The Daily Valet. - 10/11/21, Monday

✔️ Beware of Excessive Collaboration

Monday, October 11th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Happy, well ... Monday.

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Beware of Excessive Collaboration

Are we overloaded with unnecessary calls and emails?

Some of the most worrisome dangers are those sneaky things that seem like they’re good for you, but actually do more harm than good. Like when I found out my granola had more sugar than a Snickers bar.

There’s a workplace threat among us, even with so many people working from home: collaboration. Excessive collaboration, that is. It was already surging before the pandemic and has crescendoed into a tremendous surplus of Zoom meetings and cc’ing.

Bloomberg Business Week spoke with Rob Cross, author of Beyond Collaboration Overload about the phenomenon. He says it’s not that collaboration itself is bad, but the sheer amount of it. He says the pandemic has added hours to the time spent working together and that collaborative activities via email, Slack and organizations’ own apps, force employees to be on earlier in the morning and later into the night than ever before.

“Both the volume and the demands are just too much,” he says. “The likelihood of an individual disengaging or leaving the organization goes up greatly as the volume of collaboration accelerates past certain thresholds.”

Emerging research from the Connected Commons shows that collaboration consumes 85% or more of most peoples’ work week. And when collaboration becomes dysfunctional, it invisibly undermines performance and has become a primary source of burnout and poor decision-making as well.

According to Inc., there are efficient ways to collaborate to avoid such pitfalls and burnout. They give a few tips but the takeaway is that in our hyper-connected world, it’s more important than ever to be more intentional in how you cultivate and engage your networks.

↦ FYI: A new Cisco study found that half of all remote employees don’t talk during video meetings.

Engineer Arrested for Selling Secrets

Accused of trying to pass nuclear submarine intel in peanut butter sandwich

A Navy nuclear engineer and his schoolteacher wife were arrested after attempting to sell classified submarine plans to a representative of a foreign country who was actually an undercover FBI agent, the Department of Justice said Sunday.

The FBI reported that on three previous occasions prior to their arrest on Saturday, Jonathan Toebbe and his wife arranged to leave SD cards containing secret nuclear submarine schematics at dead drop locations in exchange for $100,000 in cryptocurrency, hiding the memory cards within a peanut butter sandwich, a chewing gum package and a box of Band-Aids.

According to the Associated Press, representatives from an unnamed country gave the FBI a package that they had received in December. He also provided instructions for how to conduct the furtive relationship, with a letter: “Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax.”

Soon after receiving the package, FBI agents began communicating with Toebbe using an encrypted email service, posing as representatives of the unnamed country. The couple is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday in West Virginia.

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Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day?

The federal holiday has been shaped by oppression

Are you off work today? I'm not ... but only because the news never stops. A better question might be what are you commemorating today? Because the day is seemingly caught between two holidays.

Celebrating Columbus' 1492 landing in the Americas has fueled controversy for generations. The holiday arose out of a late 19th century movement to honor Italian American heritage at a time when Italian immigrants faced widespread persecution. But it's since come under fire as a celebration of a man whose arrival in the Americas heralded the oppression of another group of people: Native Americans.

The movement for renaming and recognizing Indigenous Peoples' Day is clearly growing. In 2021, a number of cities joined the list of those honoring the day, with new adopters including Boston, Tempe, Ariz., and West Lafayette, Ind. More than 10 states have also approved similar naming measures.

The recognition extends all the way to the White House, with President Joe Biden having just issued the first presidential proclamation decreeing the day as one to honor “Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength.” The president also issued a proclamation recognizing Columbus Day, which still retains its federal status.

Airless Tires Are Finally Coming

Immunity to flats could be here by 2024

Michelin is literally attempting to reinvent the wheel. The major manufacturer of automobile tires has for over a decade been working to create airless tires, which it believes could last longer and offer significant environmental benefits to boot.

New Atlas earlier reported on Michelin's Uptis (or Unique Puncture-proof Tire System tires), which was demoed for the public at an event in Munich, Germany. In lieu of air pressure, glass fiber reinforced plastic vanes support the tread. Which means you can see through them.

Michelin is one of several tiremakers that have been developing airless tires for a while, but they seemed destined to be a clever concept rather than a viable product. Now, however, the two companies are putting a pin in the calendar to have airless tires in the market by 2024.

Just how game-changing would they be? CNET puts it this way: “Nails become minor annoyances and sidewall cuts that usually render a tire unrepairable are no longer possible.” There would be no more worrying about that pesky tire pressure light and we'd say goodbye to spare tires and blowouts.

↦ FYI: Tire blowouts account for more than 11,000 vehicle crashes each year.

In Other News

↦ Texas’s Six-Week Abortion Ban Is Back on After an Appeals Court Paused a Judge’s Injunction

↦ A Year After ‘Defund’, Police Departments Get Their Money Back

↦ The Reviews Are in—YEEZY x GAP’s “Perfect Hoodie” Isn’t Quite Perfect

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

‘Succession’ insider gear

This “Build Your Own Skeleton” kit

SNL’s seltzer sketch

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Their best-selling Delay Spray is recommended by more than 2,000 healthcare professionals because it works—every time. Now, they offer convenient Delay Wipes that utilize all of the same technology but in a simple-to-apply individually wrapped wipe. That means you can take them anywhere and apply it quickly and discreetly without spoiling any of the fun.

Without getting too scientific, the benzocaine in the product is absorbed into nerve cells just below the skin to temporarily slow down their trigger response. Compared to other wipes on the market, Promescent's are 175% stronger, meaning you're all but guaranteed to last longer. Plus, the wipes allow you to apply it only where you need it (so you won't feel overly desensitized). Now you can relax and enjoy the pleasure without worrying about climax control.

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What We Want

We see your plaid shirt and raise you this. Just look at the check pattern—it's huge! And yet, this eye-catching overshirt ($185) is still extremely versatile. You can layer it over a simple T-shirt or under a jacket. The pattern is oversized but the fit, while relaxed, is nicely tailored to the body. The fit is what you notice when you pull on this shirt for the first time. But the tough call is the color—it comes in 10 different shades and plaid styles.

↦ Want More? 5 stylish items to buy this week