CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Science Of Ancient Egyptian Mythology Key Takeaway: A recent study has found an intriguing link between an Egyptian goddess, Nut, and the Milky Way. The Milky Way, a celestial body, is believed to be linked to Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the sky who swallowed the Sun and gave birth to it. However, attempts to map Nut’s body onto the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK STRATEGY Humility Is The Secret To Leadership? Key Takeaway: A study has found that humble leaders can become more promotable by growing others through a “humility route”. Human capital theory suggests that employees’ value can be enhanced by investing in their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Humble leaders focus on the learning and growth of their followers, creating human capital value for themselves. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY The Psychology Of A Gentleman Key Takeaway: The Gentlemen, a TV series by Guy Ritchie, reimagines the age-old trope of a “gentleman” based on Middle English and French. The term originated from Middle English, referring to the English gentry, a class below nobility but above farmers. The concept of a gentleman is associated with higher competence, warmth, and positive connotations […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY The Proven 5 Steps To Psychological Wellness Key Takeaway: Wellness culture, which claims to provide happiness and meaning, has been criticized for its superficial focus on superficial aspects like candles and juice cleanses. Psychological research suggests that long-term wellbeing comes from a committed pursuit of both pleasure and meaning. Martin Seligman’s Perma model, which breaks wellbeing into five pillars: positive emotions, engagement, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK 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, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY 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 […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK Panda Diplomacy: What We Can Learn About Chinese Economics Key Takeaway: San Diego Zoo and China’s Wildlife Conservation Association signed a deal in February 2024 to return Chinese giant pandas to the US by the end of the summer. This move signifies a warming of relations between the US and China, as well as a bid by China to help repair its struggling economy. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK STRATEGY Lessons From Sesame Street Key Takeaway: Educational media content for children, such as “Sesame Street” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” may seem simplistic to adult viewers. However, research has shown that children can learn important developmental and social skills through media. The Sesame Workshop has been testing content for decades to ensure children understand the intended messages and enjoy watching […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY How Algorithms Shape Our Taste In Music Key Takeaway: Spotify’s algorithmically generated “daylist” is a prime example of how tech platforms have shaped our music tastes over time. For over 15 years, the platform has been trying to predict or “compute tastes” based on data about users and everyone streaming on the platform. This data has influenced our tastes, as our preferences […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK Is Taylor Swift The New Shakespeare? Key Takeaway: The podcast “Studies in Taylor Swift” began in 2021, aiming to invent and catch up on the academic discipline of Taylor Swift studies. The podcast featured guest speakers with experience teaching Swift or thinking academically about her lyrics. In 2023, a summer school course on Taylor Swift and Literature was designed, and a […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why Vertical Farms Are Struggling Key Takeaway: Vertical farming, a revolutionary technology that promises fresh, locally grown food in stacked indoor environments, has faced setbacks in recent years. Despite these challenges, the fundamental principles of controlled-environment agriculture remain strong. The industry is still in its infancy, but its potential is greater in regions with less favorable growing conditions. Advances in […] Written by Empirics Asia March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Paradox Of Narcissism Key Takeaway: Narcissistic individuals often project self-assurance but have a deep need for external validation, revealing a fundamental insecurity. This gap between self-perception and reality affects relationships, emotional stability, and perception of reality. Narcissistic personality disorder, affecting a small percentage of the population, has far-reaching social consequences. Highly narcissistic individuals often display a pattern of […] Written by Empirics Asia March 10, 2025March 10, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Collision Course: The Doomsday Asteroid Flying Towards Earth Key Takeaway: A new asteroid, 2024 YR4, was detected in Chile at the end of 2024, with a small yet notable chance of colliding with Earth in 2032. Initially, estimates suggested a 3.1% probability of impact, but as of February 2024, calculations by the European Space Agency’s Near Earth Object Centre have revised this down […] Written by Empirics Asia February 25, 2025February 25, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Hidden Cost Of Cheap Furniture Key Takeaway: Fast furniture, which is mass-produced items designed for short-term use, is a growing environmental crisis. Millions of discarded pieces end up in landfills each year, contributing to a waste problem mirroring the fast fashion industry. To avoid fast furniture, consumers should identify it by noticing its price, materials, assembly methods, limited or unclear […] Written by Empirics Asia February 24, 2025February 24, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Democracy Really The Best System? Key Takeaway: Plato’s critique of democracy, particularly in his work “The Republic,” suggests that it is fundamentally flawed. Socrates, Plato’s mentor and teacher, argues that ruling a state is a skill, similar to piloting a ship or performing surgery. However, critics argue that this is not the case. Politics involves moral judgments, compromises, and social […] Written by Empirics Asia February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secret Memory Of Plants Key Takeaway: Plants have a unique memory that helps them survive in a constantly changing world. They have evolved defense mechanisms, such as immune priming, which allows them to remember past infections. However, plants lack this adaptive immune memory, relying on epigenetic changes to maintain a heightened state of defense. This memory can last generations, […] Written by Empirics Asia February 20, 2025February 20, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are We Alone In The Universe? Key Takeaway: New research challenges the hard-steps model of evolution, which suggests that human intelligence is an extremely rare event. The model suggests that intelligence takes billions of years to emerge on Earth, and that it is a result of rare and improbable evolutionary breakthroughs. Some scientists argue that the emergence of eukaryotic cells, oxygen-producing […] Written by Empirics Asia February 19, 2025February 19, 2025 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