“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

The Social Battleground for Retailers – Christopher Heine writes in AdWeek about how far some retailers are going to take sales from competitors over the holidays. This includes monitoring social media for keywords, reaching out to consumers in need and promising product availability at their stores over their competitors. While this does show a degree of savvy uncommon in the marketplace, the risk of overpromising and under delivering cannot be overlooked.

A Revolution in Teaching Being Ignored – Joshua Davis of Wired shares the story of a teacher in Mexico who embraced new teaching techniques with remarkable results for his class. It’s through this lens that Davis analyzes education today from successes to failures.

Defining the Science of Quantified Self - This Cyborgology article reflects on the 2013 Quantified Self Global Conference, which included claims that quantified self is bad science without discipline or structure, but the writer argues that doesn’t matter. Instead, quantified self is about doing what works best for you.

How Amazon Forces Competitors to React - Amazon is a mind-bending company, and this look from George Anders of MIT Technology Review only makes that point even stronger. Amazon is often operating in the red as it reinvests in the company to gain a larger share of the market, and it keeps competitors scrambling.