The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death – The New Yorker
At the root of this is the American obsession with self-reliance, which makes it more acceptable to applaud an individual for working himself to death than to argue that an individual working himself to death is evidence of a flawed economic system. The contrast between the gig economy’s rhetoric (everyone is always connecting, having fun, and killing it!) and the conditions that allow it to exist (a lack of dependable employment that pays a living wage) makes this kink in our thinking especially clear.
(tags: capitalism culture gig-economy lyft fiverr work jobs employment self-reliance)
The Dead Data Scientists Society, a.k.a Sarmento’s Eleven
11 stereotypical data scientist roles, and their failings
(tags: data-science roles jobs stereotypes fail big-data)
US grand jury decides that a GIF counts as a deadly weapon in Twitter seizure case – The Verge
While this is certainly correct to prosecute, I still think that Twitter need to rethink their UI choices that allow a random stranger to fire graphic images at their targets without any opt-in requirement.
FBI investigators seized the account late last year after tracking him through his iPhone, and allege that Rivello sent several tweets and messages about his intentions to cause Eichenwald to have a seizure — including the text “You deserve a seizure for your post.” According to NBC News, other messages specifically say that “I hope this sends him into a seizure,” while others read “Spammed this at [Eichenwald] let’s see if he dies.”
(tags: images twitter epilepsy gifs nam-shub abuse social-media trolls)