What You Need to Know Today: August 17

Good afternoon, Early Risers!

Here’s what you need to know

TECH

Confirmed: Apple is building a self-driving car. Apple has been rumoured to be working on a self-driving electric car, codenamed Project Titan, but this is the first time its existence has been documented, reports the Guardian. Apple will likely be testing the self-driving car at the military guarded GoMomentum station. Full story

Content marketers dream. If you haven’t noticed, content marketing is all the rage. Just ask ETR staffers Chris and Mona ;). What is it? Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers. – Wikipedia. If you’re a beginner or an expert content marketer, you’ll appreciate this resource directory.

+ Buffer for video launched. Buffer is a handy web app we use at ETR to schedule posts on various social media accounts. The app announced late last week videos are now supported and can be scheduled to publish natively on respective networks.

CAREER

BIG lesson from a book that will put you to sleep. For most authors the prospect of their books sending readers to sleep would be horrifying (Telegraph). But that’s exactly the contrarian hook that propelled a children’s book to the top of the Amazon charts, currently outselling Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman and Paula Hawkins The Girl on The Train. Read this article about the book that’s sending children to sleep in minutes, then see if you can identify how this book follows ETR editor, Craig Ballantyne’s Big Idea Formula.

+ Obama finishes his vacay at Martha’s Vineyard this week. Here’s what the president is reading.

+ This book’s pages will clean your water.

How to make $12,000 for each of the next 6 months. Recently someone on Quora asked: How can I make $12,000 for each of the next six months? Rizwan Aseem’s answer was on point. If you’re struggling staying committed to a side hustle, here’s a good timeline and plan of action to follow.

+ Consider your Facebook post queue taken care of for the next 20 days. No excuses.

LIFESTYLE

Dilbert creator explains the unstoppable clown car that is Donald Trump. “If you’re keeping score, in the past month Trump has slapped the entire Republican Party in the face, redefined our expectations of politics, focused the national discussion on immigration, proposed the only new idea for handling ISIS, and taken functional control of FOX News. And I don’t think he put much effort into it. Imagine what he could do if he gave up golf.” Full story

Shocking look inside Amazon’s employment practices. The New York Times published a shocking article that reveals some cutthroat employment practices at Amazon. “Losers leave or are fired in annual cullings of the staff — “purposeful Darwinism,” one former Amazon human resources director said.” With all this shade being thrown at Amazon,  Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, decided to publicly release a memo he sent to employees reassuring the NY Times article overlooked many of the positive aspects Amazonians experience working for the company.

Should Facebook pay us? “Consumers overreact to free. Most people don’t feel like they are actually paying when the payment is personal data and when there is no specific sensation of having handed anything over.” The New Yorker explores the hidden costs of using Facebook.

What do you think: Should Facebook pay us? Would you pay for a private Facebook account? Share your thoughts in the comments.

#NOWYOUKNOW

This generation’s love for Drake is strong.

Dr Dre’s new album got 25 million listens in its first week on Apple Music. That’s half the figure for a recent Drake album, which was not restricted to Apple-only platforms.

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