What we read this week (9 November)

This week we learned about the price for hacking a Gmail account on the Russian cybercrime market, looked behind the scenes of Cloud Atlas and the work of the Wachowski sibilings and tried to understand complexity and big problems a little bit better.

Quotes of the week

It ain’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that just ain’t so.

–Josh Billings

Six years ago there was no iPhone, no tablet market, no real ebook market, no kindle, no kickstarter, no twitter #roadmapconf

–Craig Mod

Articles of the week

  • Tetris treats depression and tricks human mind
    Researches found that Tetris – yes, the game – is helpful with treating PTSD and other mental disorders. That in itself is fascinating enough, but for us it’s also yet another proof that things that seem totally not connected can have a complex relationship.
  • Wired UK: The Russian underground economy has democratised cybercrime
    Cybercrime in Russia is a market. A big one and with dumping prices.
  • Seed Magazine: On Early Warning Signs
    There are different ways to look at complexity. Seed Magazines gives us the math for it all.
  • New Yorker: Beyond the Matrix
    A fantastic, epic piece by Aleksandar Hemon about the Wachowski siblings and the making of their new movie Cloud Atlas. It’s an in-depth look at the creative process of two genius filmmakers.
  • Why We Can’t Solve Big Problems
    In this long introduction to a series called ‘Big Problems, Big Solutions’ in the MIT Technology Review, Jason Pontin looks at what we’ve been capable of in the middle of the last century and why we seem not to be able to go there again.

Author: Johannes

Johannes is a strategist and consultant for digital communications. His work is informed by his experience of working with brands like Deutsche Telekom, MTV, Postbank, Maggi and Nike and by his insatiable appetite for finding the bigger patterns behind current developments in technology and science. Holding a diploma in Media System Design, Johannes is a regular speaker at web and marketing conferences like Republica and the Social Media Summit.