Morning Advantage: Five Tech Trends That Will Bring Back the Wristwatch

The mobile phone made the wristwatch redundant, but now the smartphone is set to give it new life. The just-released Pebble smartwatch, which you can see here, can do some cool things, like e-mail and text message notification, and will do many more as apps are developed. But that’s just the beginning. Five trends are converging to form the coming “smartphone revolution,” Datamation contends.

First, products like Apple’s AirPlay Mirroring, Microsoft’s SmartGlass, and Nintendo Wii U are getting people used to the idea that two devices should work together. At the same time, Bluetooth technology is radically decreasing the amount of power connected devices need. Advances in e-ink are making usable screens far smaller. Adapting wearable technologies like Google Glass from dorky goggles to watches will propel them into the mainstream. And voice-interaction technologies, like Siri, are even more accessible on your wrist than in your pocket. (And that’s not even counting how much easier it is to sneak a look at the time on your wrist than on your phone.)

IN CINEMA VERITAS

Does Watching Batman Movies Make You a Better Person? (Smithsonian)

“Why is every superhero movie an origin story?” complained critic Adam Markovitz, after seeing a trailer for Man of Steel. Not because they show us how to be super, suggests clinical psychologist Robin Rosenberg, but because they teach us how to be heroes. That is, we go not to see how ordinary joes (like us!) end up with superpowers, but to see what makes people chose altruism over the pursuit of wealth and power. As such, she says, they offer three basic answers: a way to overcome trauma (that’s Batman); an acknowledgement of the responsibilities that come with power (that’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer); or recognition of the obligations that come with good luck (that seems to be Spiderman).

“A HAPPY SHIP IS YOUR ONLY GOOD FIGHTING SHIP”

Leadership Lessons from the Royal Navy (McKinsey Quarterly)

Training in the Royal Navy is predicated on the notion that when two groups with equal resources attempt the same thing, the successful group will be the one whose leaders make better use of soft skills to maintain effort and motivate, says Aberystwyth management professor Andrew St. George. And for officers leading small teams in constrained quarters, there are no better soft skills than cheerfulness and storytelling. Storytelling makes such a difference, his analysis shows, because the stories explain — in detail — what individuals actually did to meet challenges. Cheerfulness matters because, as the saying goes “No one follows a pessimist.”

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