Assorted Links Saturday

The companies that defined 2021:

This is how to overcome regret: 5 secrets from research:

When asked, “How often do you look back on your life and wish you had done things differently?” — you know what people said?

The art of saying no:

Admittedly it’s thin, but there is definitely a silver lining to the pandemic: for the best part of a year we have all been granted a bulletproof excuse to turn down pretty much any invitation, and I, for one, am grateful.

The lesson to unlearn: The most damaging thing you learned in school wasn't something you learned in any specific class. It was learning to get good grades.

The everything town in the middle of nowhere: How the tiny town of Roundup, Montana, became a hub in Amazon’s supply chain.

Weekend reading: That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

If you want to understand Netflix-the-streaming-giant today, it's great to start with Netflix-the-shaky-DVD-company circa the early 2000s. This book is a pretty early look, starting just before the founding and ending with the IPO. Among other things, it's a great peek into how hard it is to work with big hardware companies, especially on new technologies. It also shows Netflix's scrappier side; before they had a massive marketing budget and lots of Oscars, their tactics included having ringer accounts on movie forums that hyped up an amazing new site where you could get DVDs delivered by mail.

This week on the Econ Dev Show Podcast: