People don’t actually like creativity. To live creatively is a choice. You must make a commitment to your own mind and the possibility that you will not be accepted. You have to let go of satisfying people, often even yourself

Inside the Box

People don’t actually like creativity.

By Jessica Olien

In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be an asset, even a virtue. Online job boards burst with ads recruiting “idea people” and “out of the box” thinkers. We are taught that our own creativity will be celebrated as well, and that if we have good ideas, we will succeed. Read more of this post

Gary Vaynerchuk’s 6 Secrets To Creating Great Social Content

Gary Vaynerchuk’s 6 Secrets To Creating Great Social Content

ALISON GRISWOLD0DEC 14, 2013, 02.49 AM

It’s no secret that social media can be a key ingredient to success for small businesses. But harnessing the power of social and creating engaging, shareable content is often more difficult than they expect. Author and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk thinks he may have found the magic formula. And considering his 1 million followers on Twitter and 150,000 followers on Facebook, he seems to be onto something. Read more of this post

Students taught to beat the haze in China… with kungfu

Students taught to beat the haze in China… with kungfu

Saturday, Dec 14, 2013

These students aren’t preparing for a martial arts tournament – they are learning a set of moves to help their bodies cope with air pollution. A primary school in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province has started to teach children a special set of martial arts so that they can protect themselves from the haze in China, according to chinanews.com. The regimen comprises 23 moves believed to enhance physical fitness and strengthen the lungs and tendons of the body. Haze levels in China have surged off the charts in recent months, and are expected to increase even further during the winter months, when colder temperatures keep polluted air nearer the ground instead of dispersing it higher in the atmosphere.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s 6 Secrets To Creating Great Social Content

Gary Vaynerchuk’s 6 Secrets To Creating Great Social Content

ALISON GRISWOLD0DEC 14, 2013, 02.49 AM

It’s no secret that social media can be a key ingredient to success for small businesses. But harnessing the power of social and creating engaging, shareable content is often more difficult than they expect. Author and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk thinks he may have found the magic formula. And considering his 1 million followers on Twitter and 150,000 followers on Facebook, he seems to be onto something. Read more of this post

This New Form-Fitting Spacesuit Could Revolutionize How Astronauts Move In Space

This New Form-Fitting Spacesuit Could Revolutionize How Astronauts Move In Space

HARRISON JACOBS0DEC 13, 2013, 10.23 PM

Spacesuits are sometimes called the world’s smallest spacecraft, but they are anything but small for the astronauts wearing them.

MIT Aeronautics researcher Dava Newman has been working for more than a decade on a revolutionary space suit that could change all that. Read more of this post

$16 Million Gold Mao Statue Unveiled In China

$16 Million Gold Mao Statue Unveiled In China

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE0DEC 13, 2013, 06.07 PM

A gold and jade statue of Mao Zedong worth more than $16 million was unveiled Friday, in the latest example of Communist China’s indecision over how to commemorate its founding father’s 120th anniversary.

Read more of this post

The man who invented the karaoke machine never patented it

The man who invented the karaoke machine never patented it

By Roberto A. Ferdman @robferdman December 18, 2013

Daisuke Inoue should be sitting on a fortune right now. Back in 1971 Inoue brought the world’s first karaoke machine to market. Had he patented his invention, the royalties from the device that now populates bars and homes all over the world might be worth millions. But he never did. Read more of this post

Indira Jaising, 73, is India’s top female federal legal advisor and co-founder of the Lawyers Collective, an advocacy group focusing on the rights of women and minorities

December 16, 2013, 8:30 AM

Q&A: No Time Like This Since the Emergency

JOANNA SUGDEN

Indira Jaising, 73, is India’s top female federal legal advisor and co-founder of the Lawyers Collective, an advocacy group focusing on the rights of women and minorities. A year after the Delhi gang rape, Ms. Jaising, who is India’s additional solicitor general, spoke to The Wall Street Journal about the discrimination she faces as a female lawyer and discusses what the legal system needs to effectively deal with crimes against women as well as the challenges in store for the women’s movement. Edited excerpts:

The Wall Street Journal: Have you known a year like 2013?

Indira Jaising: It’s quite exceptional, I haven’t seen a time like this. Perhaps in 1975 around the Emergency, the kind of activism and public consciousness of an event, you can compare this to that time. People are growing up to the fact that women’s issues really matter. [Note: Political unrest engulfed India in 1975 after then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency and dissolved parliament] Read more of this post

To Learn Chinese Culture, Take a Walk

To Learn Chinese Culture, Take a Walk

Dec. 18, 2013 12:42 a.m. ET

Malcolm McKenzie, an educator who has run schools in the U.S., Wales and Botswana, moved to Beijing earlier this year to help open the new Keystone Academy. The South African native spoke to the Journal about an aborted journey to the South Pole, why he loves airports, and encountering elephants in the African jungle.

How often do you travel?

Since coming to Beijing in July, I’ve been to Colombia, Connecticut, and South Africa twice. In the last 18 months, I’ve been to South Africa and Botswana five or six times, to Colombia, New Zealand, China a number of times before moving here, Chile and Argentina—and an aborted attempt to get to the Antarctic. Read more of this post

That $2.5 Million Classic Jaguar You’re Eying May Be Fake

That $2.5 Million Classic Jaguar You’re Eying May Be Fake

In the 1930s, British sports-car maker MG made exactly 33 of the K3 open-top race car. If you want to buy one now, there are more than 100 to choose from. No, the defunct carmaker didn’t restart production. The tripling of the K3 fleet is part of the booming trade in fake antique autos as soaring prices for classic cars spur sophisticated counterfeits, according to Bernhard Kaluza, vice president of international antique auto club FIVA. Read more of this post

Buffett, Slim, Greenspan, Tyson Pick Best Books of 2013

Buffett, Slim, Greenspan, Tyson Pick Best Books of 2013

Investor Warren Buffett enjoyed learning more about how his son tries to tackle world hunger, while fellow billionaire Carlos Slim studied how General Motors Co. and AT&T Inc. reinvented themselves. Pacific Investment Management Co. Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian zeroed in on U.S. politics and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew sought insight in the work of his predecessors. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked at American prosperity, while World Bank President Jim Yong Kim probed innovation. These were some of the responses to the annual Bloomberg News survey, which asked CEOs, investors, current and former policy makers, economists and academics to name their favorite books of 2013. The most popular selection was “The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White and the Making of a New World Order” by Benn Steil. Others included “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” by Brad Stone, a senior writer at Bloomberg Businessweek; “The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914” by Margaret MacMillan and “The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire” by Neil Irwin. Read more of this post

Hidden Billionaire Moratti Brothers Time Saras IPO Right

Hidden Billionaire Moratti Brothers Time Saras IPO Right

Timing was of the essence for Italy’s billionaire Moratti brothers, who sold 40 percent of refiner Saras SpA (SRS) just as the European oil business began to falter.

The CHART OF THE DAY maps the mostly cash fortunes of Gian Marco Moratti, 77, and Massimo Moratti, 68, against the Milan-based company’s share price from its initial public offering in May 2006. The company was founded by their father in 1962, who opened its Sarroch refinery on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia three years later. Since its offering, the business has suffered with other European refineries on declining demand, closures and shrinking margins. Read more of this post

Chuck Schwab: Pioneer, Innovator, Procrastinator

Chuck Schwab: Pioneer, Innovator, Procrastinator

When Charles R. Schwab started his own firm in the 1970s, he and other discount brokers opened up the markets to regular folks, giving them the chance to make colossal investing mistakes just like Wall Street’s fancier clientele. Of course, Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) also made it easier for lucky or smart amateurs to make lots of money in the markets, while paying dramatically lower trading fees than they would at traditional Wall Street brokerage firms. Eventually, the company, which expanded into 401(k) plan management, banking and the investment advisory business, made Chuck Schwab a billionaire. Read more of this post

Scientists have discovered a cave on the Indonesian island of Sumatra that provides a “stunning” record of Indian Ocean tsunamis over thousands of years

‘Stunning’ tsunami record discovered in Indonesia cave

Friday, December 13, 2013 – 22:16

AFP

JAKARTA – Scientists said Friday they have discovered a cave on the Indonesian island of Sumatra that provides a “stunning” record of Indian Ocean tsunamis over thousands of years. They say layers of tsunami-borne sediments found in the cave in northwest Sumatra suggest the biggest destructive waves do not occur at set intervals – meaning communities in the area should be prepared at all times for a tsunami. Read more of this post

Preschool Rape Case Plunges Family Into Indian Nightmare; the ‘Uncle’ in the Bathroom

Preschool Rape Case Plunges Family Into Indian Nightmare; the ‘Uncle’ in the Bathroom

The 3-year-old was limp on the family bed in New Delhi, staring at the ceiling. She didn’t want to eat. She wouldn’t speak. She barely moved. “Lying around, like a dead body,” her father said. She usually came skittering home from preschool full of joy, a whirl of noise and motion, giggles bouncing off the concrete walls. Her stillness worried her family. Then she vomited. After a doctor prescribed medicine for an upset stomach, she threw up again. Her mother peeled off her clothes to find splotches of what looked like blood inside her daughter’s pink and white pants, and her genitals were swollen. Read more of this post

Some from Muntri Street in Penang made it big and famous, others toiled to survive

Some from Muntri Street in Penang made it big and famous, others toiled to survive

Saturday, December 14, 2013 – 10:08

Wong Chun Wai

The Star/Asia News Network

There is still no street named in honour of one of Malaysia’s global brands, Datuk Jimmy Choo, but there is a road in Penang that bears special significance to this international icon – Muntri Street. The only catch is that Penang has got it wrong. Well-intentioned bloggers and writers have credited a little shop at the corner of Muntri Street and Leith Street as the place where Choo started out as an apprentice. Read more of this post

Why Machiavelli Still Matters

December 9, 2013

Why Machiavelli Still Matters

By JOHN T. SCOTT and ROBERT ZARETSKY

FIVE hundred years ago, on Dec. 10, 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli sent a letter to his friend Francesco Vettori, describing his day spent haggling with local farmers and setting bird traps for his evening meal. A typical day for the atypical letter writer, who had changed from his mud-splattered clothes to the robes he once wore as a high official in the Florentine republic. Read more of this post

Thomas Friedman: Why Mandela Was Unique

December 10, 2013

Why Mandela Was Unique

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

The global outpouring of respect for Nelson Mandela suggests that we’re not just saying goodbye to the man at his death but that we’re losing a certain kind of leader, unique on the world stage today, and we are mourning that just as much. Mandela had an extraordinary amount of “moral authority.” Why? And how did he get it? Read more of this post

Thinking for the Future: What modes of thought will be most valuable in a future economy defined by machine intelligence?

December 9, 2013

Thinking for the Future

By DAVID BROOKS

We’re living in an era of mechanized intelligence, an age in which you’re probably going to find yourself in a workplace with diagnostic systems, different algorithms and computer-driven data analysis. If you want to thrive in this era, you probably want to be good at working with intelligent machines. As Tyler Cowen puts it in his relentlessly provocative recent book, “Average Is Over,” “If you and your skills are a complement to the computer, your wage and labor market prospects are likely to be cheery. If your skills do not complement the computer, you may want to address that mismatch.” Read more of this post

The finance chiefs of GE and Unilever on the importance of talking directly with customers—and keeping businesses aligned on performance, talent, and M&A

Keeping multibusiness companies running smoothly

The finance chiefs of GE and Unilever on the importance of talking directly with customers—and keeping businesses aligned on performance, talent, and M&A.

December 2013 | byJean-Hugues Monier

Most CFOs play a key role in sustaining a company’s performance over time, whether in planning strategy, allocating resources, or setting and monitoring performance targets. The best among them do so with an independence deeply rooted in a connection with the outside world, the markets, and leaders across the company—lest they be so wedded to one business or the person running it that they are unable to be objective when it comes to challenging metrics, evaluating growth plans, or cutting and adding to businesses. Read more of this post

The $600-an-hour private tutor

December 12, 2013 3:44 pm

The $600-an-hour private tutor

By Emma Jacobs

As an English teacher in New York City’s public school system at the height of the crack epidemic in the late 1980s, Matt Bardin was not surprised that some of the children who claimed to dodge bullets to get to class had problems reading. It seemed to the young Mr Bardin that the task was futile. “They were lovely kids, but when you’ve got 30 of them at a time, you just feel like you’re being pretty useless and you’re not really having much of an impact on them.” Read more of this post

Missing From Science Class; Too many girls and minorities are being held back from success in science, technology and engineering fields

December 10, 2013

Missing From Science Class

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

A big reason America is falling behind other countries in science and math is that we have effectively written off a huge chunk of our population as uninterested in those fields or incapable of succeeding in them. Read more of this post

Mary Barra, the engineer and incoming GM boss summoned to tune up a Detroit classic

December 13, 2013 7:36 pm

Mary Barra, the engineer summoned to tune up a Detroit classic

By Robert Wright and Henry Foy

The incoming boss must steer the carmaker to global success, write Robert Wright and Henry Foy

©Cummings

It was like watching your daughter graduate from college.” Dan Akerson sounded positively emotional as he told reporters about handing over the reins as chief executive of General Motors to Mary Barra – a protégé of his since he arrived at the car group three years ago. She is now taking on the most coveted and closely watched job in the industry. Read more of this post

Learn some Mandarin but master English too

December 11, 2013 3:05 pm

Learn some Mandarin but master English too

By Michael Skapinker

Future Chinese executives will hear foreigners struggle with Mandarin and switch to English

Ditch your French and German textbooks and start learning Mandarin, David Cameron told the UK’s school pupils after his return from a visit to China last week. The UK prime minister should be happy with any language skills his young compatriots manage to pick up. But it is true that it would be useful if more people spoke the main language of the world’s soon-to-be largest economy. Read more of this post

How to Fake It in America: Historian Amanda Foreman on great pretenders, from George Washington’s ghostwriter to Marilyn Monroe’s real voice.

How to Fake It in America

Historian Amanda Foreman on great pretenders, from George Washington’s ghostwriter to Marilyn Monroe’s real voice.

AMANDA FOREMAN

Dec. 13, 2013 7:51 p.m. ET

The philosopher Gilbert Ryle coined the term “ghost in the machine” to make fun of Descartes ‘ influential idea that the human mind (“the ghost”) is utterly separate from the body. But it was the English rock band The Police who popularized the expression, making it the title of their classic 1981 album. Today “ghost in the machine” shows up everywhere. It has become a metaphor for the assorted forms of fakery that are constantly revealed in the mashup of modern culture. Read more of this post