BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK What We Can Learn From Kanye West And Adidas Key Takeaways: Brand collaborations are strategic partnerships between two or more brands. When done well, the collaboration helps both partners grow their brands and amplify a shared message. But just like any marriage, it doesn’t always go well; recent examples include Yeezy’s breakups with Gap and Adidas. Adidas has ended its partnership with Yeezy after […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Megacities In The Digital Age Key Takeaways: Digitization and crowdsourcing will actually undermine the very foundations of the megacity economy, which is typically built on some combination of manufacturing, commerce, retail and professional services. Shopping malls, for example, which once thrived in megacities, are now suffering from the advent of e-commerce. Today, megacities have become synonymous with economic growth. In both developing and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK Why 2022 Will Be The Automotive Industry’s Make Or Break Year If nothing else, the global chip shortage has exposed the automotive industry’s Groundhog Day: a sector reliant on very old semiconductors that are unprofitable for chipmakers to produce, meaning they have to build special factories with technologies that they no longer use in their cutting-edge processes. So while the consumer electronics industry will soon be over the chip crisis, the automotive […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY How The Pandemic Changed Digital Journalism In the last decade, smartphones and mobile technology have altered newsrooms, transforming news gathering, live broadcasting and content distribution. Trained on an iPhone 4s at the University of Sheffield in 2011, I was one of the first mobile journalists in the UK. Over the course of my career broadcasting live, from war zones in Iraq to tornados […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SOCIOLOGY Consumerism vs. Cultivation Over the past three years, I have become increasingly disappointed in capitalism. It’s not that I’ve landed on the wrong side of the equation. I am squarely on the “winning” side. So, my misgivings aren’t fueled by personal feelings of exclusion or hardship. They are fed by an increasing awareness about the extent of destruction […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS SOCIOLOGY Do Unbiased Juries Exist In An Age Of Social Media Jury selection that began on Oct. 18, 2021, in the trial of three men accused of murdering unarmed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery has been, according to an NPR report, a “very painstaking process.” That’s because it’s been hard to find jurors who have not been exposed to media reports of Arbery’s death or a graphic video […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP STRATEGY How Images Get Customers To Time Travel Aconsumer shopping for a midcentury sofa may be more likely to buy it if the background in its advertisement is a little disorganized. Likewise, people looking to purchase a new smartphone could more quickly pull the trigger if the ad were simple and sleek. That’s because ads for vintage products are more appealing when they […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE TECHNOLOGY The 2 Things Needed For Crypto To Truly Change The World What do we need for crypto to really hit the big time? What does it take for crypto to turn into something nobody can live without, something invisible and universal that everyone just uses and nobody even thinks about anymore? All technological revolutions follow the same patterns. Over time, we go from a few smart […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS FINANCE TECHNOLOGY Bitcoin And Latin American Economies: Opportunity or Danger? The announcement last week by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that his country would be adopting bitcoin as legal tender, made during a live broadcast at the Bitcoin 2021 conference held in Miami, and subsequently approved four days later by the Central American country’s Parliament, sent the cryptocurrency’s share price up by 5%. In recent weeks, Bitcoin’s value had been hit by increasingly stringent controls over its use in […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK How Should Tomorrow’s Economy Look Like? A few days ago, thanks to my algorithmic recommendations — not from the sources I usually read, but selected on the basis of subject matter of interest to me — I came across an article about a 57-year-old American who after being released following a 37-year jail term, was asked about his impressions of something as commonplace as a smartphone, or the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Makes Economic Plans Key Takeaway China’s decision-making calendar is structured with key moments when it makes plans for its economic and political future. These include two sessions, study sessions of the politburo, and the declaration of President Xi Jinping’s third term as general secretary. The Chinese political calendar features seven plenary sessions to establish a unified vision for […] Written by Mark Greeven May 24, 2023May 24, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Science Of Cringe Key Takeaway Cringe is a physical and emotional emotion that can help people better understand themselves and one another. A recent study showed that cringe-filled entertainment can actually help people better understand themselves and one another. The study found that binge-watching a show with cringeworthy moments can be therapeutic, as it reminds us of the […] Written by Anuja Anil Pradhan May 23, 2023May 23, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Concept Of Beauty In The Middle Ages Key Takeaway: Standards of beauty have been embedded in different cultures since time immemorial, often based on binary notions of idealised forms of femininity or masculinity. Eleanor Janega’s book explores medieval women’s social roles to consider the ways that women’s roles have and haven’t changed. Religious women in the middle ages used weaponised beauty to […] Written by Empirics Asia May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
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 […] Written by Victor Lee May 3, 2023May 3, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Importance Of Solitude Key Takeaway: Solitude is different from loneliness, as it can be found in public spaces and can have a positive impact on our daily mood. It can help us deal with feelings of frustration, agitation or anger. Spending time alone can be difficult and lonely, so it is important to have something to do during […] Written by Thuy-vy Nguyen May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Of Digital Journalism After BuzzFeed Key Takeaway: Buzzfeed News has announced it will shut its award-winning news division for good, laying off 60 journalists. This is bad news for those involved and a tragedy for the wider digital news media, as it produced hard-edged, scoop-heavy journalism. Media companies sought to emulate Buzzfeed’s irreverent and flippant style, but its quality journalism […] Written by Sean Dodson May 1, 2023May 1, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Will The Earth Last Forever? Key Takeaway: The Earth formed from a nebula 4.6 billion years ago, and the atmosphere of the early Earth was not oxygen-rich. Cyanobacteria were the first organisms to produce oxygen, and humans emerged 200,000-2 million years ago. The Sun provides energy and plants for food and oxygen. The Earth’s surface is constantly changing, leading to […] Written by Shichun Huang April 20, 2023April 20, 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
