ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS 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, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE Does Science Show Free Will Doesn’t Exist? Key Takeaway: Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky’s book, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, has been criticized for arguing that free will is an illusion. Determinism, the idea that we are causally determined to act as we do due to our histories, is a radical position that only 11% of philosophers agree with. However, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Does Blindness Change Our Sense Of Sound? Key Takeaway: A recent study published in PNAS found that blind individuals are better at perceiving auditory motion than sighted people. The study involved blind participants who were asked to judge the direction of a sound embedded in bursts of background noise. The results showed that blind participants were able to determine the direction of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY What Modern People Get Wrong About Stoicism Key Takeaway: Stoicism, a philosophical school popular in ancient Rome, is often associated with happiness and productivity. However, Stoic TikTok, a popular social media platform, often misinterprets its ideas. Stoicism was traditionally divided into three branches: ethics, physics, and logic. Stoic TikTok focuses on knowledge through reading quotations or practicing mental exercises, but it doesn’t […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY A Guide To The Ideas Of Modern Philosopher Slavoj Žižek Key Takeaway: Slavoj Žižek, a philosopher and cultural theorist, has written numerous books on various topics, including philosophy, psychoanalysis, pop culture, and commentary on recent events. He is known for his controversial debate with Jordan Peterson in 2019 about the connection between Marxism, capitalism, and happiness. Žižek’s work often critiques political ideologies, which can explain […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK The Mathematics Of The Multiverse Key Takeaway: The discovery that physics is fine-tuned for life has been a topic of debate among physicists. The strength of dark energy, the force that powers the accelerating expansion of the universe, is considered the most plausible explanation for the fine-tuning of physics. However, experts in probability argue that multiverse theorists commit the inverse […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP The Paradoxical Life Of Elon Musk Key Takeaway: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has a diverse career in space exploration, electric cars, AI, and social media. His biography, written by Walter Isaacson, covers events up to Space X’s unsuccessful Starship rocket launch in April 2023. Isaacson interviews Musk and uncovered newsworthy information, such as his Starlink satellite network’s crucial role […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY Understanding Cancel Culture Key Takeaway: The rise of user-created content on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok has challenged traditional notions of authorship. YouTube cancellation videos, a unique sub-genre of YouTube apology videos, show how creators take responsibility for accusations, question the validity of others, and address the dynamics of social media cancellation more broadly in relation to […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Do I Even Exist? Brave New World. The Matrix. The Truman Show. Inception. Source Code. And the latest dystopia I’ve seen: Archive. They all trade on the same group of basic structures: the idea that we do not exist, and moreover, may never have; that we are but algorithms; that we are mere vestiges of something past; or that reality is anything but real, in spite of the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK How Lionel Messi Fits Into Qatar’s Game Plan Lionel Messi’s emotional though lucrative move to Paris Saint-Germain is now complete. After scoring 672 goals for Barcelona, the football world eagerly awaits what he can bring to the French league. His new club’s owners, meanwhile, will be looking slightly further ahead, with a focus on 2022. Since Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) first bought a majority stake in Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in […] 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
Democratising Finance Through Artificial Intelligence Key Takeaway: Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing investment by making professional financial insight and portfolio management accessible to everyone. AI-powered robo-advisers, such as Betterment and Vanguard, are democratizing investment and providing tailored advice to a new generation of investors. With 31% of gen Zs and 20% of millennials using robo-advisers, the financial industry is adapting […] Written by Heather He March 19, 2024March 19, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why MH370 Is Still A Mystery Key Takeaway: Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared less than an hour after take-off in March 2014, leaving a massive mystery. The plane’s flight path was a mystery, with intermittent satellite location information suggesting it was flown south on a different path. The search involved over 300 flights, surface and submersible vehicle surveys, and was one […] Written by Jamie Pringle March 12, 2024March 12, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Of Spacesuits Key Takeaway: The Polaris Dawn mission, which includes the first spacewalk organized by a private company, has been delayed due to complications with the design and development of a suitable spacesuit. Moon suits are a key element of Nasa’s Artemis lunar programme that have yet to be delivered. Spacesuits are no longer expected to be […] Written by Yang Gao March 11, 2024March 11, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why We Will Never Master The Financial Markets Key Takeaways: Stock market enthusiasts often claim to predict financial market trends with great accuracy, but this is not possible due to the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of the environments in which we make daily decisions. Human cognition tends to favor a reductionist approach to information processing, sometimes called “tunneling,” which can lead to biased […] Written by Benoît Béchard March 8, 2024March 8, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is There Life On Europa? Key Takeaway: The Juno mission has sampled Jupiter’s atmosphere for the first time, revealing that Europa’s icy surface produces less oxygen than previously thought. Europa has an ocean below its icy surface with twice the amount of water as Earth’s oceans and an ocean floor in contact with rock, enabling chemical water-rock interactions that produce […] Written by Andrew Coates March 7, 2024March 7, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Halo Effect Key Takeaway: A recent study suggests that the “halo effect” is more complicated than previously thought, as attractive people may receive more help from strangers, higher wages, and more job opportunities. This can lead to more favorable treatment in life, such as lighter prison sentences. However, in court, jurors show biases, and more attractive defendants […] Written by Robin Kramer March 6, 2024March 6, 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