The Tremendous 10 link roundup, #119

1. Total Eclipse of the Heartland: The 2017 Solar Eclipse | We’re quite excited about this, so we decided to make an infographic just for our fellow St. Louisans.
2. Updated Empathy Map Canvas | “We designed the Empathy Map at XPLANE many years ago, as part of a human-centered design toolkit we call Gamestorming. This particular tool helps teams develop deep, shared understanding and empathy for other people. People use it to help them improve customer experience, to navigate organizational politics, to design better work environments, and a host of other things.”
3. How to learn anything from scratch | “The 10,000 hour rule is the most spoken of rule in the field of learning. It’s the idea that you must spend at least 10,000 hours on deliberate practice to become world class at your field. First developed by Anders Ericsson, this idea was later popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. But what if you didn’t want to be an expert or world class?”
4. Why we choose profit | “We’re outspoken about running a profitable company in an industry that so often eschews profits for potential. So why? People ask us why all the time. Why choose profit?
   So I thought I’d detail some of the reasons why we designed Basecamp, our company, to be profitable as quickly and consistently as possible. And 17 years into it, we’ve been profitable for 17 years straight. Being profitable is a feature of our company (companies are products too).”
5. The company isn’t a family | “Whenever executives talk about how their company is really like a big ol’ family, beware. They’re usually not referring to how the company is going to protect you no matter what or love you unconditionally. You know, like healthy families would. The motive is rather more likely to be a unidirectional form of sacrifice: Yours.”
6. Here (with 2 Years of Exhausting Photographic Detail) Is How To Write A Book | “Before I was a writer, I was simply a reader. Like many readers, I was somewhat in awe of the process. I had no idea how the books I read were made, or how if I was beginning to then aspire to one day write one myself, how on earth I would manage to string so many words together.”
7. How Hidden Oil Patterns in Bowling Alleys Can Help Guide Bowlers to a Higher Score | “In a striking episode of Vox Almanac, video producer Phil Edwards headed to his childhood bowling alley in Howell, New Jersey to explain a little known secret regarding hidden oil patterns on the floors of each lane that guide bowlers to a higher score. Pro-bowler Parker Bohn III demonstrated how it’s done.”
8. The Psychology of Messiness & Creativity | “Research Shows How a Messy Desk and Creative Work Go Hand in Hand.”
9. On my second birthday we landed on the moon. | “A fifty year retrospective of trying to live with all of you on this goddamn planet.”
10. Don’t Trust What the Fake News Media Says About Cersei Lannister | “Okay, look, the mainstream media in Westeros was never going to give Cersei Lannister a fair chance. They were against her from the start, so we shouldn’t be surprised that every story coming out of the town crier’s mouth is some lie about Cersei failing to implement her policy initiatives or murdering hundreds of people in a church. All of that news is completely fake. The fact is that Cersei’s reign has been an unending streak of wins for the people of the Seven Kingdoms.”

Image: empathy map canvas by Dave Gray, link #2.