College application essays for undergraduate degrees vary a lot by country.

The UK UCAS admission system used for all undergraduate admissions requires an application text. It is much freer in its form than how I understand the US system with a very specific prompt.

As for Norway, to pick another random example, there is no requirement to submit any piece of writing to explain your motivation. Your grades do all the talking for you, so to speak.

The difference between UCAS and US system is that UCAS is universal essay whereas US “common app” has both universal and school specific essays.

Honestly i much prefer the US system to my exposure to the british system, much easier to apply to multiple schools in the US

> much easier to apply to multiple schools in the US

I think discouraging blanket applications to multiple universities is the point of the UCAS system in the UK

And can be hugely benefitical or detrimental.

Adam Grant writes about this topic in. Givers are overrepresented both among the most and among the least successful individuals. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158498-give-and-take

In terms of population? Yes In terms of economic productivity per capita? No, not if you look at periods prior to the industrial revolution[1]

[1] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...

If your budget allows I'd recommend combining Kindle with Audible. This is what Amazon calls "Voicewhisper". I find that applying multiple senses helps keep distractions out. Also nice to use Kindle's highlighting which you can look through on Goodreads afterwards.

I find that this approach works really well for books on e.g. on design, architecture and management. Can be slightly more awkward for books with a lot of diagrams and code, but usually just a matter of pausing the audio over certain sections.

Depending on the difficulty of the language used I can often play on 1.7-2x playback speed.

THIS. If you can't find audiobook version of books, but if you can find an epub, you can upload it to Google Play Books and (at least on Android) have it read the book aloud. You can change the reading speed to around 2x or more so that it is not too slow.

I use eReader Pretigio (android) for this. As of this writing they let you use installed tts engine.

The former NSA chief was criticised by Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald for setting the objective of "collect it all" (i.e. capturing all global communications) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/15/crux-n...

Seven years later he is appointed to the board of directors at Amazon... and Amazon customers who ask to download their data get access to the full audio files from every recording done by their Alexa device https://twitter.com/AlinaUtrata/status/1485194962027388929

This comment reminds me of the book "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work"

I used to think I couldn't read on a Kindle, but it removes all the distractions and feels more like a proper book. Especially coupled with an audio version I find that I can often finish books in 1-3 days where it would have taken me weeks in the past.

That being said I fully appreciate a good physical textbook for cases where there's a lot of diagrams, etc.

There's also the argument that business and technology is "the same thing" now. A majority of businesses cannot operate without technology. Technology often does not come to fruition without business.

The ability for the Chinese rich to get money out of their country. For one.

And for another, it allows ransomware gangs to much more easily extract payments from their victims as well.