Management, Trumped, Nuclear Ships, Stephen Curry, Gender

The Company And The Creed Of Speed

Briefing | The Economist | 3rd December 2015 | | Read with 1Pass

Apple envy. "America’s business establishment chastises itself for being too slow. If you ask the boss of any big American company what is changing his business, odds are he’ll say speed. Firms are born and die faster, it is widely claimed ... The idea that time is speeding up is clearly popular. It is also plausible. There is just one problem. It is very hard to prove that it is actually happening" (2,800 words)

Weird Money

JP Koning | Moneyness | 21st November 2015

What's a 'bond coin'? In practice, it's an attempt by the Zimbabwe Central Bank to circulate coinage that people trust despite a recent peak inflation rate of 79.6 billion percent. In theory ... well, there is no theory, because the explanation is missing from the bank's website. There is a guarantee, allegedly. The coins seem to be working as a medium of exchange; but are they also a unit of account? (1,234 words)

And If Trump Wins …

Ward Baker | NRSC | 22nd September 2015

Republican strategist advices Senatorial candidates how to campaign if Donald Trump wins the GOP presidential nomination. "Trump has risen because voters see him as authentic, independent, direct, firm, — and believe he can’t be bought. These are the same character traits our candidates should be advancing in 2016 ... Understand the populist points Trump makes and ride that wave" (1,730 words)

When America Dreamed: Nuclear-Powered Cargo Ships

Dan Wang | Flexport | 2nd December 2015

The NS Savannah was supposed to be the first of many American nuclear-powered merchant ships. She turned out to be the last. Launched in 1964, she was capable of circling the planet 14 times without refuelling or emitting greenhouse gases. But she also dumped huge quantities of low-level radioactive water into the sea, for lack of onboard storage. She was decommissioned in 1971 (1,600 words)

Stephen Curry Is The Revolution

Benjamin Morris | FiveThirtyEight | 3rd December 2015

Sabermetrics for basketball. "Curry isn’t a product of the math; he’s so good that he has his own math. The deeper you dive into the data, the more you realize that Curry isn’t just a deadly efficient shooter, but he’s also virtually immune to burden. As he has been asked to produce more and more, he hasn’t gotten any less efficient. The data doesn’t show even the tiniest hint that Curry is anywhere near his limits yet" (3,100 words)

Many Ways To Be Male And Female

Cordelia Fine & Daphna Joel | Guardian | 1st December 2015

There is no "male brain" or "female brain". The physical brain is a mosaic of features and regions which can be changed by external stimuli. Some structural properties are found more often in men, or in women, but all can be found in both genders. The same is true of behavioural and emotional traits. The more rigorously you try to define gender, the more the definitions collapse into one another (1,140 words)

Video of the day: An Open-Hearted Doorman

What to expect: The story of a friendship between a New York City resident and her doorman (3'54")

Thought for the day

The solutions need to be simpler than the problems
Nicholas Nassim Taleb