Newsletter #99 - Getting Rid of Passports, Returning from the Grave and Dealing with Tough Teams

Learn more about this, as well as about the benefits of distributed teams, celebrating failure, and more in this issue of our newsletter.

Top 10 Django Apps and Why Companies Are Betting on This Framework

Turns out, quite a few apps that you probably used today are built with Django. Can you guess which ones? One is a large online video platform, another is a popular music streaming service, and yet another is among the most popular social media platforms. And these are only 3 items from the list. Read more

Welcome to the Airport of the Future, Where Your Face Is Your Passport

Try to convince me it wouldn’t be terribly cool not to need your passport to travel anywhere. Maybe not to need any ID that you’d carry in your wallet, one day. For now, a technological revolution is freeing airports from the clutter of physical ID verification, making queues significantly shorter. Read more

Heartland Tech Weekly: Modest Goals Threaten to Halt the Midwest’s Tech Growth

This is an interesting report on the state of the tech market in midwestern USA. As it turns out, startups there struggle, but not so much because there’s no funding to be had. What dooms them are their low revenue goals. As the B2B sector is among the region’s biggest advantages, this is simply wasteful. Read more

Back from the Grave: The Story of Javelin

Have you ever attended a fuck-up night? It’s a type of meetup where representatives of various companies (usually startups) talk about how they did something wrong and what lessons they learned from it. Here’s one such story, with some very important lessons. Read more

How Distributed Teams Help Solve Some of the Problems Facing Europe's Startups

Working with a team but not in the same office can be a difficult experience. It can feel empty, or disjointed. But finding top talent in one geographical location is becoming impossible. Here’s how Europe is dealing with this problem. Read more

5 Brilliant Things Smart Bosses Do to Manage Tough Employees

Even if you’re no one’s boss but your own, you probably have to handle team members, friends, or family members sometimes. What you want is for these people to organise themselves and be accountable. This article presents some ideas on how to achieve this. Read more

Stop Acting Like You're Going to Live Forever

This article contains solid life advice and a reality check. So many people these days hide behind business and put off making themselves happy. If you find yourself pushing back opportunities and activities you’d like to try, because you’ll probably have more time for them next month or next year, consider taking a break. Read more

I had no idea that Spotify and Youtube were built with Django. Did you? And what’s your opinion on making life less busy? Share your thoughts in the comments :)

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