Bamboo Innovator

The Germ Theory of Democracy, Dictatorship, and All Your Most Cherished Beliefs; Is culture just a side effect of the struggle to avoid disease?

The Germ Theory of Democracy, Dictatorship, and All Your Most Cherished Beliefs

BY ETHAN WATTERS • March 03, 2014 • 6:00 AM

Mosquito. (Photo: Rolf E. Staerk/Shutterstock)

Is culture just a side effect of the struggle to avoid disease?

One morning last fall, the evolutionary biologist Randy Thornhill was standing with me in front of the gorilla enclosure at the Albuquerque zoo. He was explaining a new theory about the origins of human culture when Mashudu, a 10-year-old western lowland gorilla, decided to help illustrate a point. In a very deliberate way, Mashudu sauntered over to the deep cement ravine at the front of his enclosure, perched his rear end over the edge, and did his morning business. Read more of this post

The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Toughest Business Problems Hardcover

The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Toughest Business Problems Hardcover

by Christian Madsbjerg  (Author), Mikkel B. Rasmussen  (Author)

Businesses need a new type of problem solving. Why? Because they are getting people wrong.

Traditional problem-solving methods taught in business schools serve us well for some of the everyday challenges of business, but they tend to be ineffective with problems involving a high degree of uncertainty. Why? Because, more often than not, these tools are based on a flawed model of human behavior. And that flawed model is the invisible scaffolding that supports our surveys, our focus groups, our R&D, and much of our long-term strategic planning. Read more of this post

Socrates and the Search For Wisdom

Socrates and the Search For Wisdom

March 28, 2014 by Shane Parrish

The arrogance of limited knowledge results in foolishness.

This is an excerpt from Plato’s Apology, from Plato: Complete Works (an excellent edition that is part of the Great Books program). Read more of this post

On Machiavelli: The Search for Glory

On Machiavelli: The Search for Glory (Liveright Classics) [Kindle Edition]

Alan Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2013

An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Machiavelli. Read more of this post

One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life

One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life [Kindle Edition]

Mitch Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2014

From the millions-strong audiences of Oprah and The Secret to the mass-media ministries of evangelical figures like Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakes, to the motivational bestsellers and New Age seminars to the twelve-step programs and support groups of the recovery movement and to the rise of positive psychology and stress-reduction therapies, this idea–to think positively–is metaphysics morphed into mass belief. This is the biography of that belief. Read more of this post

A Few General Principles Associated With Wise Behavior; What does it mean to be wise? What is Wisdom?

A Few General Principles Associated With Wise Behavior

March 25, 2014 by Shane Parrish

Paul Baltes, once described wisdom as “a topic at the interface between several disciplines: philosophy, sociology, theology, psychology, political science, and literature, to name a few.” Farnam Street aims to be at the crossroad of these disciplines. Read more of this post

How Busy People Make Time to Read – And You Can Too

HOW BUSY PEOPLE MAKE TIME TO READ—AND YOU CAN TOO

HAVEN’T FINISHED A BOOK SINCE COLLEGE? BETWEEN WORK, FAMILY, AND SOCIAL LIVES, TRYING TO FIND TIME TO READ CAN BE MORE EFFORT THAN RELAXING HOBBY. HERE’S HOW TO MAKE MORE TIME FOR YOUR FAVORITE PAGE-TURNERS. Read more of this post

Why Are Physicists Drawn to Economics?

MARCH 21, 2014 BY CHRIS HOUSE

Why Are Physicists Drawn to Economics?

Even before the financial crisis, there has always been a surprising number of ex-physicists who find their way to graduate study in economics. It could be that many of these math-physics people have simply concluded that they no longer like physics and are interested in economics instead. (Moreover, the job market for economics Ph.D’s is much better than the job market for physics Ph.D’s.) I suspect however that some of them are here because they have some incorrect perceptions about the field. A student with a mathematical-physics background could easily convince himself that he has superior mathematics abilities than typical economists and superior statistical and computational skills than most economists.[1] He might go on to conclude that, as a consequence of his superior mathematical and computational abilities, he should be able to enter economics and start contributing quickly and easily. He might also anticipate that he could easily adapt established models or techniques in physics to study economic phenomena and impress the profession. Read more of this post

Beware growing ‘parentocracy’ in Singapore: NIE don; He warns of students who get ahead thanks to parents with more resources, not merit

Beware growing ‘parentocracy’: NIE don

He warns of students who get ahead thanks to parents with more resources, not merit

Read more of this post

‘Card Factory has 16 years of unbroken like-for-like sales growth’; Richard Hayes, chief executive, says the retailer has opened a shop a week for the past decade; The average British person buys 30 greetings cards a year

‘Card Factory has 16 years of unbroken like-for-like sales growth’

Richard Hayes, chief executive, says the retailer has opened a shop a week for the past decade

Private equity group Charterhouse bought Card Factory for £350m in 2010 and is understood to be working with UBS and Morgan Stanley on an IPO Photo: PA

Read more of this post

Start-up advice from Innocent and Skype founders

Start-up advice from Innocent and Skype founders

Entrepreneurial trailblazers Niklas Zennström and Richard Reed help to mentor three start-ups as part of the Albion Startup Kitchen series

Cooking up a start-up storm: (from left) Jonathan Mulonson, Martin Johnson, Niklas Zennström, Skype’s founder; Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks; Ed Cowburn and Emily Brooke  Read more of this post

Business has the power to do immense good; Business leaders – and shareholders – need to be thoughtful about the kind of organisations they are trying to build over the long term

Business has the power to do immense good

Business leaders – and shareholders – need to be thoughtful about the kind of organisations they are trying to build over the long term

Sir Andrew says it is important to remember that the millions of people who work for businesses each have the potential to do good for the communities they are part of Photo: Bethany Clarke Read more of this post

Tom Erickson of Acquia, on the Philosophy of ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’; The chief executive of an open-source software company says he wants to hire people “who are going to jump in and own their work, who are going to risk something, and risk failing.”

Tom Erickson of Acquia, on the Philosophy of ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’

MARCH 29, 2014

By ADAM BRYANT

This interview with Tom Erickson, chief executiveof Acquia, an open-source software company, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Read more of this post

How to Think About the Risk of Autism

How to Think About the Risk of Autism

By SAM WANG

A STUDY published last week found that the brains of autistic children show abnormalities that are likely to have arisen before birth, which is consistent with a large body of previous evidence. Yet most media coverage focuses on vaccines, which do not cause autism and are given after birth. How can we help people separate real risks from false rumors? Read more of this post