What You Need to Know Today: January 29
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
“It’s communication with a wink.” “Once he had a working prototype, Alex Chung sent a link to a few friends — who sent it to a few friends, who sent it to a few friends. Within hours, Giphy had more than 30,000 page views, and tech sites such as Gizmodo and Mashable were writing about it. (All press is good press: Gizmodo’sheadline was The First GIF Search Engine Is Hilariously Bad),” says Bloomberg. “We thought it was something that was going to make us Internet-famous for a day,” says Chung. “But by 5 p.m., we had multiple offers for investments.” How two guys built the ultimate GIF search engine.
Pain-free way to break up with subscription services. Need to cancel that in-flight Wi-Fi you bought and are still getting billed for? What about that gym membership you signed up for on Jan. 1st and have used ZERO times? There’s a new digital service that scans your monthly credit and debit card statements, compiles a list of your monthly subscription fees, and texts you a report. You can choose to cancel any subscription on the list by replying to the text, “Cancel X.” The service will cancel your subscription and that’s it. The best part… this service is free.
CAREER
Expect to see a brand you don’t recognize at this year’s Super Bowl. “Working as an accountant, Mike Brown struggled to stay awake in the afternoons. So he had his first cup of coffee at age 25. ‘I just didn’t love my accounting job, so I quit,’ Brown said. ‘I took a year off, and I was spending a lot of time in coffee shops.’ Brown opened a local coffee shop in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and he kept hearing the same thing over and over from his customers: ‘Give me a cup of your strongest coffee.’ So he decided to make his own dark, strong, highly-caffeinated coffee, and Death Wish Coffee was born in 2012.” Death Wish Coffee was the winner of Intuit’s 30-second ad competition for Super Bowl 50. You can read Mike Brown’s full story here.
Lessons from a Trump-less debate. “If you hate Bill Clinton’s sweater, you might like my book. In both cases you would be exhibiting good taste,” says Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert comics. As you know, Scott Adams has been chronicling Donald Trump’s persuasion skills on his blog since Trump announced his run for president. After last night’s Trump-less debate, Adams published this explaining why skipping the debate was a win-win move for Trump. Here’s a great quote: “Trump is running for Dealmaker in Chief. We saw him walk away from a bad deal at Fox and negotiate for millions of dollars in donations within one day. And we saw him make all of it work. It looked effortless (but obviously was not).”
LIFESTYLE
The ultimate guide to learning anything fast. “One skill you want to master in this day and age we live in, if you want to have an extraordinary life, is the ability to learn rapidly.” — Anthony Robbins
23 things people wish they’d done in their twenties. (#4 and #7 are musts).
#NOWYOUKNOW
Your Karaoke Go-To
“You may not know Diane Warren’s name,” says Doree Shafrir “but you’ve belted out a chorus of one of her dozens of megahits at karaoke.”
Meet Diane Warren, Whose Songs You’ve Been Ruining At Karaoke For Years
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