BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK How China’s Property Crisis Will Impact Global Tourism Key Takeaway: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the Chinese travel industry, with a slow return to global flights due to the country’s struggling real estate sector. China’s largest developer, Country Garden, lost $7.1 billion in the first six months of 2023, and investors are concerned about potential debt default. Local governments heavily rely on tax […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK How Video Games Are Reviving Classical Music Key Takeaways: Starfield, a highly anticipated video game, allows players to build their own character and spacecraft, travel to multiple planets, and follow multiple story arcs. The game’s interactive music uses a palette of musical language that cultivates a contemplative soundscape, launching the listener into the vastness of space while remaining curious, innocent, and restrained. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS The Age Of Resource Nationalism Key Takeaway: China’s new export regime is reportedly in response to western restrictions on equipment essential for semiconductor devices, such as the US CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. This could affect Beijing’s capacity for high-performance computing in areas like defense. Both germanium and gallium are crucial to technological advancement, with germanium being particularly useful […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE New Studies Show Bitcoin Has No Mainstream Use And Is More Like Gambling Key Takeaway Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are becoming mainstream, but the true success of these cryptocurrencies depends on the average punter selling them for more than they bought them. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s data shows that cryptocurrency is rarely used for buying things, with only 2% of adults using it as a payments instrument. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY TECHNOLOGY What It Means To Be Authentic In The Age Of A.I. Key Takeaway: Authenticity is important for both individuals and society, as it is a social glue that reinforces trust. People need to reexamine and recalibrate how authenticity is judged. Social science offers guidance on what makes something feel authentic. George Newman found three dimensions of authenticity: historical authenticity, categorical authenticity, and values and beliefs. Generative […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK The Life Story Of Nobel Prize Winner Kenzaburo Oe Key Takeaways: Kenzaburō Ōe was a literary giant who criticised factors damaging democracy and human rights in Japan, including nationalistic governmental policies, atomic power plants, and the imperial system. His early work explored the relationship between disenfranchised individuals and authoritarian power. Ōe’s “ambiguity” in Japan was a response to Kawabata’s “beautiful” representation, highlighting the multiplicity […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Exploring Kintsugi: The Japanese Philosophy Of Imperfection Key Takeaways: The art of kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery. If a bowl is broken, the fragments are put back together with a glue-like tree sap and the cracks are adorned with gold. There are no attempts to hide the damage, instead, it is highlighted. The practice has come to represent […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK How Flooding Impacts The Economy Key Takeaways: The impacts of natural disasters, in particular those related to climate change, have been attracting growing attention. The results show that floods hamper GDP, with the extent depending on how financial intermediary activities respond to the floods. The study is related to a growing literature that quantifies the impact on natural disasters such […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK The Story Of Issey Miyake Key Takeaways: Designer Issey Miyake has died aged 84, leaving an indelible mark on the fashion world. He sustained a serious leg injury and lost his mother to radiation sickness soon after, events which inspired him to “think of things that can be created, not destroyed”. Issey Miyake’s time in Paris after the student protests […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK Has Japan Been Left Behind In The Global EV Race? Key Takeaways: Sony and Honda’s announcement that their alliance to produce electric vehicleswill see the creation of an independent company with a new brand typifies the challenges the Japanese motor industry faces in transitioning away from petrol and diesel vehicles. A world beater that created its own management philosophy has been living in a comfort […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Understanding The Sunk Cost Fallacy Key Takeaway: The sunk cost fallacy is a common tendency where people make decisions based on past costs rather than current events or future events. This can lead to high-stakes decisions and can affect choices that have bigger consequences for our lives. For example, Bob might base his decision on the original price of a […] Written by Empirics Asia November 28, 2023November 28, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
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 […] Written by Matthew Duncombe November 27, 2023November 27, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Does Music Manipulate Our Memories? Key Takeaway: Studies in psychology are beginning to understand how music helps people remember films, scenes, and characters. Music can help us understand characters, create deeper emotional links, and create mood-congruency effects when the music and movie both make us feel the same way. Irony and mood-incongruity effects occur when music and movies make us […] Written by Empirics Asia November 21, 2023November 21, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secrets Of Our Mental Dictionary Key Takeaway: Your mental lexicon is a unique and personalized collection of words, influenced by your educational, professional, cultural, and other experiences. It varies in size from person to person and according to age, with the average American English speaker being around 42,000 words richer at 20 than at 60. The brain’s memory is dynamic […] Written by Empirics Asia November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Inside The Minds Of Magicians Key Takeaway: A study examining the mental health of magicians found that they exhibited similar traits to people with mental illnesses like schizophrenia and autism. Magicians, who both create and perform their own shows, require precision and technical skills to entertain the audience. They scored lower on nearly every psychotic symptom compared to the general […] Written by Gils Greengross November 16, 2023November 16, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Netflix Has Been Growing Itself Key Takeaway: Netflix, a streaming giant, experienced a decline in subscribers in 2022 due to competition from Disney and Amazon Prime. However, it has since rebounded, adding 8.8 million subscribers in Q3 2023. The company’s success can be attributed to its international approach, with over 70% of its subscribers coming from outside the US. It […] Written by Jean Chalaby November 15, 2023November 15, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Time Travel Possible? Key Takeaway: Time travel, the idea of moving between different points in time, has been a popular fantasy for centuries. However, the question of whether time is reversible remains unresolved in science. The second law of thermodynamics suggests that the universe can either remain the same or become more disordered over time. Albert Einstein’s theory […] Written by Adi Foord November 14, 2023November 14, 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