceled flights have abounded. Customer service wait times with airlines can. The most important time saving tech travel tip right now is to avoid apps and websites that book through a third party, even though they can save you money. That’s because if something goes wrong with your flight or hotel room, a middleman is yet another party to deal with, which could lead to even more hours wasted on hold…”

See also The New York Times: At Last, Online Travel Planning Is Becoming (a Little)“EasierAirbnb, Google Travel and a few other platforms have tweaked their search engines, and that means less slogging through pages and pages of results on everything from home rental options to flight routes.”