Adele, Stripe, History of Science, Americans, Jean Tirole
The Beatles, Schubert, And Adele
Ian Jack | Guardian | 5th December 2015
In 1963 a London Times music critic called The Beatles the "best songwriters since Schubert". The judgement, bold in its day, has aged well. Does any more recent songwriter have the genius of Schubert — who, though his audience may skew older these days, died at just 31? Adele comes "remarkably close", lyrically at least. Her writing "springs from the same youthful kind of agitation, depression and longing" (1,300 words)
Patrick Collison Explains Stripe
John Collison | Blitzscaling | 28th November 2015
Transcript. Youthful CEO of payments start-up Stripe gives masterclass on management to Stanford students. "We’re relatively conventionally organized. There’s always a temptation to reconceive the nature of humanity and social structure; you should really try to discourage that inner voice. Do you really want to add your novel organizational ontology as an additional business risk factor?" (3,700 words)
Matthew Cobb On The History Of Science
Jo Marchant | Five Books | 4th December 2015
Zoologist discusses five books for understanding the history of science, including The Scientific Revolution, by Stephen Shapin. "What Shapin has done in this book is to question the narrative scientists employ when they project what they think they do today on to the past, when people behaved very differently ... If you imagine that Newton was like Brian Cox, you won’t really understand what was going on" (5,100 words)
How To Be An American
Eric Liu | Democracy | 11th November 2015
Can we capture the knowledge essential for 21st-century American life in 5,000 words and phrases, as E.D. Hirsch did for 20th-century America in Cultural Literacy? Hirsch put Anglo-American culture and history at the centre of his canon, reflecting the balance of power thirty years ago. Any new "story of us" will have to connect many cultures and histories equally, for an America which is no longer so white (4,530 words)
French Lessons From Jean Tirole
Jean Tirole | Financial Times | 4th December 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
Nobel prize-winning economist talks about France. The quality of life and the quality of institutions is still good. But a continuing high rate of immigration threatens more social problems unless the newcomers have decent job prospects. The government is over-borrowed. The State is too big. A victory for the National Front in the next presidential election could ruin everything (850 words)
Video of the day: The Shoemaker
What to expect: Documentary. Man quits after 25 years working for the phone company, retrains as a shoe designer (5'51")
Thought for the day
The solutions need to be simpler than the problems
Nicholas Nassim Taleb