What You Need to Know Today: December 22

Good afternoon, Early Risers!

Here’s what you need to know

TECH

Welcome to the club! Elon Musk is standing quietly in an elevator. Ding! The door opens and who walks in? Jeff Bezos. After both men nod hello, Musk asks Bezos “What floor?” Bezos responds, “11.” The two men stand quietly facing the door as the elevator climbs. Seven, eight, nine… As the elevator reaches the 11th floor, Bezos breaks the silence and says, without looking at Musk, “I heard about the Falcon 9… Welcome to the club!” Ding! The door opens. Bezos walks off before Musk can respond. As the door closes, Musk’s face goes red and he starts having an American Psycho moment. In case you missed it, last night SpaceX made history by successfully landing its Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage — a feat Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origins accomplished last month in Texas, but with a much smaller rocket. Musk was quick to point that out. So you can imagine the anticipation forBezos’ reaction to the Falcon 9 landing. He didn’t disappoint.

+ NASA is accepting applications for a new class of astronauts. See if you qualify.

Apple may turn streaming music quality up to 11. Pretty soon, wine won’t be the only thing amateur connoisseurs will be talking about at dinner parties. Apple Music is flirting with the idea of adding a high-resolution streaming audio format to distinguish itself from other streaming services (that seems to be going well for Tidal… not). The new format is rumored to debut sometime in 2016. Whether or not this will be Apple Music’s “Discovery” moment is TBD. My guess is it will not. Don’t waste your good stuff on me, Apple. I can’t tell the difference.

CAREER

The difference between $150,000 and $1.50. “I don’t blame people for wanting to get an MBA. It’s not their fault they’ve been duped into believing it’s the best way to further their career in business. But, as we all know, (and Goldman Sachs agrees) spending over $100,000 for a useless education — and putting yourself in debt for the next 10 years — is the wrong move for 95% of people. So how are you supposed to learn what you need to get ahead? Books.” The Hustle put together a list of 11 books you should read in lieu of getting an MBA. Great list!

Money exercise for you and your business. Grant Cardone is like that rich dad everyone knows. He’s hip to the latest tech, he’s well dressed, and he grew up when wanting to be filthy rich was nothing to be ashamed of. Which is probably why he offers some good politically incorrect advice about money. Here’s an exerciseCardone recommends you do every year. Take five minutes and knock this out.

LIFESTYLE

38. If you’re constantly busy, you’re lazy. Vince Del Monte just published the top 40 things he learned in 2015, I recommend reading it. I met Vince for the first time a few weeks ago, and I can tell you he’s not just a fitness guy. He’s a savvy businessman who asks great questions. One of the things that struck me on Vince’s list was number 38. If you’re constantly busy, you’re lazy. I couldn’t agree more. Read Vince’s full list here.

The Navy finally cut ties with one of the worst exercises. “It’s well past time, for example, to deep-six the sit-up, an outdated exercise today viewed as a key cause of lower back injuries,” writes The Navy Times. “Experts say there are better measures of core strength that have the added advantage of being less prone to cheating.” One of the those ‘better measures’ is the plank. Here’s why.

Are you enjoying The Daily Brief? Drop us a line telling us what you like and want more of at daily@earlytorise.com. 

#NOWYOUKNOW

The Kanban System

From Zapier

Sometimes the individual tasks are as important as the overall project — especially when the project is, perhaps, an ongoing project like “Make more car parts” or “Write blog posts”. When the job’s never done, the system for completing each task is most important.

That’s why Toyota invented the “kanban” system, and introduced it to their factory teams more than 60 years ago: to help make sure each part was made with the same level of care at every step. For that, kanban focuses on status instead of due dates. Each task moves through standardized project stages so teams can track what’s in-progress at a glance, and identify show-stopping bottlenecks.

It helped Toyota make parts that were consistently great, and ensured the parts were finished exactly when they were most needed in their factories. And today, kanban helps teams manage editorial workflows, push code through development sprints, streamline hiring processes, and much more.

It’s the project management system you need to visualize your work. Here are 8 of the best ways you can implement kanban into your team, along with 8 great apps to pick from.

Did you like today’s Daily Brief? Share it with a friend. Hit Forward on this email and tell your friends about us. We’d greatly appreciate it 🙂

Did your friend just take our advice? Get your own copy of The Daily Brief sent straight to your inbox every weekday. Click here.

Check out what you missed in the last Daily Brief here.