This week’s highlights:  Doctors and Computers, Amazon’s Third Party Problem, Dayton’s Fight with Heroin.

Fifteen on Friday – Issue 310

Food for Thought:

1. NewYorker – Why Doctors Hate Their Computers – Digitization promises to make medical care easier and more efficient. But are screens coming between doctors and patients?
2. BusinessWeek – “I Hereby Confess Judgment”  How an obscure legal document turned New York’s court system into a debt-collection machine that’s chewing up small businesses across America.
3. Raptitude – The Simple Joy of “No Phones Allowed”  A few nights ago I saw Jack White in concert. It was a wonderful night, and a big part of that was due to a new rule he has imposed on all his tour dates: no phones.
4. TheAtlantic – Why Most of America Is Terrible at Making Biscuits  There’s a scientific reason no one outside the South can nail them.
5. NYT – How to Talk to People, According to Terry Gross The NPR host offers eight tips for having better conversations.

Business/Economics:

1. NYT – A Business With No End  It seems to be a modern rule of technology, that whenever a new platform is opened, bad actors will find a way to use it.  Here’s a crazy deep dive down the rabbit hole of one 3rd party seller on Amazon.  “Where does this strange empire start or stop?”
2. RV – The Kiril Sokoloff Interviews: Stanley F. Druckenmiller – Credit GD –  This 1.5 hour long interview with Druckenmiller further confirms why he is among the all time investing greats.  (pro-tip – watch at 1.5x speed)
3. TBP – Bad Buybacks – You can destroy shareholder value by buying back shares.
4. FastCo – Nike’s huge new flagship looks like the future of retail
5. Economist – Airports have been hit by the rise of Uber and Lyft  They are looking at ways to make up falling revenues from car parking and car rentals

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. NYT – This City’s Overdose Deaths Have Plunged. Can Others Learn From It?  Dayton, Ohio, had one of the highest overdose death rates in the nation in 2017. The city made many changes, and fatal overdoses are down more than 50 percent from last year.
2. TheAtlantic – When Elon Musk Tunnels Under Your Home.  The billionaire is drilling for futuristic transit under Los Angeles. He didn’t have to ask the neighbors first.
3. AA – 17 Lessons to Improve Your Money & Life
4. NewYorker – Are Allbirds Shoes the End of Style?
5. NYT – How Guy Raz Built ‘How I Built This’  The astonishment-prone host (Wow!) has turned a pure zeal for business (It’s amazing!) into a juggernaut podcast. (What is that like?!)