Planning Doesn't Have to Be the Enemy of Agile - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)
Planning Doesn't Have to Be the Enemy of Agile - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)  
Planning was one of the cornerstones of management, but it’s now fallen out of fashion. It seems rigid, bureaucratic, and ill-suited to a volatile, unpredictable world. However, organizations still need some form of planning. And so, universally valuable, but desperately unfashionable, planning waits like a spinster in a Jane Austen novel for someone to recognize her worth. The answer is agile planning, a process that can coordinate and align with today’s agile-based teams. Agile planning also helps to resolve the tension between traditional planning’s focus on hard numbers, and the need for “soft data,” or human judgment.Planning has long been one of the cornerstones of management. Early in the twentieth century Henri Fayol identified the job of managers as to plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control. The capacity and willingness of managers to plan developed throughout the century. Management by Objectives (MBO) became the height of corporate fashion in the late 1950s. The world appeared predictable. The future could be planned. It seemed sensible, therefore, for executives to identify their objectives. They could then focus on managing in such a way that these objectives were achieved. Continued here |
The Fastest Path to the CEO Job, According to a 10-Year Study - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)
A 10-year study of more than 17,000 C-suite executive assessments looked at who gets to the top and how. A close look at “CEO sprinters” — those who reached the CEO role faster than the average of 24 years from their first job — shows that formative experiences play a key role. Specifically, these ladder-climbers made bold career moves that catapulted them to the top ahead of others. Three types of career catapults were most common. First, lateral or even backward moves allowed the future CEO to build something from the ground up (like leaving a large, prestigious company to start their own business). Second, big leaps allowed the future CEO to skip a level, or even two levels, even if they felt unready. And third, big messes brought the opportunity to turn around a failing unit or division. Continued here |
How the new generation of weight-loss drugs work - The Economist (No paywall)
WEIGHT-LOSS DRUGS are everywhere. In newspapers, on social media or by the water cooler, the gossip about injections that can help to melt away 10-20% of one’s body weight is hard to avoid. The real news is getting buried. These drugs offer a powerful new option to treat obesity, which is now widely accepted by doctors as a chronic disease. Being seriously overweight raises a person’s risk of suffering from diabetes, heart disease, strokes and 13 cancers. But there is evidence that, for most people, dieting is not an effective way to lose and keep off large amounts of weight: the body fights attempts to shift more than a little. How might new drugs help?The history of weight-loss medication is a sorry tale. In 1934 as many as 100,000 Americans were using dinitrophenol to shed excess pounds. It is toxic, causing cataracts and, occasionally, deaths. By one estimate 25,000 people were blinded by the drug; it was banned as a drug for human use in 1938 but deaths continue to this day as people are still enticed to buy it online. Next amphetamines became popular—until the risk of addiction and other side-effects became apparent. Ephedra, a herbal medication which in 1977 was taken by an estimated 70,000 people, was also banned in America after it led to deaths. Two other weight-loss drugs, rimonabant and sibutramine, were withdrawn from sale because of safety concerns. Continued here |
The West Is Still Oblivious to Russia's Information War - Foreign Policy (No paywall)
A few weeks ago, a Russian autocrat addressed millions of Western citizens in a propaganda event that would have been unthinkable a generation ago—yet is so normal today as to be almost unremarkable. Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been viewed more than 120 million times on YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter. Despite the tedium of Putin’s two-hour-long lecture about an imaginary Russian and Ukrainian history, the streaming and promotion of the interview by Western platforms is only the latest successful foray in Russia’s information war against the West, which Moscow is showing every sign of winning. And in this war, the Kremlin is not just weaponizing social media, but relying on Westerners themselves to spread its messages far and wide.A few weeks ago, a Russian autocrat addressed millions of Western citizens in a propaganda event that would have been unthinkable a generation ago—yet is so normal today as to be almost unremarkable. Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been viewed more than 120 million times on YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter. Despite the tedium of Putin’s two-hour-long lecture about an imaginary Russian and Ukrainian history, the streaming and promotion of the interview by Western platforms is only the latest successful foray in Russia’s information war against the West, which Moscow is showing every sign of winning. And in this war, the Kremlin is not just weaponizing social media, but relying on Westerners themselves to spread its messages far and wide. Continued here |
40 Years Ago, Hayao Miyazaki Made a Groundbreaking Apocalypse Movie -- And Changed The Industry Forever
In 1984, a soon-to-be-legendary filmmaker would tackle the story of a post-apocalyptic desert world where humans struggle for survival and latch their hopes on a prophecy of a messiah who will save them from extinction. Also, there are giant, deadly bugs.That film is, of course, Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the anime titan’s sweeping sci-fi film based on his 1982 manga series. But, in the year of our Lord Muad’Dib, you can’t be blamed for instead thinking of David Lynch’s Dune, the famously troubled adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic. Continued here |
China's Global EV Domination Is Just Beginning - Foreign Policy (No paywall)
What was special about the vessel was not its 653-foot length, nor its relatively green liquid natural gas propulsion, nor even its fast, roll-on, roll-off capacity for the loading and unloading of goods. What caused this event to send tremors beyond Germany through most of Europe and to the distant United States was the nature of its cargo.Despite a flourish of attention during the Trump administration, it has been a while since international trade was a front and center agenda issue in international relations. But the challenge that BYD embodies may soon bring trade ragingly and lastingly back to the foreground. By no means is BYD the whole story, but the company—which recently became the world’s leading maker of EVs, surpassing Tesla—is at the center of a thorny and potentially existential new challenge that rising sectors of China’s industry pose to their rich world competitors. And for its part, BYD—which has adopted the slogan “Build Your Dreams” in western markets—is not shy about its ambitions. Continued here |
How The In-Office Vs. Remote Debate Is Shaping The Future Of Work - Forbes (No paywall)
The tug of war between employers and employees over the issue of returning to the office continues. Many companies are taking a firm stance on requiring their staff to resume work from the office. 38% of companies require full-time in-office work, according to Scoop Technologies. On the other side, a significant number of employees are resisting this move, preferring the work-life integration that remote work provides. Some are willing to quit their jobs if they’re required to return to the office. This conflict highlights key differences in priorities and expectations between organizations and their people.A Resume Builder survey revealed that 90% of companies plan to implement return-to-office policies by the end of 2024, with almost 30% stating they will threaten to fire non-compliant employees." Goldman Sachs wants its employees on-site five days a week. Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, threatens to terminate employees who fail to show up on-site at least three days a week. Google includes in-office attendance as a factor in its performance review process. Even Zoom, the company that enables remote work, wants its employees in the office. Continued here |
The Sound of Cruelty - The Atlantic (No paywall)
Jonathan Glazer’s new film, The Zone of Interest, begins with a black screen that lingers for at least a full minute. There’s music in the form of a groaning score, as well as a smattering of noises—faint whispers, rustling leaves—that can be heard through the discordant notes. Otherwise, though, nothing appears.That nothingness continued for so long at my screening that I began to question whether a technical difficulty—a defective projector, maybe?—had occurred. It had not; Glazer, who’s known for making unsettling, experimental movies such as Birth and Under the Skin, intended to teach the audience how to absorb his new film, his first in 10 years. “It’s a way of saying, ‘Ears first,’” he told me earlier this month. “What you’re going to hear in this film is as important as what you’re going to see. Arguably more so.” Continued here |
10 Years Later, the Most Controversial 'Dark Souls' Game Is Still a Misunderstood Masterpiece
I didn’t get Dark Souls at first. After hearing buzz about this punishing, inscrutable game geared toward real sickos, I decided I needed to get in on it. But when I found my only choices were to spend entire days getting sliced to slivers by the skeletal bastards in the graveyard or meeting a similar fate fighting different bastards upstairs, I gave up. I didn’t see any reason to play this punishing game.Then Dark Souls II came out. I figured it might be a bit more approachable and picked it up on its release date, March 11, 2014. While it turned out to be just as inhospitable as its predecessor, something was different. I fell in love with it. Continued here |
A Subtle Shift Shaking Up Sibling Relationships - The Atlantic (No paywall)
Growing up with a sibling who is much younger than you are can be a profoundly humbling experience. In casual conversation, you might suddenly find yourself fumbling to parse Gen Z terminology or pretending to know the identities of the alleged celebrities they keep name-dropping. You don’t even duke it out in the same way. Whereas siblings close in age might skirmish over whose turn it is to pick the night’s TV show, these debates take on a different contour when one is in middle school and the other is in college. You probably can’t convince a sixth grader to watch The Bear with you, so you may have to settle for Dash & Lily every time.Siblings with a several-year age gap were once considered exceptional, but they are quietly becoming more common. From 1967 to 2017, the average time between sibling births increased by about three-quarters of a year, according to data from a study published in 2020. Siblings are now, on average, 4.2 years apart. The tit-for-tat arguments—over, say, who gets to shower first—that have been associated with the sibling relationship for decades are not going away completely. Yet these larger age gaps have opened the door for a new kind of dynamic—one premised more on mentorship than on a battle for limited attention or resources. Squabbles for parental attention are giving way, at least in some families, to a sense that there is enough to go around for everyone. Continued here |
What AI Will Do to Elections - Foreign Policy (No paywall)
“That was a disinformation tactic that was intended primarily to disenfranchise Muslims and dissuade them from voting, and it wasn’t true,” Yoel Roth, the social media platform’s then-head of site integrity in charge of elections, recalled in an interview. “So Twitter adapted its policies to say that advancing that type of false voter suppression narrative is a violation of the site’s rules, and the posts would be removed, and the users would be sanctioned.” X isn’t the only major social media platform with fewer content moderators. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has laid off more than 20,000 employees since November 2022—several of whom worked on trust and safety—while many YouTube employees working on misinformation policy were impacted by layoffs at parent company Google. Continued here |
The Most Common Type of Incompetent Leader - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)
The popular media is full of examples of bad leaders in government, academia, and business. But the most common kind of incompetent leader isn’t the ranting, narcissistic sociopath that might immediately come to mind. Rather, it’s the “absentee leader” — those in leadership roles who are psychologically absent from them. These people were promoted into management, and enjoy the privileges and rewards of a leadership role, but avoid meaningful involvement with their teams. Absentee leaders kill engagement and productivity. Research shows that being ignored by one’s boss is more alienating than being treated poorly, and that the impact of absentee leadership on job satisfaction outlasts the impact of both constructive and more overtly destructive forms of leadership. The chances are good, however, that your organization is unaware of its absentee leaders, because they specialize in flying under the radar by not doing anything that attracts attention. Nonetheless, the adhesiveness of their negative impact may be slowly and silently killing your organization.A young friend recently remarked that the worst boss he ever had would provide him with feedback that always consisted of “You’re doing a great job.” But they both knew it wasn’t true — the organization was in disarray, turnover was excessive, and customers were not happy. My friend was giving it his all, but he needed more support and better feedback than he received. He wanted a leader who would be around when he needed them, and who would give him substantive advice, not platitudes. As a measure of his frustration, he said, “I would rather have had a boss who yelled at me or made unrealistic demands than this one, who provided empty praise.” Continued here |
An Economics Lesson from Tolstoy - The New Yorker (No paywall)
In 1886, Leo Tolstoy published a short story called “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” Its protagonist, a poor farmer named Pahóm, dreams of becoming a landowner. He thinks, “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” The Devil is listening, and decides to orchestrate a series of events. Pahóm borrows money to buy more land. He raises cattle and grows corn and becomes prosperous. He sells his lands at a profit and moves to a new area where he can buy vast tracts for low prices. He’s briefly content, but as he grows accustomed to his new prosperity he becomes dissatisfied. He still has to rent land to grow wheat, and he quarrels with poorer people about the same land. Owning even more would make everything easier.Pahóm soon hears of the Baskhírs, a distant community of people who live on a fertile plain by a river and will sell land for almost nothing. He buys tea and wine and other gifts and travels to meet them. Their chief explains that they sell land by the day. For the minuscule price of a thousand rubles, Pahóm can have as much land as he can cover in a day of walking, as long as he returns to the starting point before sunset. The next morning, Pahóm sets out through the high grass of the steppe. The farther he goes, the better the land seems. He walks faster and faster, farther and farther, tempted by distant prospects. Then the sun starts to slip toward the horizon. He turns back, but fatigue sets in. His feet grow bruised, his heart hammers, and his shirt and trousers become soaked with sweat. With aching legs, he charges up the hill toward the chief, who exclaims, “He has gained much land!” But Pahóm has already collapsed, and a stream of blood flows from his mouth. The Baskhírs click their tongues in pity, and then Pahóm’s servant takes the spade and digs a simple grave, six feet long. The question in the story’s title is answered: that’s all the land a man needs. Continued here |
An Ancient Bone With Traces of Psychoactive Compounds Inside Has Stumped Scientists
Hyoscyamine and scopolamine, which are concentrated in certain leaves and seeds, are known for their psychoactive and medicinal properties.Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered a hollowed-out bone containing black henbane seeds at a Roman archaeological site. For centuries, the plant has been associated with medicine and magic. Continued here |
Jane Schoenbrun Wants to Get Under Your Skin
The director of I Saw the TV Glow opens up about their ascent through the indie scene and navigating Hollywood as a trans filmmaker.“Between when I was a kid and watched Twin Peaks for the first time and when the show got rebooted in 2017, I just had recurring nightmares about it,” Schoenbrun tells Inverse. The original David Lynch series featured such a “dark and disturbing ending that it almost felt like an assault of some kind or unresolved trauma.” Continued here |
Why governments and business like to offload risk to individuals | Aeon Essays
An optometry student administering a vision test to a patient for a free pair of eyeglasses at a Remote Area Medical mobile clinic in October 2023 in Grundy, Virginia. An estimated 27 million Americans have no health insurance according to a report from the Census Bureau. Photo by Spencer Platt/GettyAn optometry student administering a vision test to a patient for a free pair of eyeglasses at a Remote Area Medical mobile clinic in October 2023 in Grundy, Virginia. An estimated 27 million Americans have no health insurance according to a report from the Census Bureau. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Continued here |
Girls are starting puberty earlier than ever. For some, that comes with major mental health risks
Dealing with the emotional changes was the hardest part. The oldest child, Zaria had always been clear and communicative about her feelings. But she now developed a rebellious streak, stomping through the house slamming doors. Sometimes she’d stop to go up to Chanell, distraught, and say, “Mom, I don’t even know why I’m crying or why I’m upset.”Her story is part of a growing worldwide trend, one that has parents and physicians concerned. Girls across the globe are hitting puberty earlier than ever before. A 2020 study of 20 countries across six continents found that the median age when girls first experience breast development has dropped by about three months every decade since 1977, shifting from about 10.5 to 9.5 years old. Some research suggests this rate may be accelerating since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020. In fact, today’s medical definition of precocious puberty — breast budding at the age of 8 or younger — does not even apply to Zaria, though she hit puberty years before the average girl growing up in the 1980s and ’90s and ahead of nearly all her classmates. Continued here |
7 Years Later, The Switch's Best Feature Is Something Nintendo Got Right in 1980
The Nintendo Switch celebrated its seventh anniversary on March 3. It’s a notable milestone, not because of the number, but because of the timing. Nintendo was, until recently, widely rumored to debut the successor to the Switch this year. And when you have a console as popular and ever-present as the Nintendo Switch, sequels matter.Seven years later, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the kind of impact the Switch would have. Nintendo introduced the Switch as a brand new hardware concept called “the NX,” the year before its launch in 2017, and didn’t fully explain what made the device special until it published a trailer that teased its ability to “switch” from a home console into a handheld you can take on the go. It seemed like a novel idea, but could it be more successful than the Wii? That seemed unlikely. Continued here |
Can Weed Make Recreational Running Easier? These Runners and Scientists Are Racing To Find Out
More and more amateur runners are turning to cannabis as a way to enhance their running experience — Is it working? On a cold winter evening in Brooklyn, New York, a group of runners gathered to begin their weekly group run. But before they started their jog, they did the one mandatory (though not enforced) activity that makes their squad unique: They got high. Continued here |
The One Key Fact You Should Remember About Ultra-Processed Foods
The consumption of large proportions of ultra-processed foods has been linked to poor health outcomes and early death. Ultra-processed foods, such as cereals and fizzy drinks, have been linked to 32 harmful health effects, according to the largest review of the evidence to date. Continued here |
'Dune 2' Fixes One of Hollywood's Most Annoying Problems
For the majority of the 2010s, it seemed, for a time, like the days of fresh-faced movie stars taking over the industry and becoming their own box office draws had been left behind. Instead, Hollywood was overtaken by an era of superheroes and pre-existing characters whose popularity will forever dwarf those of the actors hired to play them. Those who felt driven to panic online about that trend weren't wrong to do so, either, as the early years of this very decade have suffered from a drought of new movie stars.Fortunately, it looks like that period may be over. That is, at least, just one of the thoughts destined to cross your mind while you watch director Denis Villeneuve's latest sci-fi epic, Dune: Part Two. Continued here |
For 50 years the story of oil has been one of matching supply with increasing demand - The Economist (No paywall)
Fly WEST across the United Arab Emirates from Fujairah, a tanker-filled port on the Gulf of Oman, towards the Persian Gulf and you get a sense of the vulnerability arid lands have to climate change. The farms around Dhaid provide a splash of green, but homegrown food is scarce, homegrown staples next to non-existent. Drinkable water comes mostly from desalination plants. The heat is growing inhumane; outside work is banned during the hottest hours of summer afternoons. Continued here
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