📅 Shopify Tells Employees to Just Say No to Meetings

Plus: Why Not Mars, SpaceX raising $750 million at a $137 billion valuation, and more…

Today’s pick

Shopify Tells Employees to Just Say No to Meetings. The e-commerce firm is canceling all recurring meetings with more than two people and encouraging staffers to decline invitations and detach from big internal chat groups. Shopify Inc. spent last year cutting costs. Now, it's cutting meetings. As… (Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg)

Matthew Boyle @bizboyle

We all hate meetings. So Shopify has embarked on a purge that involves removing all recurring meetings with 3+ people, limiting big meetings and encouraging staff to decline invites. The move will cut nearly 10,000 events totaling ~76,500 hrs. bloomberg.com/news/articles/… @thefuture

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

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Why Not Mars. For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. —  Richard Feynman The goal of this essay is to persuade you that we shouldn't send human beings to Mars, at least not… (Maciej Ceglowski / Idle Words)

Waxy.org @waxy

Why Not Mars: Maciej Ceglowski returns from hiatus with the first in a series on why sending humans to Mars is a bad idea

idlewords.comWhy Not MarsIt’s slow, expensive, the engineering is mostly port-a-potty chemistry, and the best-case outcome is that thirty years from now we’ll get to watch someone remotely operate a soil scoop from Mars instead of Pasadena

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SpaceX raising $750 million at a $137 billion valuation, investors include Andreessen-Horowitz. SpaceX is raising $750 million in a new round of funding that values the company at $137 billion, according to correspondence viewed by CNBC. Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, is said to be a lead investor in the new funding round. The firm… (Lora Kolodny / CNBC)

Lora Kolodny @lorakolodny

SpaceX raising $750 million at a ~$137 billion valuation, with a16z expected to lead the new round via @CNBC

cnb.cxSpaceX raising $750 million at a $137 billion valuation, investors include Andreessen-HorowitzLast year, SpaceX achieved several new milestones but faced further delays to its Starship program.

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Google develops free terrorism-moderation tool for smaller websites. Google is developing a free moderation tool that smaller websites can use to identify and remove terrorist material, as new legislation in the UK and the EU compels Internet companies to do more to tackle illegal content. The software is being… (Cristina Criddle / Ars Technica)

Ars Tech Policy @ArsLaw

Google develops free terrorism moderation tool for smaller websites

arstechnica.comGoogle develops free terrorism-moderation tool for smaller websitesUS tech group’s Jigsaw division leads initiative as UK and EU introduce tough laws.

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Encryption Faces an Existential Threat in Europe. Andy Yen is positioning himself to be Europe's answer to Google cofounder Larry Page. Like Google, Yen's company Proton offers services including email, calendar, drive storage, and VPN, just with a privacy twist. All its products are encrypted. (Morgan Meaker / WIRED)

WIRED Gadget Lab @gadgetlab

The CEO of Proton says new competition laws have finally given him a voice in Brussels, even as he fights the EU’s anti-encryption campaign.

trib.alEncryption Faces an Existential Threat in EuropeThe CEO of Proton says new competition laws have finally given him a voice in Brussels, even as he fights the EU’s anti-encryption campaign.

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