Every week, we will be featuring five fantastic articles written by our community contributors that will make for some light weekend reading!
Here at e27, our guest contributors form an indispensable part of our platform. Thanks to their deep insights and thought leadership, our platform today is an authoritative source of information and resource for all stakeholders in the Southeast Asia ecosystem.
As a form of gratitude to them, every week we will highlight five fantastic guest posts, for your leisurely reading over the weekend.
Enjoy!
Contrary to popular belief, speed reading isn’t really helpful
On the topic of reading, many blogs and publications seem to espouse the benefits of speed reading. They claim that it helps you to absorb more information in a shorter period of time — which, in turn, will help you to devour more books and become more ‘learned’.
I don’t know about you but I approach reading the way I attack a plate of ravioli pasta: I chew slowly, savouring every last bit of its delicious grounded meat fillings, letting the taste linger in my mouth.
So it was to my delight when I found out that one of our star contributors, Aytekin Tank of JotForm, thought the same way.
In his opinion editorial, he explains why speed reading isn’t just not fun at all but scientifically fallacious.
Tank cites the studies of professor and eye tracking researcher Keith Rayner, who found that “techniques like simultaneously reading large segments of the page aren’t biologically or psychologically possible, due to the limitation of our foveal viewing area.”
“According to UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield, when the brain skims, less attention and time is allocated to slower, more time-consuming processes, like inference, critical analysis and empathy,” writes Tank.
In short, only speed read if you are really desperate (like if you want to impress your next date).
Why timing is critical for the success of your startup
It cannot be overstated how important timing is for success. Many important battles in history have been won not because of sheer numerical advantage, but because of timing.
The same goes for building your startup.
In this op-ed by Maliekah Harjani, an investor at Convergence Ventures, she explains why building a good product is not enough, you need to launch it at the right time to ensure success.
“Often, tech entrepreneurs have ideas so advanced that consumers are not ready to adopt it…Sometimes, the current infrastructure that a product would need to rely on is not strong enough.”
“We also see companies that enter the market too late, with established and well-financed incumbents that have already created strong customer loyalty.”
The importance of company culture
Ever received an email from your HR director cautioning against “having sex in a stairwell”?
Well, neither didn’t I.
Unfortunately, the people who found in this email in their inbox were employees of Zenefits, a US$600 million US-based HR solutions company.
Andy Chan, Co-Founder and CEO of Collab, in his op-ed about toxic company cultures, cites Zenefits as an example of hyper-scale gone wrong. In its quest for market dominance, it had neglected to build a healthy company culture.
Zenefits scale-at-all-cause culture also meant that they eventually found themselves mired in legal woes.
“With the claws of legalities on their back, what was regularly exposed was the fraternity-like, alcohol-riddled culture at the company,” writes Chan.
And of course, when alcohol flows freely like a gushing river, well, I live it to your imagination.
Workplace mentoring can help employees achieve their goals
And on the topic of company culture, here is something more positive: workplace mentoring.
Singapore-based performance management company Synergita explains succinctly why it is important to create a conducive environment where employees can seek mentorship from their peers or managers.
“Employee goal management is essential as it provides a guide to employees to achieve their desired outcomes. It also motivates them to strive for something higher. But it is also important that managers offer their support to help employees achieve their goals.”
“Managers must not confine themselves with providing employees with goals, they must also introduce some mentoring programs so that employees are able to achieve those goals.”
How to avoid SEO disasters
In the online media space, knowing your way around Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) would allow you to optimize your content maximum reach.
But there are caveats to take note of.
In his guest post, Neha Khan, a marketing analyst, says that one of the common mistakes writes make is that stuff their post with too many keywords.
Well, the bad news is that Google has already caught on to that act a long time ago so you can’t game the system.
At the end of the day, it is really about creating valuable content.
Contribute to us!
At e27, we strive for a diversity of thought leadership and opinions. They are no ‘wrong’ thoughts — we welcome them all, even if it is incendiary or controversial (of course, within reasonable boundaries).
If you have something you want to let off your chest, feel free to submit your content here or email us at writers@e27.co to discuss your ideas.
You can also join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.
Look forward to hearing from you!
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Image Credit: Kaspars Grinvalds
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