Links for February 20, 2022

🏡 The Home Is the Future of Travel

AirBnB is seeing a rise in "workcations," or people traveling to work remotely from different homes. The lines between work, personal, and vacation are blurring for people with the privilege to work remotely:

Work and life are undergoing a “Great Convergence.” The once-solid boundaries between our jobs and our leisure are getting leakier.

Knowledge industries—including media, marketing, and law—have for decades collapsed the distinction between work skills and social skills. The same schmoozy behavior that can win friends and influence people can also win business and influence promotions. Computers, where Excel documents intermingle with shopping tabs, blend work tools and personal tools. And remote work—the ability to do a job not only from home but from anywhere—mashes up our work time and leisure time, erasing the spatial differences between many of our weekdays and weekends.

🏫 Turns out, Harvard students aren’t that smart after all

Among elite institutions, there is a competition to solicit as many applications as possible in order to keep acceptance rates low. These statistics in turn help make the schools look more desirable. The problem? At many schools, merit isn't the only factor for admission:

Ever wondered what it takes to get into Harvard? Stellar grades, impressive extracurriculars and based on a recently published study, having deep pockets and a parent who either works or went there. Those last two are pretty important for Harvard’s white students because only about 57% of them were admitted to the school based on merit.

🚽 45,000 places in the U.S. where you can go when nature calls

The internet enables access to information at scale, and that information can be enormously helpful for certain groups. A new app has been designed to help people experiencing homelessness and inflammatory bowel disease:

We Can’t Wait launched last week with more than 45,000 restroom locations listed around the country. It’s the leading initiative of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Open Restrooms Movement, which seeks to raise public awareness about the lack of access to public restrooms. Approximately 1.6 million Americans currently suffer from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The app was built with them in mind, but it could also prove useful for people experiencing homelessness, who often end up being further marginalized—and humiliated—for being forced to urinate in public.

🐦 A Helpful Tweet

Your regular reminder that reframing is a powerful tool:

Failure is the frame, not the picture. pic.twitter.com/zMJM6JX78g

— Visualize Value (@visualizevalue) January 28, 2022