EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Dangers Of Anthropomorphising A.I. Key Takeaway: Chatbots like ChatGPT have raised anxieties about machine sentience, but these worries are groundless as they are sophisticated sentence completion applications. They are a function of how predictable humans are when it comes to communication. The question of machine sentience is a red herring, as it is easy for people to anthropomorphize or […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK What Makes Basquiat Special? Key Takeaway: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work highlights racial inequalities and the lack of representation of racialized people in the media, but also the violence suffered by African Americans. Jean-Michel Basquiat denounced the violence of cartoons, which he saw as a reflection of 20th-century American society. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting “Toxic” is an attempt to denounce a stereotypical […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK STRATEGY The Marketing Secrets Of Barbie’s Success Key Takeaway: Barbie is one of America’s most trusted brands, with worldwide sales of US$1.5 billion in 2022 and a brand value of US$590 million. Mattel has used a “multiply” strategy to increase brand visibility and storytelling tactics to sustain interest in the brand. Mattel’s strategy of targeting older consumers through nostalgia and designer and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Unlocking The Secret Language Of Honeybees Key Takeaway: Honeybees use a physical “waggle dance” to communicate the direction, distance and quality of resources to their nestmates. Bees are born with some knowledge of how to dance, but can learn how to dance even better by following experienced bees. This is the first known example of such complex social learning of communication […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY Is Web3 A Fad? Key Takeaway: Web3 is an alternative vision of the web where the services are purely algorithmic things hosted by everybody, and has been called “the hyperfinancialization of all human existence”. Data is no longer easily accessible, making it difficult for entrepreneurs to acquire more users, leading to a stagnant cycle. Web3 startups have focused on […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK Why The Fourth Industrial Revolution Hasn’t Started Yet Key Takeaway: The fourth industrial revolution is a way of connecting together advanced technologies to transform how we make things, but many companies have been slow to take advantage of it. Searches for “industry 4.0” have dropped due to lack of awareness, high risk and scrutiny, and resistance to change among workers. Industry 4.0 technologies […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY 5 Discoveries That Changed Our Understanding Of Ancient Egypt Key Takeaway: Mummification is older than archaeologists imagined, with the oldest known mummies from the Old Kingdom era (c.2500-2100BC) being specially prepared by embalmers. Chemical tests have revealed that resins and perfumes were already being used to help preserve the skin of the dead over 6,000 years ago, before coffins were common. The ‘recipe’ varied […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK The Art Of Balding Balding is really common, affecting more than 50% of men. It’s also physically inconsequential (bald men live just as long as haired men). So why, in his memoir Spare, does Prince Harry refer to his brother’s baldness as “alarming”? As a social psychologist with a special interest in balding (and author of an upcoming book entitled Branding Baldness), […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Evolutionary Origins Of Imagination Key Takeaway: Mammals evolved to hide out while cold-blooded dinosaurs hunted during the day, but had to eat a lot more food than dinosaurs per unit of weight to maintain their high metabolism and constant inner body temperature. Mammals developed a new system to efficiently memorize places where they’d found food, linking sensory aspects of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY The Art Of Receiving Feedback Good feedback, whether you are on the receiving or giving end, requires an attitude of curiosity and openness. Intentionally creating space for feedbackcan help, but even with the right space, receiving feedback can be really scary. Many organizations have formal systems of feedback in the style of mid-year and annual reviews. And it’s not uncommon for informal continuous […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Web3 A Fad? Key Takeaway: Web3 is an alternative vision of the web where the services are purely algorithmic things hosted by everybody, and has been called “the hyperfinancialization of all human existence”. Data is no longer easily accessible, making it difficult for entrepreneurs to acquire more users, leading to a stagnant cycle. Web3 startups have focused on […] Written by Eric Feng March 9, 2023March 9, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why The Fourth Industrial Revolution Hasn’t Started Yet Key Takeaway: The fourth industrial revolution is a way of connecting together advanced technologies to transform how we make things, but many companies have been slow to take advantage of it. Searches for “industry 4.0” have dropped due to lack of awareness, high risk and scrutiny, and resistance to change among workers. Industry 4.0 technologies […] Written by Ralf Seifert March 8, 2023March 8, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The World After Oil Key Takeaway: The production and consumption of fossil fuels is on the rise, and expected to peak within the next decade. To consider alternatives to oil, we need to be aware of the scale of its integration into our lives. Caleb Wellum, an assistant professor of U.S. history at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada, […] Written by Nehal El-Hadi February 24, 2023February 24, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secret Chemistry Of Chocolates Key Takeaways: Chocolate has been around for at least 4,000 years, and is now a trillion-dollar global industry. It starts out as a dull-tasting bean, packed into a pod that grows on a cacao tree, and requires two key steps: fermentation and roasting. Roasting is an art form, with different temperatures and times producing different […] Written by Sheryl Barringer February 23, 2023February 23, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Making Sense Of UFOs In The Modern Era Key Takeaway: UFOs are the term used to describe aircraft that aren’t easily identified or explained, and have been around since the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 2020, the U.S. Navy released multiple videos of unidentified aerial phenomena, sparking interest in the public and government. UAPs are more likely to be human-made, rather than […] Written by Wendy Cobb February 17, 2023February 17, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
What Is Effective Altruism? Key Takeaway: Effective altruism is an intellectual and charitable movement that seeks to find the best ways to help others. It was inspired by the philosopher Peter Singer and has gained traction due to its popularity among some extremely wealthy donors, such as Dustin Moskovitz, who co-founded Facebook and the Asana digital work management platform. […] Written by Jacob Bauer February 16, 2023February 16, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Can The Laws Of Physics Prove God’s Existence? Key Takeaway: God may not be able to break the laws of physics, but the universe is expanding at a rate of 70km/s per Mpc and light has travelled 1023km in the 13.8 billion years of its existence. Cosmologists believe that the universe may be part of a multiverse, where many different universes co-exist but […] Written by Monica Grady February 15, 2023February 15, 2023 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
