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
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY Are Rich People More Intelligent? Key Takeaway: Intelligence is a crucial factor in determining one’s wealth, as it contributes to economic and professional success. It is the best predictor of both educational achievement and work performance, and academic and professional success are a fairly good forecaster of income. However, not all highly intelligent people are primarily driven by a desire […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS The Future Of China’s Semiconductor Industry Key Takeaway: China’s national champions for semiconductor design and manufacturing, HiSilicon and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), are making waves in Washington. Huawei’s launch of the Huawei Mate 60 smartphone in August 2023 showed that Chinese self-sufficiency in HiSilicon’s semiconductor design and SMIC’s manufacturing capabilities were catching up at an alarming pace. The US has […] 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
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Future Of Transhumanism Key Takeaway: Tech industry leaders are discussing the convergence between humans and machines, inspired by transhumanism. Elon Musk’s company Neuralink aims to facilitate this convergence, aiming to prevent humans from being left behind in technology advancements. Transhumanists advocate for the three “supers” of superintelligence, superlongevity, and superhappiness. Companies like OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic are racing […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK STRATEGY The Hidden Costs Of Lay-Offs Key Takeaway: Businesses are facing rising borrowing costs and wage growth, affecting industries like advertising and retail. Redundancies can impact all employees, including those at risk, survivors, and management and HR teams. Decreased trust can lead to a toxic work environment, causing employees to question loyalty and commitment. Psychological stress can lead to increased absenteeism, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Exploring The Secrets Of Our Brain Waves Key Takeaway: Brain-measuring tech is evolving, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional MRI being key tools in understanding brain activity. Brain states are recurring activity patterns distributed across the brain that emerge from physiological or cognitive processes. These states involve the synchronization of different brain regions and are functionally relevant. The most commonly studied […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK STRATEGY The Real Reason Why WeWork Failed Key Takeaway: WeWork, a co-working firm founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in 2010, filed for bankruptcy after announcing its failure. The company, which rented out desks, offices, and meeting rooms to companies and freelancers, promoted itself as a tech company, promising to boost workers’ social interaction and innovation. However, Neumann claimed that the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY How Technology Steals Our Time Key Takeaway: Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but it is causing us to spend more time on tasks that wouldn’t be possible without technology. A study of 300 people across Europe found that people are filling empty periods with tasks that wouldn’t be possible without technology, such as brain training apps and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY Quantum Computing In 2023 In June, an IBM computing executive claimed quantum computers were entering the โutilityโ phase, in which high-tech experimental devices become useful. In September, Australiaโs Chief Scientist Cathy Foley went so far as to declare โthe dawn of the quantum eraโ. This week, Australian physicist Michelle Simmons won the nationโs top science award for her work on developing silicon-based […] 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 Benoรฎt Bรฉchard March 8, 2024March 8, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
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. […] Written by Chee Meng Tan March 4, 2024March 4, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Insomnia Actually Bad? Key Takeaway: Insomnia, a major health issue, affects around a third of people, with women and older individuals more affected. Sleep deprivation can lead to increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mental illness. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risk of insomnia, which has led to a rise in mental health […] Written by Scott Cairney March 1, 2024March 1, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Art Of Getting Lost Key Takeaway: In 1967, French philosopher Guy Debord argued that we should not be passively consumed by images, but rather engage with them. The Situationist International movement, formed in 1957, aimed to create new ways to reflect on and experience cities as acts of resistance against profit-motivated capitalist structures. The group’s philosophy suggests that we […] Written by Stephen Dobson February 29, 2024February 29, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Rise Of Robo-Retail Key Takeaway: Canada’s first robotic cafe, RC Coffee, opened in Toronto in October 2020, reviving the concept of a restaurant where food and drinks are served by technology. The trend of digitally enabled retail automation has grown in popularity in Canada over the past decade, driven by safety concerns and labor shortages. As of the […] Written by Mathew Iantorno February 28, 2024February 28, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Science Behind The Loch Ness Monster Key Takeaway: The Loch Ness legend, a mysterious freshwater lake in Scotland, has been passed down through generations as mythological creatures. The lake, which is 23 miles long, wide, and deep, has been a subject of fascination for millions of people. However, no physical evidence of an unusual or prehistoric creature has ever been found. […] Written by Michael A. Little February 27, 2024February 27, 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 โ a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Ravenโs Matrices โ 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 Instituteโs new report, โReskilling China: Transforming The Worldโs Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learnersโ, which focuses on the countryโs 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 Youโre 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 Iโm about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and Iโll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what โcommunityโ means for business. โWhere should community fit in my organization?โ and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked