The Nudge Debate: Considering how mentally lazy most of us are, a little soft paternalism that forces us to choose what’s good for us is probably just what we all need

August 8, 2013

The Nudge Debate

By DAVID BROOKS

This has been a great era for the study of error. We know that people can be induced to buy more cans of soup if you put a “Limit: 12 per customer” sign on the display. We know that if you ask people what movie they want to see next week, they’re likely to mention a classy art film. But, if you ask them what movie they want to see tonight, they’re more likely to mention a mindless blockbuster. In addition, people are pretty bad at sacrificing short-term pleasure for long-term benefit. We’re bad at calculating risk. We’re mentally lazy. We make decision-making errors when thinking in our own language that we don’t make when thinking in another language. When asked to think in a second language, we’re forced to put in a little more mental effort. Read more of this post

Events for Weekend Warriors Become a Gold Mine; Forget Silicon Valley—In the Latest Startup Craze, Fortune Is Being Spun from a Sport of the Cave Man

August 8, 2013, 8:14 p.m. ET

Events for Weekend Warriors Become a Gold Mine

Forget Silicon Valley—In the Latest Startup Craze, Fortune Is Being Spun from a Sport of the Cave Man

KEVIN TRAHAN and KEVIN HELLIKER

The foot race isn’t new. Cave men probably invented it. But suddenly it’s gushing wealth for entrepreneurs, big companies and private-equity firms. The weekend-warrior market is a gold mine, and tapping into it doesn’t require Silicon Valley-style geek credentials or venture capital. Nor must a sports-business career begin anymore in the mail room of a sports network or big-league franchise. Joe Reynolds was 27 when he launched Red Frog Events, a Chicago-based producer of adventure races. In 2012, its sixth year, Red Frog posted revenue exceeding $50 million, prompting Inc. magazine to call it the nation’s ninth-fastest growing company. It can’t add races fast enough to satisfy demand for its $60-and-up slots. Read more of this post

UPS’s Scott Davis on Shipping Sharks, Work Rules, and the Post Office

UPS’s Scott Davis on Shipping Sharks, Work Rules, and the Post Office

By Devin Leonard on August 08, 2013

Have you shipped live sharks?
Yeah. We probably ship a little bit of everything, whales, you name it. We’ve got to be able to handle any precious commodity, and health care is obviously the area we’re moving into. So while we’re doing sharks and lobsters and whales, at the same time people are waiting on the operating table for some things that we’ve got to get to them.

Isn’t that dangerous, shipping live sharks?
It can be. You’ve got to have experts help you.

How do you ship a live whale?
It’s a big container. Read more of this post

Family businesses with succession plans in place are more likely to achieve a better credit rating and as such able to borrow easier than those with no plan

SUCCESSION PLANS KEY TO RATINGS FOR FAMBIZ

ARTICLE | 8 AUGUST, 2013 12:11 PM | BY JESSICA TASMAN-JONES

Family businesses with succession plans in place are more likely to achieve a better credit rating and as such able to borrow easier than those with no plan, according to report from the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s. The report said that family businesses were susceptible to so-called “key man” syndrome, whereby a dominant family figure is associated with the success of the business. But Trevor Pritchard, managing director of corporate ratings at S&P said that this risk can be mitigated by a family business having a clear succession plan in place and this would give help to reassure the ratings agency that the business wasn’t too reliant on one individual. Read more of this post

Investor Loses It Over Adulation And Sympathy For ‘Newspaper Families’ Like The Grahams — This Is A Story Of Incompetence!

Investor Loses It Over Adulation And Sympathy For ‘Newspaper Families’ Like The Grahams — This Is A Story Of Incompetence!

HENRY BLODGET AUG. 8, 2013, 8:02 AM 2,691 12

I was minding my own business last night when I got the note below from a respected investor. As you will see, the investor has had it with all the adulation and sympathy being showered on newspaper families like the Grahams, who are being extolled for their decades-long “stewardship” of institutions like the Washington Post and New York Times and pitied for the terrible misfortune they and society have recently endured. In the common telling, the investor observes, the Grahams and other newspaper families are cast as victims of an unforeseeable and horrible trend–the unstoppable rise of an invasive technology that has crippled the newspaper business and threatened a profession that has held society together for decades. The Grahams have done their heroic best, this story goes, but the forces of evil have just been too numerous and overwhelming. Now, finally, the brave and intrepid Grahams have had no choice but to surrender. So the world will now go to the dogs. Read more of this post