Links for May 14, 2022

What I'm Reading

🧼 The Surprising Afterlife of Used Hotel Soap — The Hustle

In Guerrilla Public Service, I wrote, "[T]he way our world is designed isn't inevitable or immutable. It's shaped by the people with the motivation and ambition to change it."

Shawn Seipler took this idea to heart 2008. When he realized that hotels were throwing away billions of pounds of soap every year, he saw it as an opportunity to bend our world in a better direction:

Every year, it has been estimated that the hospitality industry generates ~440B pounds of solid waste — much of it soap and bottled amenities. That’s the equivalent weight of 2m blue whales.

What happens to all that leftover soap?

Fourteen years ago, one man asked that very question. And the answer led him down a path that has since saved tens of thousands of lives all over the world.

The surprising afterlife of used hotel soap

Hotel guests leave behind millions of half-used bars of soap every day. A nonprofit is on a mission to repurpose them.

The HustleZachary Crockett

💸 The Nothingness of Money — More to That

In the words of Gumroad's founder Sahil Lavingia, "You can be twice as rich by deciding you need half as much." Like so many things, money is partly a story we tell ourselves that can be reframed.

Lawrence Yeo shares a thought-provoking and illustrated reflection on the role that money plays in our lives.

Conclusion: Real wealth isn't a number in your bank account, it's no longer needing to think about money.

We can opt out of the stories of religion or politics, but we cannot opt out of the story of money. It is so interwoven into the fabric of society that even our physical health depends upon how abstract numbers on a screen can be converted into tangible meals.

The Nothingness of Money - More To That

It’s the great everything and the great nothing.

More To ThatLawrence Yeo

What I'm Watching

🧩 The Puzzle of Motivation

Dan Pink argues that there is a considerable mismatch between what science knows and how businesses operate.

In short: When faced with problems that don't have an obvious solution, people are more creative and more effective at solving them when there's not a reward (e.g. bonus) tied to their solution.

Tweets of the Week

An important reminder that slack is important in any system: