Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track.

Welcome to The Monday List.

Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown ‘Smack.

What We’re Reading This Week:

Listen to the World – An Interactive Online Experience

What if we chose to travel based on sound?

Tech Giants Spend $80 Billion to Make Sure No One Else Can Compete

Companies that deal in data are some of America’s biggest buyers of equipment.

The Big Payoff From Working a Few Extra Years

Postponing retirement can plump up savings and bolster Social Security checks.

25 Years of WIRED Predictions: Why the Future Never Arrives

To write the history of how our culture thinks about tomorrow, one obsessed academic read every issue of WIRED in chronological order. Here are his findings.

The Resilience of Costco (PDF)

How and why this big box store became the second-largest retailer in the world.

t’s Getting Harder for International STEM Students to Find Work After Graduation

Apple’s old HQ holds stories of pizza ovens, iPhone secrets, baseball bats, and what happened to Steve Jobs’ office.