BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK The Story Of Birkenstock: Unlikely Rise Of A Billion Dollar Brand Key Takeaway: Birkenstock, a German shoe brand, has been able to attract fashionistas and hippies to its flexible arch supports, despite its negative image. The brand, founded in 1774, has evolved from orthopaedic footwear to fashion, with its initial public offering predicted to be the third-largest US listing so far in 2023. Birkenstock’s “bubble up” […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Is A.I. Now More Creative Than Humans? Key Takeaway: Creativity is a crucial human intelligence that AI should emulate, as it defies the cold logic of machines. AI tools like DALL-E and Midjourney are increasingly used in creative projects, with some receiving recognition for their inventiveness. A recent study found that AI-based creativity is just getting started, with examples of both its […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP FINANCE STRATEGY How To Succeed At Crowdfunding Small donations can add up to big bucks. That’s the promise of crowdfunding, a process by which entrepreneurs and nonprofits raise money online from individuals instead of banks and investors. Last year, 6.4 million crowdfunding campaigns worldwide brought in $34 billion, according to the crowdfunding data company Fundly. But most of those campaigns didn’t live up […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE 6 Things To Consider Before You Sign Up For Space Tourism It’s been a momentous month for space-faring billionaires. On July 11, British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s Unity “rocket-plane” flew him and five fellow passengers about 85 kilometres above Earth. And this week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard capsule reached an altitude of 106km, carrying Bezos, his brother, and the oldest and youngest people ever to reach such a height. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE Does The Stock Market Extract Wealth? Many of us see the stock market as an investment engine for building companies and generating wealth, but the truth is that the stock market works more like an extraction engine. It depletes corporations while contributing to the concentration of wealth. The Stock Market is an Aftermarket Our distorted view of the stock market starts when we believe that buying shares in a publicly-traded company actually invests […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY Space Tourism: Can It Be More Than ‘Space’ Joyrides For Millionaires? Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and his team successfully flew to the “edge of space” on the Unity 22 mission aboard a Virgin Galactic plane on July 12. The event was hailed as the start of space tourism, narrowly beating the planned launch on 20 July by fellow billionaire business magnate Jeff Bezos and his firm Blue Origin. But does the 85km (53 miles), the altitude […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY What To Do When Life Is On Hold I get it. You have COVID ennui. I do, too, but as long as we have our health and our jobs, both 2020 and 2021 deserve nothing but to be met with gratitude. Not everyone is as lucky. The truth is, until last year sent us hiding, we were all running at full tilt with our default lives, scarcely […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
JOURNAL & RESEARCH POLITICS The Politics Of Intellectual Property Introduction: This Article argues that we need a politics, or perhaps a political economy, of intellectual property. Using the controversy over copyright on the Net as a case-study and the history of the environmental movement as a comparison, it offers a couple of modest proposals about what such a politics might look like — what theoretical […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP STARTUPS STRATEGY Can Marketers Really Impact Small Businesses When you think of the essentials for growing a small business, you typically think of innovation and financing. But new research provides the first evidence that marketing deserves its own pocket in the entrepreneur’s tool bag. When entrepreneurs in Kampala, Uganda, were paired with marketers for virtual coaching, they enjoyed dramatic growth, unlike those who […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Hazarizq, Founder Of Insporeum Hazarizq (‘Rizq’ to his friends) is a creative entrepreneur hailing from Malaysia. Describing himself as a man with big dreams, he dropped out of his studies in International Business and started Ten Points Up, a successful creative production company and have worked closely with notable brands such as Good Vibes Festival, Urbanscapes Festival, Red Bull […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
When Will Quantum Computers Actually Become Practical? Key Takeaway: Quantum computing, which uses entanglement to represent information, has the potential to revolutionize everyday life. However, the development of quantum computers has been slow due to the need to demonstrate an advantage over classical computers. Only a few notable quantum algorithms have been developed, such as the BB84 protocol and Shor’s algorithm, which […] Written by Adam Lowe April 4, 2024April 4, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Predicting China’s Economy In 2024 Key Takeaway: China’s leaders have declared a GDP growth target of 5% in 2024, despite facing economic problems and a property crisis. The country’s rapid economic growth has been attributed to market incentives, cheap labor, infrastructure investment, exports, and foreign direct investment. However, none of these drivers are working effectively. The government’s determination to deflate […] Written by Hong Bo April 3, 2024April 3, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Nature Influences Time Key Takeaway: Recent research suggests that nature can regulate our sense of time, a feeling often exacerbated by the demands of work, home, and family. Research by psychologist Richardo Correia at the University of Turku in Finland found that spending time in nature can change how we experience time and give us a sense of […] Written by Ruth Ogden March 27, 2024March 27, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Problem With Fashion Key Takeaway: The fashion industry relies on storytelling to create fashionable garments and spread positive messages about issues. However, it can also drive overconsumption and perpetuate unrealistic beauty expectations. The industry’s global reach allows for easy sharing of visual cues and messaging, especially during times of social and political unease. The UN’s report urges storytellers, […] Written by Benjamin Wild March 25, 2024March 25, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A.I. Is Consuming Excessive Water And It’s A Problem Key Takeaway: Water is essential for development, production, and consumption, but we are overusing and polluting it. Eight safe and just boundaries have been identified for five domains: climate, biosphere, water, nutrients, and aerosols. Humans have already crossed these boundaries for water, but the minimum needs of the world’s poorest to access water and sanitation […] Written by Joyeeta Gupta March 22, 2024March 22, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Art Can Help Us Rethink Sleep Key Takeaway: Sleep loss is often seen as a personal responsibility, with consumer products and media reporting treating it as a personal issue. However, recognizing sleep as a cultural issue can help us rethink our relationship with sleep and recognize how it exposes competing agendas. Literature and art can help challenge dominant visions of sleep, […] Written by Paul Huebener March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Roots Of “Wabi-Sabi” Key Takeaway: Wabi-sabi is a traditional Japanese aesthetic that emphasizes the beauty of something imperfect or unfinished. It is derived from the classical Japanese verb “wabu,” which means to languish or be miserable. Wabi-cha, which literally means miserable tea, is a more severe and austere style of presentation. Wabi-style tea may reach its pinnacle in […] Written by Paul Atkins March 20, 2024March 20, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
