đŸȘ LinkedIn's 4 year science experiment

Happy Thursday, friends! This is Bite Sized Beta, where we help you with all the most important stuff in life
 like reminding you that NyQuil chicken is NOT the answer to your problems.

Repeat after me. NyQuil is not a marinade. NyQuil is NOT A MARINADE!!!

Alright, now that we have that out of the way, let’s sit back and get into the good stuff. 

In the oven this week:

  • ❄ This crypto winter is icing out our bank accounts 

  • đŸ§Ș LinkedIn tells us what kinda friends we really need

  • đŸȘ Cookie crumbs: 5 bite-sized headlines

  • đŸ« Chocolate chips: our 4 favorite finds this week

  • đŸ€„ Three headlines and a lie

  • 😂 Memes, 'cause we're in desperate need a good laugh

FRESHLY BAKED

THIS CRYPTO WINTER IS GETTING CHILLY

You know that feeling at the club when all the lights turn on and you’re looking around, and suddenly everyone looks like a different character from Monsters Inc?

Well, that’s kinda what it feels like in crypto these days. It’s closing time and everyone’s on their way out.

Redpoint Ventures put together a report on the state of Web3 in 2022, and here’s the TLDR:

That’s like 25% the size of all the people on BeReal daily, or 1% of all the people on Twitter daily. 

This one surprised us.. for all the crypto hype, there are only 5K weekly active devs?? Damn! We're early, son! 

​​This is mostly because the average Solana NFT is more affordable, and worth ~10% of the average Ethereum NFT. ETH still comprises 90% of NFT GMV overall. 

There's a lot of fuzziness in the data, so take it as more directional than precise. But, it definitely looks like we're gonna need a jacket, 'cause the winter chill is here. 👀

80,000 HOURS

THIS EDITION IS SPONSORED BY 80,000 HOURS

Did you know you'll have, on average, 80,000 hours in your career? That’s a lot of time, and it means that your career is probably your biggest opportunity to have a positive impact in the world.

80,000 Hours wants to help you find a fulfilling career that does good, too. They're a nonprofit, and everything they provide is free, forever.

COOKIE CRUMBS

BITE SIZED TREATS

Google Ventures gets rid of its algorithm. The venture firm previously used machine learning to assess potential new investments, taking in variables like round size, industry, past investors, etc. Apparently the real human investors were getting frustrated by it because it was vetoing good deals 😂

SoftBank considers raising a third Vision Fund (LOL!). They lost $50 billion on their first two funds and now the investment team is looking for ways to boost their pay bonuses (which have been historically based on fund profits).

Doordash and Chase are coming out with a new credit card. Chase Sapphire card members already get discounts on Doordash, but we’re guessing this one will be better value. Could be a good one to watch if you spend a lot on dining. 

The S&P 500 fell to a 2 year low on worries about the seemingly endless interest rate hikes. Yikes. 

The British Pound also got pounded this week, reaching a record low against the dollar after new government plans for tax cuts and borrowing were announced. On Monday, it got as low as $1.035. If ya got some change left over you might wanna consider a European vacation right about now


THE BIG PIZOOKIE

LINKEDIN'S 4 YEAR SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

Linkedin published a new study in Science on a social experiment it ran on 20 million users from 2015-2019. The goal was to figure out what kinds of connections were most helpful in the job hunt. 

Did we have to pay to get our grubby hands on a copy? You bet.

But that’s what we do here at Bite Sized Beta. 

We take the hits so you don’t have to.

It’s a recession, so let me save you some cash. Here’s what happened.

Linkedin has a feature on their homepage called People You May Know, which recommends new potential connections: 

For the 20 million users in the experiment, LinkedIn varied the types of people being recommended in this section. Some users saw recommendations for people they had several mutual connections with, and others got recs for people they only had a few mutual connections with.

Linkedin then got out the popcorn and watched people friend each other and switch jobs over time. 

As this was happening, they took a look at what types of connections were most the most useful to help people find new jobs, and found that “moderately weak ties” were the winners.

Who are moderately weak ties? 

Not complete strangers, but also probably not your friend. 

They’re people you have ~10 mutual connections with.

You know, that dude you met at that party that one time you went out with your friends and never spoke to again? 

Yeah, that guy.

With more or less mutual friends, the usefulness of your bond with the other person goes down, at least in job hunting terms.

Our take? 

It’s kinda cool, but kinda eerie.

LinkedIn basically lurked in the background for 4 years and watched a real life reality show they created. 

On the other hand, it’s interesting to think about how LinkedIn’s algorithms could do good and close employment gaps at scale.

At least now we know who to hang with if this whole newsletter thing doesn’t work out


CHOCOLATE CHIPS

4 BEST FINDS OF THE WEEK

OVER MIXED

THIS WEEK IN OUTRAGEOUS HEADLINES

There are a ton of crazy stories out there these days. And since everyone thinks they’re great at spotting fake news, we finally have a way to put ya to the test. 

We bring you 
. THREE TRUTHS AND A LIE! 

It’s pretty simple. Three headlines below are true and one is a false story from The Onion (a satirical publication). 

Can you spot the lie?Â đŸ‘‡đŸœ

SNICKERDOODLES

THURSDAY MEMES  

That's all we got today, folks - see ya next week! 

What'd you think about this email?