The Tremendous 10 link roundup, #61

1. These 10 cities have the fastest-growing startup scenes — and neither New York nor Silicon Valley made the cut | Number 1? “St. Louis, MO: 342.70% deal growth in 2015, 33.02% average growth since 2012. So how about the San Francisco Bay Area? It was No. 1 in number of deals by a huge margin, and also No. 1 in deal value. But in terms of deal growth, it placed only No. 15 last year, and No. 16 on average since 2012.”
2. The Courage to Stand Up to Design Clients | “Blake Howard, co-founder of Matchstic.com, thinks courage is one of the most important character traits of our time. And that it takes courage to have the hard conversations with design clients, sooner rather than later. In this HOWLive podcast with Ilise Benun, founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and Partner for HOW Design Live’s new Creative Entrepreneur program, you’ll get a taste of Blake’s session, “A Call to Courage,” and find out how to find the “emotionally healthy” clients who respect your work and are a delight to work with.”
3. Why Designers Love The Ampersand | “A romance that dates back to Pompeii.”
4. In Praise of Blue Notes: What Makes Music Sad? | “The idea of sadness connects the music of Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Holiday, the English folk singer Nick Drake, the metal band Slayer and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But no streaming service is going to tell you that. They would seem to prefer that you continue to follow your usual patterns of listening — which they have put effort into recognizing — or, in a mood-based playlist, to stay within easily identified genres and sounds of melancholy.”
5. How Visual Composition Attracts Attention, Directs the Eye and Determines Power In Film Scenes | “In ‘Composition in Storytelling’, narrator Channel Criswell explains the importance of the a the composition of a scene within a film, how it is used to capture attention, direct the eye, and determine the balance of power within the narrative.”
6. A House With A Rooftop Infinity Pool | “The one-story ‘Mirage’ house is nestled into the island’s rugged landscape and offers stunning views over the Aegean Sea. Using local techniques like dry wall construction, the structure was also made of local materials such as retained earth.”
7. The Secret to Sustaining High Job Performance | “We feel better and perform better when four core energy needs are met: sufficient rest, including the opportunity for intermittent renewal during the work day; feeling valued and appreciated; having the freedom to focus in an absorbed way on the highest priorities; and feeling connected to a mission or a cause greater than ourselves.”
8. Help Your Team Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout | “Because work is getting more demanding and complex, and because many of us now work in 24/7 environments, anxiety and burnout are not uncommon. In our high-pressure workplaces, staying productive and engaged can be challenging.”
9. Why the modern world is bad for your brain | “In an era of email, text messages, Facebook and Twitter, we’re all required to do several things at once. But this constant multitasking is taking its toll. Here neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin explains how our addiction to technology is making us less efficient.”
10. CLASSIC TRACKS: Heroes | “With ‘Heroes’, David Bowie pulled off the rare feat of having a major hit with a highly experimental piece of art-rock, which featured among other highlights live synth treatments from Brian Eno, pitched feedback from Robert Fripp and a lead vocal with level-triggered ambience.”

Photo by Zhen Hu on Unsplash.