I head to Los Angeles this week. When I return, it’s off to Florida for a family vacation and SXSW in Austin in early March.

Amazing read from The New York Times on how celebs use their wallets to inflate their social media numbers.

Wired Magazine explored what makes the smartphone so addicting. Basically, it’s apps taking advantage of the available technology that smartphones provide.

Speaking of addicting: binge-watching is a form of this behavior. It also comes from a need to complete tasks. My favorite example: if there are three chips left in the bag, you’ll likely just eat the three chips to finish the bag.

The Amazon ad business is going to grow significantly in the coming years – why wouldn’t it with consumers bypassing Google and going straight there for their shopping needs. The Wall Street Journal (paywall) dug into it some more.

I try to read a lot – on book five already this year. But I often struggle to remember a lot of what I read. The Atlantic had an article on that exact topic.

Amazon Alexa had one of the best Super Bowl commercials this year. Despite the number of times “Alexa” was uttered during the spot, Bloomberg found out why Alexas across the globe weren’t turning on.

I’m not the only one who thought the Patriots would still win the Super Bowl despite being down with under a minute to go. The Ringer dug into why they’re so good down the stretch. Hint: preparation.

I am anticipating the release of Disney’s OTT platform. Redef has a good read on the future of the service.

This Paul Graham piece is 10 years old, but it resonated with me: long blocks of time are beneficial to effectiveness in the workplace. One mid-day meeting can completely throw you off.

Finally, a local New York newspaper wrote a profile on my father’s uncle, who passed away recently. Support local news.

Rock and Roll.

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