When most people first met Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) in the early part of his reign as premier of the Soviet Union, they found him surprisingly charming. Although older than most of his lieutenants, he encouraged them all to address him with the familiar “you” form in Russian. He made himself completely accessible even to junior […]
Despite our pronounced irrational tendencies, two factors should give us all hope. First and foremost is the existence throughout history and in all cultures of people of high rationality, the types who have made progress possible. They serve as ideals for all of us to aim for. These include Pericles, the ruler Aśoka of ancient […]
Every day the mailboxes of America are filled with solicitations provided by the direct marketing industry. America’s response to this deluge has been strangely mixed. On the negative side, poorly executed direct marketing produces unwanted, annoying, and wasteful solicitations, also known as “junk mail.” Also, aggressive direct marketing techniques, aided by new tools in technology, […]
According to many social scientists, the most important thing in life is a person’s social and professional network. In other words, the people around you, your team, and the people you work with. If you have poor people around you, you will probably be poor. As the saying goes “Birds of a feather flock together”. […]
In 1991, a first-year PhD student named Amy Edmondson began visiting hospital wards, intending to show that good teamwork and good medicine went hand in hand. But the data kept saying she was wrong. Edmondson was studying organizational behavior at Harvard. A professor had asked her to help with a study of medical mistakes, and […]
Let’s get right to the point: good people are not just crucial to a business, they are the business! Finding them, managing them, inspiring them and then holding on to them is one of the most important challenges a business leader faces, and your success or lack thereof plays a vital role in the long-term […]
When, on the evening of Decemeber 12, 1900, some eighty of the nation’s financial nobility in the banquet hall of the University Club on Fifth Avenue to do honor to a young man from of the West, not half a dozen of the guests realize they were to witness the most significant episode in American […]
Looking at genetic data in the Eastern Mediterranean with my collaborator the geneticist Pierre Zalloua, we noticed that both invaders, Turks and Arabs, left few genes, and in the case of Turkey, the tribes from East and Central Asia brought an entirely new language. Turkey, shockingly, is still inhabited by the populations of Asia Minor […]
Have you ever thought about your identity? Not just your name and vital statistics, but what and who you are? Where we are in life is based on our identity. Our future worth and opportunities will also be based on our identity. Many people think if they change their circumstances (e.g. get a new, higher […]
As you know, there is a lot to learn to become an entrepreneur. If you do not like to learn about a lot of different things, and learn fast, it is best to stay an employee or stay small in the S quadrant. I have a friend who is a chef. She has her own […]