In the past week as I’ve eased into my new web editor position here at Venture Publishing  I’ve had some time to track down some amazing articles. Luckily for you we have this weekly round up daily blog post where I get to share with you all of the the great stuff I read this week. Everything from from a long-form profile of a Slovenian ultra-endurance athlete to making the world safe for smart people via the TED conference.

That Which Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stranger

What is it: A New York Times profile of Jure Robic, a Slovene soldier who dominates ultra-endurance events like the 3000-mile Insight Race Across America.

Why you should read it: It’s an amazing, rich, human story that’s well told by an experienced profile writer. It’s long and it’s from 2006 but I read it all the way through from beginning to end. He also backs up his assumptions with some well-sourced research. Apparently your old track coach was right, you only think you’re tired.

“Yet Robic does not excel on physical talent alone. He is not always the
fastest competitor (he often makes up ground by sleeping 90 minutes or
less a day), nor does he possess any towering physiological gift. On
rare occasions when he permits himself to be tested in a laboratory,
his ability to produce power and transport oxygen ranks on a par with
those of many other ultra-endurance athletes. He wins for the most
fundamental of reasons: he refuses to stop.”

Let’s Fire Our Customers

What is it: Author and entrepreneur Steven Blank drops some knowledge. As counter intuitive as it may seem, to grow your business  you sometimes have to fire your customers. The art of entrepreneurship is in doing it the right way.

Why you should read it: If you want to start your own company or all ready have Blank has serious insight into how you should interact with your customers, especially when launching new products or splitting off from the original business plan.

The Death of the Greatest Human Who Ever Lived

What is it: A eulogy for Norman Borlaug, a man who “saved between two hundred million people and one billion people, depending on how you do the math.”

Why you should read it: An amazing article about an amazing man. His life’s work was to alleviate famine and did a tremendous job through creating new strains of grains more resistant to breakage and disease. I had never heard of him before I read the article, now you know about him as well.

Explaining the Real Time Web in 100 Words or Less

What is it: A pithy explanation of one of the hottest buzzwords right now.

Why you should read it: It’s short and it does an adequate job of explaining a concept that, while trendy, is undeniably affecting our world.

Making the World Safe for Smart: Why TED Matters

What is it: TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is an annual invite-only conference dedicated to “ideas worth spreading”. They are unabashedly dedicated to making the world better by bringing smart people together and spreading their ideas.

Why you should read it: I’ll let a quote do the heavy lifting here.

“We cannot continue to teach young people that being smart sucks -
whatever type of smart they are. We cannot keep perpetuating the lie
that “not caring” and “being cool” are the same thing. The challenges
we face are too great for us to condition a whole generation to
suppress what they’re good at and what they care about. More than that,
the beauty of the world that comes from discovering passion and talent
is the single best force we have to counter a pessimistic, bleary view
of things.”