Weekly Review #141 - Warsaw's Tech Scene, Hacking Airport Lounges, and Empathy through Fiction
Spent this week poking around Warsaw, Poland. Great place!
Some fast facts:
Has 21k programmers (same as Berlin) a big tech scene for tier 2 city
Old Town was completely destroyed in WW2, they rebuilt it by stealing the bricks from old towns in cities across Poland
Popular place to for foreign companies to find cheap, good programmers, as things are Eastern European cheap but with Western quality education (Uber is there!)
When communism failed, they put a stock exchange in the party building, lol
Polish fame: The Witcher videogame, Estimote beacon software, big list of other startups here
Super strong vegan scene! for super cheap, even I could be vegan there
The day before I left, I coworked out of SFO's AMEX lounge....without a flight. My travel hacker friend Ben Yu does this regularly - with his Ameriprise Platinum card, you can purchase flights, then cancel them to get all your points back, and the boarding pass still gets your through security.
So we drove to SFO, parked in hotel parking, took the shuttle to the terminal, went through security, and then....sat in the snazzy AMEX lounge all day eating their free buffet, showering in their nice bathroom, and availing ourselves of free wifi.
The food was good! But the hassle of booking, canceling, and security makes it something I'd probably not do often.
Lifehacks
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru (2016) | Joe Berlinger Films
Joe Berlinger usually directs nasty investigative films. But now he made a happy one! Exploring Mr Tony Robbins, and free on Netflix - I wanna check this out
Scientists suggest reading novels helps encourage empathy
Scientists suggest reading novels helps encourage empathy, since you have to imagine the entire character's mind and emotions in your own head. Take that, business nonfiction lovers who bash fiction as useless!
Fun
Star Wars Escort to Kylo Ren 4-16 Hollywood Studios - YouTube — www.youtube.com
Stormtroopers will escort your child through disneyland if they come dressed as Kylo Ren. Adorable